April 4

Today I practiced the dominant 7 of most of the keys. I also did some work with distinguishing between the sounds of major-minor, minor-minor, half diminished, fully diminished and so on.  I used the theory book mainly for this, chapter 11 & 12, and some of 13.

Feb. 27

Today I practiced interval recognition with a pattern that Dr. Kalm taught us earlier in the week. The pattern uses major and minor keys to show every interval except the tritone. I also practiced a couple of the songs that Dr. James handed out to us, especially the two-part duets. I also sang a one of the rounds Dr. Kalm taught us because it had been stuck in my head ever since class. I transposed it to a different key a couple of times to practice getting all the intervals correctly.

Mar. 18

Today I practiced for the a.p. assessment which is on thursday. I went over the worksheet we will be tested on and then practiced sight singing from the Krueger. I also worked on an interval exercise Dr. Kalm showed us to help my sight-reading.

Feb. 11

Today I practiced mostly the three forms of minor scales.  I practiced a few of the major scales as well because it was helping me to hear melodic minor structure a little better.  Melodic and natural minor are still giving me trouble at the top because I always want to go to the leading tone.

Jan. 28

Today I looked at the rhythms in the Krueger that we were supposed to practice.  I am familiar with pretty much all the rhythms because I’ve seen it a lot in playing percussion.

Dec. 5

Today I just tried to fine-tune some of the sight-singing melodies, and I noticed how terrible my intonation is, so I also worked on that by just singing major and minor scales.  The examples we are going to be tested on for the final are becoming easier but still not where they need to be.

Dec. 2

Today I just worked on the sight-singing examples for the exam.  I am beginning to get a little better at sight-singing and i am able to recognize what most intervals will sound like, but I’m still having trouble with intervals that are below the given note.

Nov. 30

Today I began working on the packet that Dr. James gave us that contains all the songs that can be used during the final exam for assessment. I am realizing how difficult it is to simply sight-sing the melodies, but after I have used the piano to hear what they sound like, I usually don’t have trouble singing through them. However, it will take a lot of practice to get them down enough for the exam.

Nov. 25

Today I worked on intervals and interval recognition. I am experiencing some trouble with recognizing intervals; I can recognize 3rds and 4ths and 5ths relatively easily, but I sometimes cannot recognize minor 7ths and the differences between major and minor 6ths.  I also used some resources off the Wiki like the list of songs that start with certain intervals as well as some ear trainers.

Nov. 18

I practiced some of the species counterpoint examples for the ap exam coming up on the 27th. Also worked on interval recognition for the other ap exam on tuesday.  I only got a little bit of practice with this before it was time to leave for percussion ensemble tour. (gonna be a long 3 days. . . . )