This book comes with no CDs. You will need four CDs to work with this book. These CDs can be bought separately or you may download MP3 files from various on-line vendors. Contextual Ear Training is a major expansion of the "One Note" exercise from the "Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training." Much of the material from the first few chapters of "Fanatic's Guide" is included in this book. This is because some students may be purchasing this book and not the "Fanatic's Guide." It's recommend that you first work with the "Fanatic's Guide" before using this book, although you can certainly work with both simulta-neously, to good effect. For some students working without the "Fanatic's Guide" may be fine but "Contextual Ear Training" assumes you have a fair degree of proficiency with the "One Note" exercise in "Fanatic's Guide." So to reiterate, if you find this book and associated CD too hard it would be suggest that first work with the "Fanatic's Guide." Although the "One Note" exercise is just the first exercise in "Fanatic's Guide" it's really the key to the whole methodology. Many students can easily sing through all exercises in the Fanatic's Guide once they have mastered the "One Note" exercise. However, It would still recommend getting the "Fanatic's Guide" because cases have be seen where a person has mastered the "One Note" technique but still has problems with the other "Fanatic's Guide" exercises, so it's prudent to make sure you are not one of those people. If you are new to this Ear Training Series its also recommend that you work with "Ear Training One Note Complete" book as a companion to this method. The "One Note" exercise is an extremely good exercise and thefour CDs that are available separately from this book really help a student to focus in on this technique in a structured way. Contextual Ear Training includes a music theory section and FAQ sec

Aural Skills in Context by Matthew Shaftel, Evan Jones, and Juan Chattah is the first complete text covering sight singing, ear training, and rhythm practice that features real musical examples (from classical to folk and jazz) as the composer wrote them.

A self-training manual as well as a classroom text, this book is a complete step-by-step course to develop the musician's ability to hear and notate any style of music. Personal training, thoery and exercises produce techniques which are combined in an integrated craft which may be applied to composition, orchestration, arranging, improvisation and performance. A kind of finishing school for those who wish to pursue a career in composing, orchestrating, arranging or performing. -- The Score, Society of Composers and Lyricists A myriad of practical information. Comprehensive ear training, important because aural skills are among the most overlooked in music education. -- Survey of New Teaching Materials, Jazz Educators journal A synthesis of the author's vast knowledge and his quest to define the question, "How do we hear?" -- ITG Journal A wonderfully systematic approach to ear training . . . neatly designed and structured, it just flows. Direct and easily understood. -- New books, Jazz Educators Journal Bernard Brandt says: "Hearing and Writing Music", by Ron Gorow, is a superb book. It makes a simple and elegant presentation of the internal process by which we hear sounds and music, how we recognize intervals, chords, melody, harmony, counterpoint, and the timbre of instrumentation/ orchestration, how we can develop the skills of listening, auditory memory and imagination, and how to use these skills to hear and to write down music of any sort. The hallmark of an expert is the ability to explain the basics of his field as simply as possible. By that standard, Mr. Gorow has proven his expertise in this book. I note that the other reviews, both for Amazon and in musical journals, tend to limit the importance of "Hearing and Writing Music" to ear training. I believe that Mr. Gorow's book is valuable for much more than ear training. I have studied it, and as a result of that study, I believe that my auditory memory and imagination and my abilities in score reading have improved enormously. Further, I have been able to use the skills in this book to transcribe melodies, harmonies and counterpoint almost effortlessly, both those that I have heard, and those which existed only in my imagination. This book has opened many doors for me. I believe that it can do so for many others.

Just as an artist must know every color in order to create a beautiful painting, a musician must know and hear all the notes of the musical "palette" in order to create good music. This ear training method has been developed to teach the student how to hear the way musical sounds are organized within a key. With proper application, the student will be able to: recognize notes without depending on an instrument; identify which notes other musicians are playing; instantly know what key a chord progression is in; sing or transcribe the notes in a given melody. This method differs ... in that it develops the ability to identify and name all twelve pitches within a key center. ... [A] student gains the ability to identify sound based on it's relationship to a key and not the relationship of one note to another--P. [4] of cover and p. [77]

(Musicians Institute Press). This book with online audio access takes you step by step through MI's well-known Ear Training course. Complete lessons and analysis include: basic pitch matching * singing major and minor scales * identifying intervals * transcribing melodies and rhythm * identifying chords and progressions * seventh chords and the blues * modal interchange, chromaticism, modulation * and more! Learn to hear and to visualize on your instrument. Take your playing from good to great! Over 2 hours of practice exercises with complete answers in the back. The price of this book includes access to audio tracks online, for download or streaming, using the unique code inside the book. Now including PLAYBACK+, a multifunctional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right available exclusively from Hal Leonard.

Audio Production and Critical Listening: Technical Ear Training, Second Edition develops your critical and expert listening skills, enabling you to listen to audio like an award-winning engineer. Featuring an accessible writing style, this new edition includes information on objective measurements of sound, technical descriptions of signal processing, and their relationships to subjective impressions of sound. It also includes information on hearing conservation, ear plugs, and listening levels, as well as bias in the listening process. The interactive web browser-based "ear training" software practice modules provide experience identifying various types of signal processes and manipulations. Working alongside the clear and detailed explanations in the book, this software completes the learning package that will help you train you ears to listen and really "hear" your recordings. This all-new edition has been updated to include: Audio and psychoacoustic theories to inform and expand your critical listening practice. Access to integrated software that promotes listening skills development through audio examples found in actual recording and production work, listening exercises, and tests. Cutting-edge interactive practice modules created to increase your experience. More examples of sound recordings analysis. New outline for progressing through the EQ ear training software module with listening exercises and tips.

Comprehensive Aural Skills is a complete suite of material for both performance and dictation, covering the wide range of sight singing and ear training skills required for undergraduate courses of study. It provides a series of instructional modules on rhythm, melody, and harmony, and blends musical examples from the common-practice repertory with original examples composed to specifically address particular skills and concepts. Each module includes material for classroom performance, self-directed study, and homework assignments. Features A complete suite of aural skills material: Comprehensive Aural Skills is a combined sight singing and ear training textbook, audio, and companion website package. Fully modular, customizable organization: Instructors can choose freely from the set of exercises in the book and supplemental material on the companion website to appropriately tailor the curriculum based on their students’ needs. Engaging and idiomatic musical examples: Examples are selected and composed specifically for the didactic context of an aural skills classroom. Dictation exercises for practice and assignment: Practice exercises include an answer key so students can work independently and receive immediate feedback, while homework assignments are given without a key. Audio examples for dictation: The website hosts live recordings of acoustic instruments performed by professional musicians for each dictation exercise and homework assignment. Supplemental Materials for Instructors: A wealth of material for class use and assignment can be found on the companion website. Teachers Guide: The guide includes answers for every homework assignment, brief commentary on each module’s content, tips for integrating written theory, and strategies on how to effectively teach new concepts and skills. The companion website for Comprehensive Aural Skills includes a wealth of additional examples in all areas of aural skills and at every level of difficulty represented in the text. Students have access to additional dictation examples with recordings and answer keys, allowing them to directly reinforce their classroom experience and practice dictation on their own time.

Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Ear Training is a no-nonsense approach consisting of two hours of recorded ear training exercises with aural instructions before each. It starts very simply, with intervals and gradually increases in difficulty until you are hearing chord changes and progressions. All answers are listed in the book, and contains transposed parts for C, B-flat, and E-flat instruments to allow playing along. Beginning to advanced levels.

Though the teaching of aural skills is one of the most important tasks facing the college-level music educator, it is often one of the most problematic, sometimes the most feared. Some of this apprehension undoubtedly arises from the lack of effective pedagogical tools that can reliably and more completely address the needs of the discipline. Functional Hearing fills this void with its unique method of comprehensive ear training. This book not only presents melodies for dictation and sight-singing, but also instructs students in how to develop the skills and strategies to hear and sight-sing unfamiliar music. In addition to presenting harmonic and rhythmic dictations, students are also shown how to listen and use their theoretical knowledge to comprehend the harmonic and rhythmic contexts in which they are listening. The book is divided into seven areas which include: Hearing the Essential Elements of Music; Hearing Quality, Function, and Inversion in Triads; Hearing Quality, Function, and Inversion in Seventh Chords; Hearing Secondary Functions and Modulations; Hearing and Performing in Multiple Parts; Hearing Chromaticism; and Hearing in Nonfunctional Contexts. Together, they incorporate unique and groundbreaking ways to train the ears of developing musicians and to encourage them to acquire a high level of aural skill. Functional Hearing is intended to be used in any aural skills sequence lasting from two to seven semesters, or as a companion text in most traditional courses in music theory. The corresponding Instructor's Manual is available free upon request (1-880157-58-6).

All great musicians have one thing in common---to a great extent they know what the harmony of a song is as they hear it. Do you? If not, here is a practical guide to get you up to speed. Written by Berklee professor Roberta Radley, it uses contemporary music to help you see how ear training is invaluable for your own musical needs.