Aural Skills Acquisition

Abstract This book is a hands-on investigation of the stages musicians go through as they learn to hear, read, and perform music. It draws on the latest research in music perception and cognition, music theory, and pedagogy, along with centuries of insight from music theorists, composers, and performers. The first part explores the development of music listening skills, including such broader activities as dictation and transcription, and specific abilities such as meter perception, short-term musical memory, and tonic inference. The second part then examines the skills involved in reading and performing music. It looks at such physical skills as vocal production and eye movements and at such complex integrated tasks as sight-singing transpositions and modulations. Throughout the book the author presents these skills in their musical contexts and emphasizes their roles in the general development of musicality. Aural Skills Acquisition builds important bridges between music theory, cognitive psychology, and pedagogy. It subjects ideas from music theory to the rigors of psychological testing and combines findings from the psychology of learning with ideas and methods of contemporary music theory. It will prove an invaluable guide for music teachers, music theorists, and psychologists interested in music perception and cognition.