ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an approach to aural skills instruction that can be likened to spoken language training, striving to build direct intuitive aural comprehension and spontaneous self-expression as in a conversation. We embrace multiple learning methods, including work without notation. We believe that teaching students to speak music is an end in itself, and the best way to help them with their overall growth as musicians. Almost incidentally, it gives them the basic perceptual abilities they need in order to truly appreciate what their theory courses can offer them.
