Ear Training: Intonation

For my second placement Impact on Student Learning Project, I wanted to work on ear
training and recognition of tuning within an ensemble. Based on prior observations and
teachings, I discovered that the students had a fairly good foundation for how tuning works but
many were lacking the understanding of their own personal ability to recognize intonation. They
have a routine of tuning with a piano every day which I really loved, but as they tune and as a
college student with a developed ear for tuning, I noticed many were extremely out of tune and
would not fix it after several tries on the same pitch. This is when I decided to take on the task of
further developing their ears for ensemble tuning.

Pre Assessment Reflection and example

For my pre assessment and post assessment, I chose to compose a worksheet with three
questions related to pitch differentiation. I went in knowing that there was going to be a variety
in levels of understanding on the subject so I chose simple high/low pitch differentiation,
recognition of imperfect intonation, and recognition of sharpness/flatness. The example of the
test can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13ID-5vCQOilkGqhxDbmIJeCQkAgF5OPU9PiK7Y4GFlY
/edit?usp=sharing
For the most part, these high schoolers showed that they can comprehend a lot of what I
was planning on teaching. The areas that they succeeded greatly were in pitch recognition of low
and high pitches. I would play them a pitch on my instrument and then play one that was higher
or lower by significant intervals (M2, P4, etc). Some areas that they struggled with were those
examples that indicated if a player was sharp or flat on the same fundamental pitch. I saw an
average of 50% accuracy on this area of ear training. I knew based on this data, that my lessons
needed more attention in this area of study.

3 Lesson Plans and Development

My three lesson plans started out with three different concepts to teach about intonation.
As the lessons went on, I found that I actually did not have to change them much. I wanted to
break the lessons apart from easy to hard by the time they reached the third lesson. The first one
reflected the recognition of high and low intervals simply on a piano. This lesson did motif in the
slightest to include a different fundamental pitch each time, moving in different ranges of the
piano. The second lesson gave thorough examples of the technique in which to determine if a
pitch is in tune or not. I gave examples of myself playing out of tune and changed something
until the students told me I was right where I needed to be. They then practiced this themselves
with a drone. The third lesson took a further and more difficult approach, giving them the
understanding of hearing if they are sharp or if they are flat. I demonstrated how each of them
could bend the pitch with their embouchure and hear it in this regard. This was a little difficult
for them because most can not bend the pitch accurately since their embouchures aren’t as
developed as mine are. I do think however that they understood the concept and could hear it
pretty well when I was playing for them. I ask for individuals to volunteer while the rest of the
class took a swing at answering if they were sharp or flat. The majority of the vote indicated
what the player did to their horn and if the pitch got better, the class was right. I would have
loved to continue with more exercises like this everyday in order to further develop their ears as
musicians. Below are the 3 documented lessons I gave in a formal format:

Lesson #1
● Standards
○ HII.10 The student will demonstrate and describe proper instrumental
techniques, including
■ adjusting and perfecting intonation while playing;
○ HII.11 The student will demonstrate and describe ensemble skills at an
intermediate level, including
■ balancing and blending instrumental timbres;
■ making adjustments to facilitate correct intonation
○ HIAD.11 The student will demonstrate preparatory procedures for playing,
including
■ identifying intonation problems within the ensemble, and providing a
solution.
● Objectives
○ Students will understand the concept of being in tune from both a video and
classroom examples
● Procedures
○ Students will take the pre assessment
○ Students will watch the video of sound frequencies and the concept of intonation
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yia8spG8OmA
○ Students will listen for the difference in a two pitches on the piano
■ I will play a common note and go back and forth in intervals. Students will
respond by giving a thumbs up or down depending on the pitch
● Materials
○ Pencil
● Assessment
○ Informal response from students in answering questions
 Lesson #2
● Standards
○ HII.10 The student will demonstrate and describe proper instrumental
techniques, including
■ adjusting and perfecting intonation while playing;
○ HII.11 The student will demonstrate and describe ensemble skills at an
intermediate level, including
■ balancing and blending instrumental timbres;
■ making adjustments to facilitate correct intonation
○ HIAD.11 The student will demonstrate preparatory procedures for playing,
including
■ identifying intonation problems within the ensemble, and providing a
solution.
● Objectives
○ Students will understand the concept of being in tune from both a video and
classroom examples
● Procedures
○ Show video for those that did not see it last time
○ I will ask them if I am in tune with the drone and if not I will make adjustments:
■ Did it get worse or better?
■ Go until everyone agrees that it is in tune and check with a tuner
○ Game of “Am I in Tune”
■ Put slide, mouthpiece in a funky location
■ Explain what to do if you are sharp and flat
■ Play a drone over the speakers a few times for them to adjust
● Who thinks they are in tune with the drone? - Test them and check
their tuning
● Percussion will take turns on timpani and I will go check their
knowledge
○ Have them download a tuner app before next class if they do not already have
one
■ Give them suggestions
● Materials
○ Instruments
● Assessment
○ Informal response from students in answering questions
 Lesson #3
● Standards
○ HII.10 The student will demonstrate and describe proper instrumental
techniques, including
■ adjusting and perfecting intonation while playing;
○ HII.11 The student will demonstrate and describe ensemble skills at an
intermediate level, including
■ balancing and blending instrumental timbres;
■ making adjustments to facilitate correct intonation
○ HIAD.11 The student will demonstrate preparatory procedures for playing,
including
■ identifying intonation problems within the ensemble, and providing a
solution.
● Objectives
○ Students will understand the concept of being in tune from both a video and
classroom examples
● Procedures
○ Play them examples of sharp and flat notes
■ Humm those pitches that the drone and I am playing
○ Introduce the concept of dropping the jaw and tightening up to hear flatness and
sharpness
■ Describe what happens on the board
○ Understanding your horn
■ Tune to a Bb
● Now tune concert F, A, C, and Eb
● Are they the same
● Materials
○ Pencil
● Assessment
○ Informal response from students in answering questions
Student examples

Pre Test Post Test

Overall Reflection, Assessment Results, and Modifications
The results from the post test at first were very disappointing. I saw that many of the
students actually got worse on the test. After reviewing and reflecting though, I realized that this
is a very sensitive topic and I shouldn’t really expect a significant change. Ear Training takes
years and years of training to become comfortable in so I am happy to see that with the very little
time I had with them, there was still some growth. One thing I did notice between both the
Concert Band and Symphonic Band classes was that they were relatively in the same mean
average score; I was expecting the symphonic band students to have a higher average than the
concert band. I also noticed that even though the average didn’t change much and a lot of
students got worse instead of better, I think it is important to understand perhaps why they got
worse. They have been taught to really analyze the pitches in a critical way so many are probably
using their ears too much and double guessing themselves which in truth isn’t necessarily a bad
thing. One area that almost all improved in though was the understanding of whether a player is
in tune or not which is awesome. If I were to have modified this lesson, I would have definitely
provided them more individual, hands-on experience with ear training using softwares and
individual practicing.

● Pre-Assessment SB Average: 10.3/12

● Post-Assessment SB Average: 10.1/12
● Pre-Assessment CB Average: 10.6/12
● Post-Assessment SB Average: 10.5/12

● Pre-Assessment Overall Average: 10.36/12

● Post-Assessment Overall Average: 10.3/12

● Symphonic Band
○ 8 Students disimproved and 10 students improved and/or stayed the same
● Concert Band
○ 7 students disimproved and 11 students improved and/or stayed the same
Summary Reflection of Process
I think overall, this was a fairly successful unit to teach for high schoolers. I wish that
with this particular unit, I had the opportunity to continue the lessons even further to help
develop their ears. From my experience as well as many others, most can conclude that ear
training and development of a musical ear takes a lot of time; I never felt fully confident with
higher level ensemble intonation until my second year at JMU and that was after long, intense
hours of drone tuning, long tones, and chamber ensemble rehearsals. I think the students did very
well with this subject though, and I hope that they continue to look for more ways to train their
ear even after my last day here at this placement.