Teaching by Ear

Lesson Plan & Video Example

Why Teach by Ear?

…because music is more than reading

Rote repetition is the first step to comprehension as it provides learners with familiarity that paves the way to distinguish same vs. different when presented with new information. At first, students will be merely imitating what they hear with no real understanding. But teaching students songs by ear before presenting them with sheet music will give them a background of musical understanding to read notation with comprehension.

I know that your students generally know how to read music when they get to high school band. It may be too late to teach them songs by ear as a pre-reading step, but it is never too late to train their ears. If all they are taught in music is how to decode notation that has been written, they will never have been given the tools to learn or create music outside of a concert band.

Reading music is a valuable skill. But it is limiting if that’s all we know how to do.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN

Procedure

  • Establish tonality

  • Teacher sings, students listen to the song (with or without words)

    • Introduce the song (remember “whole → part → whole”)

  • Teacher sings, students flow (no words)

    • Sing the melody for them while they move their bodies in whatever way the music makes them want to move. Encourage them not to move in time yet.

  • Repetition Activities (listening to the whole melody over and over)

    • Anything that gets them interacting in a musical way while they hear the whole song over and over. Examples include:

      • Macrobeats (in feet)

      • Microbeats (in hands)

      • Macrobeats and Microbeats (in hands and feet)

      • Resting Tone Activity (stop and have them sing resting tone)

      • Count Phrases (brief introduction to form if appropriate)

  • Students listen one more time (no words)

  • Establish tonality

  • Audiate

    • Have students “think” through the whole song in their heads silently

  • Students sing, teacher listens

    • Don’t sing with them — listen and hear what they can do. Isolate parts if needed.

  • Students sing, teacher does something different

    • Sing the bass line, accompany them on piano, anything to encourage independence!

  • Teacher sings bass line, students listen

    • Repeat as many of the above steps as necessary (macro/microbeats, count phrases, etc.)

  • Audiate bass line

  • All sing bass line a few times

    • To work toward independence, you could sing with them at first! Once they seem confident stop singing to assess just like before

  • Split class, sing melody and bass line simultaneously

    • Switch who sings what

  • Individual duets from volunteers if desired

  • Reintroduce words if applicable

    • Chant words in rhythm, do sections, you’ve got it from here!

Example Video

Follow along with the lesson plan and watch how I teach Londonderry Air by ear.

**Note: You do not have to do this all in one day!

This sample lesson plan is a LOT of material because I wanted to give you lots of ideas for teaching a song by ear. Split it up however you see fit for your students and schedule!