Week 2/3 Aural exercises I, IV, V. This weeks exercises are based around identifying the chords. Note that any major tune can be harmonised with just those three chords (and it could be argued that more complex harmonies are built around using substitutes for these chords). A lot of popular music from the Renaissance to the present has been based on just these three chords. Try playing around with these chords to familiarise yourself with them. The aural exercises include a couple of Renaissance ground basses, a 12 bar blues and four Celtic folksongs. The aural exercise for this week is simply to identify the sequence of chords in each of the samples (in most cases there is one chord per bar). Two of the samples have exactly the same progression which two? If this is easy note that the four folksongs are repeated but on the repeat some first inversion chords are used. Listen to the difference and see if you can identify which chords are first inversion. After this for some fun use the link to watch the Axis of Awesomes Four Chord Song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I Answers: Bergamasca I, IV, V, I (repeated) Passamezzo Moderno: I, IV, I, V, I, IV V, I (repeated) Frankie (12 Bar Blues): I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I (V) Baloo: I, I, V, I, I, I, V, I, IV, I, V, I, IV, I, V, I Still I Love Him: I, I, V, I, I, I, V, V, IV, I, V, I, IV, I, V, I Convict Maid: I, IV, V, I, I, IV, V, I Blacksmith: I, I. I, V, I, I, V/I, V (repeated) final ending on I Once youve checked that youve got these right try improvising on the ground basses and/or the 12 bar blues progression. Week 3 Taking the four folksongs (Baloo, Still I Love Him, Convict Maid and Blacksmith) from week 2 try to transcribe the melodies in C major. (Two of them start on C and 2 start on G and two start with a crotchet upbeat). You can email them to me (Benjamin) if you want me to confirm youve got them right.