88CET Ear Training CDs, Part 12

Conclusion: Getting the Most Out of Ear-Training CDs
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As with any tool, you won't get much out of ear-training CDs if you
don't use them right. That topic makes a valuable and appropriate
conclusion to this series.

First, when you're using these CDs, don't operate under the false
assumption that you can get away with just thinking to yourself the
answers, especially when the correct answer is sung. Thought is inherently
fleeting enough that you can convince yourself that you thought up the
correct answer when you really didn't.

Also (I aluded to this earlier): The more frequently you play any one
part of the CDs, the less effective it will be. You'll start remembering
the answers. So you're best off playing through these CDs more or less
cover to cover, so that a longer time elapses before you go back to a given
section. Or you can play them randomly so that it's harder to anticipate
what's coming up. If you find that you can't proceed much further without
more practice on a particular topic, then move on to another topic, or stop
that CD for a while to practice that skill by some other means. I've
frequently even stopped long enough to make a special-purpose ear-training
tape to get over that sort of sticky point!

A while back I mentioned ear-training maintenance. These CDs are really
fantastic as a refresher course, or a ten-minute-a-day up-keep routine.

And once again, use these CDs for the freedom that their auditory-only
character lends them to. There are often better ear-training methodologies
in cases where you have the opportunity to use your hands and eyes too.
But as I suggested earlier, they're great while you're stuck in traffic on
your way to work (if you have a CD player in your car that is!).

But that is not to suggest that you can't enhance the techniques I'm
describing here with visual aids. Or take that idea one step farther: I
sometimes think of these CDs as like a deck of audio flash cards. Heck, go
ahead and make yourself a deck or two of real flash cards! They make a lot
of sense, for example, for identifying pitch relationships visually on a
staff, rather than by note names as you're limited to on a CD.

>I am a grad student doing a paper on the history of alternate tuning
>systems and how we composers are using some of them today....but I need
>citeable references.

Manuel Op de Coul has a discography ... somewhere. Is that on a web
page perhaps, Manuel?

As for written mater, most of us could cite our favorite books, but here
are some that address tuning history among other topics: John Chalmers'
"Divisions of the Tetrachord", Hermann Helmholz's "On the Sensations of
Tone", J. Murray Barbour's "Tuning and Temperament", J.P. Rameau's
"Treatise on Harmony".

Also, Brian McLaren wrote a "Short History of Microtonality" (the title
something like that anyway). That might be a good overview, with
references for further exploration. I confess that I haven't read it
entirely, and I did read of it I liked, but it was quite a while back.
Brian can be reached via snail-mail at 2462 S.E. Micah Place; Coravallis,
OR 97333-1966; USA. There are rumors going around that he has a phone
now though...