Aural skills are gifts, still can be obtained through trainings. The following materials may help you to enhance your aural skills. You are encouraged to broaden your musicianship and aural skills, not limit to the scope of melodic dictations. It is also very significant to have the ability in recognizing different instruments, various styles of Western music and East Asian music, as well as unique features of some regional music.
Apps
Many ear training apps, either free or not, are available in Android and iTunes, which are interval training, pitch identification and melodic dictation, etc.
EarBeater for iPad
Online ear training exercises
Dolmetsch Online is a directory of ear training resources.
Ear Training exercises covers melodic dictation, intervals recognition and chord types, from beginner to advanced learners. iOS and Android apps are also available.
Musictheory.net includes lessons and exercises as well as interactive tools to calculate intervals and chords in a specific key.
Music Training Games provides a wide range of ear training and music theory games, from chord progressions, rhythm to tuning & pitch.
Teoría includes intervals, rhythmic dictation and interactive chord-building exercises. Augmented chords and chords for Jazz are featured in the exercises.
Listening Online
When you listen more, you'll learn more.
Music Online features audio and video collections of classical music, jazz, opera and world music captured on video through live performances.
Specific collections include:
Classical music library contains recordings from Gregorian Chant to contemporary composers’ works.
Contemporary world music highlights the sounds of all regions from every continent.
Jazz music library features albums of jazz artists and ensembles.
Opera in video features staged productions and interviews.
American song contains different periods of American history.
Smithsonian global sound for libraries provides the world’s musical traditions in collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Instructional resources
Benward, Bruce, and J. Timothy Kolosick.
Ear Training: A Technique for Listening.
Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Call number: Music 781.424 B4 and CD
Brief instructions and hands-on exercise with accompanying CD
Cleland, Kent D., and Mary Dobrea-Grindahl.
Developing Musicianship Through Aural Skills: A Holistic Approach to Sight Singing and Ear Training.
New York: Routledge, 2010.
Call number: Music 781.424 C62
The book provides instructions and a variety of exercise for practicing. A companion website is available for online exercises.
Éthier, Glen Edward
Ear training & sight singing : a developmental aural skills text.
Don Mills, Ont. : Oxford University Press, 2013.
Call number: Music 781.424 E84
In addition to sight-singing and ear training materials and exercises, the book provides concepts of music theory to help students build both skills. A companion website includes online exercises and audio files can be downloaded.
Jones, Evan Allan, Matthew R. Shaftel, and Juan Chattah.
Aural skills in context: a comprehensive approach to sight-singing, ear training, keyboard harmony, and improvisation.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Call number: Music 781.424 J76
The book uses familiar music, i.e. art music or folk music, both vocal and instrumental to teach you aural skills.
Scholarly studies
Karpinski, Gary S.
Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-level Musicians.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Call number: Music 781.42 K18 a
The book explores the relationship of aural skills, music theory, cognitive psychology and pedagogy.
Wright, Colin R.
Aural and the university music undergraduate.
Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
Call number: Music 781.424 W94
Musumeci, Orlando. “The Cognitive Pedagogy of Aural Training”
It is a paper of the relationship between psychology and aural training.