Once again, it’s that time of the semester where I hold sight-singing midterms. Unlike my entry from last May when I was teaching fourth semester aural skills, I find teaching first semester to be a very enjoyable experience. It is a bit of a generalization, but it seems to me that most first-year music majors are still in good spirits about aural skills and haven’t acquired the bitterness and cynicism that must come sometime around the moment that they are asked to do part-writing for 15 straight weeks or sing chromatically altered pitches as a matter of course. The first semester is about simpler tasks, like being able to sing the leap from SOL up to MI, hearing FA’s and LA’s properly, and learning how to take a dictation. It is just plain fun and energizing to be back teaching this level after 4 years of second year aural skills. I have much less cheerleading to do and don’t feel compelled to fight a frustrating battle for their hearts and minds each day of class.

Then again, maybe it’s the introduction of harmonic dictation that changes the mood. I’ll find out in a few weeks.