Okay. I’ll share my secret.

None of my students ever get the interval of a minor sixth wrong on the ear test portion of the exams. Ever.

Forget the sappy Love Story tune. So not appealing to anyone under the age of 40. Maybe even 50. 

Forget The Entertainer. By the time you have aurally subtracted the pick-up notes, a bit of it is lost. Melodically it belongs to a major chord. It doesn’t compute as being minor.

I use the standard “My Bonnie lies over the ocean” to teach the major sixth. If they don’t already know the song, they learn it really quickly. Words and all. I play it with all the happy major chords underneath. My off-music keyboard skills aren’t so weak that I can’t do this.

Then – the bombshell. I tell the student that Bonnie didn’t make it over the ocean. She’s dead. In the ocean. I harmonize the melody with minor chords instead (chords I and IV). And overdo the whole thing facially.

The students are generally stunned at this point. I think they don’t believe I would say something like that. And then they start laughing.

Some have come back after exams and told me they couldn’t help laughing when they heard that one come up in the ear tests.

We’ve won.

_______________________________________________

Image: Acqua Di Fiori

Related articles

• Introduction to Music, Part 9 (Intervals & Chords) (jamesgilbertmusic.wordpress.com)