Aural skills can improve our sight-readying skills.

It allows us to learn music more quickly and more effectively. Sight-reading is an important part of becoming a more successful musician. Associating voicing with desired pitch can also open up a lot of those вЂњtrickвЂќ fingerings to be used when they would be optimal.ДЄs a young clarinetist, sight-reading exercises were always a part of my weekly lessons. It can allow for greater flexibility of dynamics for the altissimo pitch (mainly benefiting softer dynamics). This works so well that I have even voiced the correct pitch using incorrect fingerings! While I am in no way endorsing the use of incorrect fingers, one does benefit by having the ability to associate a вЂњheardвЂќ pitch and the voicing for that pitch. Making the student sing the correct interval there is significant improvement in hitting the correct partial. Many of my younger students have the same issue of вЂњunder or over shootingвЂќ the correct partial. Most have heard the saying from jazz saxophonist Jackie McLean, вЂњif you can sing it, you can play it.вЂќ The reason for using these less than ideal fingerings was most likely due to the inability to hear that large interval and therefore inability to play the correct note. Playing through them now, I felt that using the вЂњstandardsвЂќ were more ideal for maintaining the timbre of the melodic line. Fully understanding that alternate fingerings are sometimes the most optimal, I questioned my undergraduate self for using these particular fingerings. During this trip down memory lane, I noticed that several of the pieces had alternate fingerings written for the altissimo range. Recently, I was going through some pieces that I had played as an undergrad.

The goal of this article is not to help in passing your next aural skills exam, but rather to see the bigger picture of how aural skills applies to the clarinet. It is a valid question and my 18-year-old self would probably say something along the lines of вЂњjust fake your way through itвЂќ or вЂњbefriend someone in the class that is really good at it.вЂќ However, through taking the remedial sections as a grad student, I have learned that aural skills does in fact pertain to clarinet playing and can help one improve as a musician. As an undergrad clarinet performance major, why would I need to be able to sight-sing or dictate chords? First, I donвЂ™t sing and second, my instrument only plays one note at a time (Keep in mind that I was a naГЇve freshman that had no idea what all the clarinet was capable of doing!) Upon entering both my masters and doctoral programs, I learned that I was not alone in this struggle, as many of my colleagues were taking the same remedial aural skills course.ДЄs a current professor at a small liberal arts college, my students often ask me why they must take aural skills. Aural skills has always been a bit of a struggle. IвЂ™m a clarinetist! Why do I need aural skills?