AIM Aural Skills Practice Level 7

Each set of  AIM Aural Skills Practice Audio Recordings has a page number that is indicated at the left top corner. Find this page in your AIM workbook, play Audio Recordings and write your answers in the blank spaces. You can check your answers with Answer Keys found at the end of the book.

Here are some ways to prepare for the AIM Aural Skills Exercises and AIM Aural Skills Tests.

 

Dictation

The melody will be played four times. Tap the beat during the one-measure count-in, and continue tapping while the melody is played, feeling the regular accent of the time signature.

Listen the first time and determine the following:

  1. The starting note (one of the notes from six notes of the scale)
  2. The general direction of the melody.
  3. The patterns formed by the notes: broken triads, intervals, stepping patterns, repeated notes, etc.
  4. The overall rhythmic design.

During the second playing, listen carefully for any beats or measures you had difficulty identifying.

During the third and the forth playing check the rhythm and the melody and make all the necessary corrections.

Intervals

One of the best ways to remember the sound of different intervals is to sing them. To prepare for AIM Aural skills exercises, play the first note of an interval, hear the second note in your mind, then sing or hum the second note out loud. Check your accuracy by playing the second note. For some intervals it may also help to use a song clue or relate the notes to the major scale.

Chords Quality

To practice identifying chord qualities, play the required chord in solid/blocked form, listening not only to the color and tension of the chord, but  to the individual intervals that form the chord. Like intervals, one of the best ways to remember the sound of chords is to sing them: play the root, then sing the notes of the chord up and down. Check your accuracy by playing the notes on the piano.

Chord Progression

To identify a chord progression after it has been played three times for you, listen to the color character of the sound made by the four chords. Listen also for overall shape of the bass line and the interval between bass notes ( I moving up to V will be a perfect 5th, I moving up to IV will be a perfect 4th).

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