All examination board aural tests are supported. Expert aural lessons enhance the inner ear, improve sight-reading, enable sight-singing and create an all-round musician. Online Aural Lesson Courses are appropriate for ages 4-99 and involve numerous games, movement and activities. I can highly recommend Robin – my 15 year old son is having online musicianship and theory lessons, working towards rock school electric guitar grades – he loves it! The lessons are dynamic and tailored to my son’s musical tastes and interests and he said he learned more from his first lesson than he had all year in school. I have found this really good for pitching. L, an adult advanced level aural, Kodály and musicianship student, currently working on hearing two parts at once and singing a range of cadences, improvising vocal harmony.įollowing your years of tuition I have been singing hymns to solfa – in my head as I go to sleep. Lessons with Robin are challenging, motivational and immense fun. His holistic approach combines all the skills that are vital for every musician, whatever the instrument, culture or genre. Robin is a truly inspirational teacher, constantly exploring new and innovative ways to complement musical study at all levels. Above all, his lessons are a fun way to explore all kinds of musical avenues.Īnne, Hong Kong, an adult advanced level aural lessons, Kodály and Musicianship student, currently working on modulations and hearing 2 parts at once I would recommend him to students of all ages and levels. He’s taken my aural perception skills and organ-playing technique to a much better level, and over Zoom to boot. And you will also increase your own understanding and appreciation of how music works.Robin has the most positive, encouraging and enthusiastic teaching style. If you commit these progressions to memory through studying the examples in this handout, and making your own analyses of popular and classical music, you will find Aural Skills III chords, melodic dictation, and harmonic dictation much easier. The chord progressions covered in today’s class-including the order in which the chords appear, and the cadences at the ends of phrases-occur again and again in music from the 1600s through the pop songs of today. (Please note that while this piece is very influential in the history of music analysis, chord iii will only appear rarely in the progressions we will study in this class, for reasons of voice-leading.) I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V - The Pachelbel ProgressionĪ variant of the pop song progression can be found in the Baroque-era equivalent of a pop song, Johann Pachelbel’s famous Canon. Listen to “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from The Lion King, or “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga. This progression is extremely common in modern pop music. For a more modern take on the Andalusian progression, listen to Michael Jackson, “Smooth Criminal.” Listen to Claudio Monteverdi, “Amor” from Lamento della ninfa, for an example of this progression. The bassline, “do, te, le, sol,” was commonly played as an ostinato for improvisation in the Baroque era. This progression is characteristic in flamenco guitar music. I-♭VII-♭VI-V - The Andalusian Progression Listen to Frank Loesser/Hoagy Carmichael, “Heart and Soul,” or Fred Parris, “In the Still of the Night.” This chord progression is common in motown and other popular styles of the mid-twentieth century.
Google the lead sheet for Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” for a memorable example of the repeated use of the ii-V-I progression. Its variant, I-ii 6-V-I, has the same function.Ĭhord ii often precedes the dominant. I-IV-V-I is the commonest chord progression in Western diatonic harmony. Spotify playlist for today’s lecture: “UI Aural Skills III Chord Progressions” by user “mirandawilson”.Ear Training - Common Chord Progressions in Context