Activities

• Listening for Chord Changes (I & IV): Listen to excerpts from popular music that include only I and IV chords played by your instructor. Conduct while you listen and transcribe the chords you hear in each bar. As an example, for a 4-bar phrase, you might transcribe:  |  I  |   I  |  IV  |  I  | . 

  • • Instructors: Find the playlist with solutions in the instructor anthology here. 

    • Discuss different strategies as a class (or in groups) for hearing the chord changes. A few ideas include: 

      • • 1) Listening to the bassline: If you hear Do, it's a I chord; if you hear Fa, it's a IV chord. 

        • 2) Try the "Mi-Fa Test." Sing Mi and hold it while you listen. If Mi seems to fit the harmony, it's a I chord. If you feel like you need to slide up to Fa to get the note you're singing to fit the chord, it's a IV chord. 

• Listening for Chord Changes (I, IV, and V): Now, try adding V chords back into the mix. What are the basslines you are listening for now? What kind of scale degrees can you sing to help you work through the progression? Discuss as a class before you begin. 

  • • Instructors: Find the playlist with solutions in the instructor anthology here. 

• Transcribing Louise Reichardt's "Heymdal" from Zwölf Deutsche und Italiänische Romantische Gesänge

  • • Open the dictation setup here: Image, PDF. Then, listen to the excerpt on Youtube (0:00–0:11).

    • Transcribe the rhythm onto the rhythm staff at the top. This example incorporates the compound dotted 8th-16th pattern. In what measures do you hear this pattern? 

    • Transcribe the bassline onto the bass staff. There's one bass note per beat throughout (see m. 1 as an example). All of the chords are in root position with the exception of the chord in the second measure. What solfège syllable is do you hear in the bass? With that information is this a I, IV, or V? and in what inversion?

    • Spell out each of the chords in the key next to the Roman numeral. The melody only includes three non-chord tones (two passing tones and a neighbor tone). All other pitches are part of the chords you've spelled. Use your chord spellings as a guide to check your work. 

    • Once you've completed your transcriptions, sing the outer voices back as a class with solfège, alternating so that everyone has an opportunity to sing both parts. 

• Listen for Plagal Cadences: Listen to examples from the repertoire and practice identifying cadences as Authentic, Half, or Plagal (see the link to the anthology below). Discuss strategies for aurally differentiating Authentic Cadences and Plagal Cadences. 

• Improvisation :

  • • Fill-in-the-Blank: Use the exercises from the reading to practice filling in the empty measures with improvisations on IV, focusing on scale degrees 4, 6, and 1. See pp. 256–261 in Developing Musicianship here.

    • Improvising Melody with Harmony: Open up one of the chord grids below and try the chord improvisation and call & response activity outlined in Unit 6-1 with the IV chord: 

      • • • I - IV - V - I

          • I - I - IV - V 

          • I - IV - I - V

          • I - V - IV - I