[HANASHIR:14135] music theory- ANYTHING BUT PRACTICA MUSICA!!!!!!!

[Callie M <callie-hoo...>]

Hi I just took my last ear training exam for the rest of my life (thank GOD!).  
In less than one 
week, I will officially complete the two-year (four-semester) 
sightsinging/eartraining and theory 
curriculums at Florida State University's School of Music.  I just had to write:

ANYTHING BUT PRACTICA MUSICA

The theory department changed administration half-way through my time in 
Sightsinging/Eartraining and introduced Practica Musica as a required program.  
Not one of 
my fellow students likes it.  Not one of them feels it helps.  As a 
procrastinator doing the 
entire semester's assignments at this very moment, it is the bane of my 
existence.  And I feel 
my ear has gotten worse using it because it's so confusing.  The levels are 
messed up so that 
you can spend hours and never pass, and, what's worse, the MIDI is so terrible 
that you can't 
tell what you're listening to!  I can't tell major from minor on that program, 
and I've never made 
less than an A in the class.  The chord progressions are non-sensical, you can 
only hear the 
middle note and there is no voice leading.  

So what would I recommend?
Get a tutor, as Adrian said, and one who plays piano well.  We use a book 
called Listen and 
Sing.  I heard that you can buy it with tapes with the melodic and harmonic 
dictations and 
that they're pretty useful.  I like the book.  The "Quick Switch" section helps 
to isolate more 
difficult rhythms and melodic elements in a way that makes you forget that what 
you're 
singing is hard.  And it uses real melodies as opposed to some books that make 
up ugly and 
random tunes simply to get the augmented sixth accross.

Good luck.  Aural skills are tough, but good to have.

Callie Maidhof
Tallahassee, Florida


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