Aural Skills: Hearing Structure and Detail
What you must know
Aural skills test your ability to identify and describe what you hear. You need secure recognition of intervals, chords and cadences, metre and rhythm, melodic contour and scale types, texture and instrumentation, and formal boundaries signalled by cadences or textural change. Practise linking what you hear to notation: sing back a phrase, tap the metre, identify the cadence type, and locate where the harmony changes. Rhythmic dictation demands attention to subdivision and syncopation; melodic dictation rewards noticing the outline before the exact pitches.
Traps in questions
Common traps include mistaking a perfect fourth for a perfect fifth when heard in isolation, and confusing a plagal cadence with a deceptive one under time pressure. Another trap is assuming the first chord is the tonic; listen for the bass and the sense of resolution. In texture questions, a melody doubled at the octave may sound thicker than it is contrapuntally. Metre can also mislead when a piece begins with an anacrusis.
Worked example
For a cadence question, use a rule of thumb: hum the bass line of the final two chords. If the bass moves down a fifth (or up a fourth) to the tonic, it is likely authentic; if it steps down to the tonic from the subdominant, it is plagal. Confirm against the melody's leading note resolution.