Texture section of Music Aptitude Test

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Can anyone whose DC has done this/tried to practise a little, give any hints on technique for distinguishing if there are 2,3,4 notes in the cord? Dd seems able to do this from a chord played on piano but finding it much harder from the recorded electronic sounding examples online? Thanks

I have three DC who sat a music aptitude test and this was the section they found hardest. DS2 was able to isolate the different notes within the chord and count them, but DS1 and DD mostly guessed.

Hi there and thanks - yes it seems you can either do it or you can't. My OH can hear them better, but odd DD is struggling as her ear is pretty good normally and as I mentioned, she can do it on piano. I have just tried to go through some by telling her how many notes there are in the ones she gets wrong and seeing if she can isolate them, but she just cant hear it :-(

I'd never heard of the Music Aptitude test until now.

I think this is a tough test and it certainly shouldn't be used to rule anyone out as having musical potential.

The YouTube example of the test I found had such a thin sound that there was no resonance, which makes a difference for the chord question, or anything where you have to identify pitch etc.

OP the best thing you can do to practise the chord question is to use a keyboard and select different sounds to play chords with 2, 3 or 4 notes so that DC can get used to the difference in sound between a chord with only two notes and a chord with more.

thanks Ineednewshoes - yes it seems really hard to me. The other 3 elements of the test are ok. I downloaded some tests that sound like this, probably the one you came across
DD switched from piano to guitar a year ago and her new teacher is at her current school but we had a lesson last week with her old piano teacher who is v hot on aural. She thinks DD is strong in this area and we had no issues with running through chords on the piano - we have one more lesson with her this week and I am going to take the recordings rather than let her do stuff on the piano, to see if she can provide any guidance at all on technique. But it is rather depressing (though I am not showing DD that I am concerned) as these schools are kind of our only hope at the moment and too far away to get in apart from on aptitude)!

The sound quality isn't good enough and in my view isn't acceptable for use in tests.

I'm a musician and I struggled to hear the chords very clearly. The two-note chords are easiest to identify because they sound bare. I think to avoid panic it might be good advice for your DD to go on a hunch rather than trying to count the notes. Other sections of the test are far far easier to hear so if this is the only real problem area I would focus on doing really well in the other bits where the sound quality doesn't impact on the question so much (for example, the differences in rhythm are fine with the electronic sounds).

thanks Ineednewshows. It's very frustrating :-( . I don't think the reality will be much better as far as I know.

Is it for the S W Herts consortium by any chance? If so, the cut-off for getting a call-back is usually in the region of 45/60, so if she scores high on the other three sections then she may well get through this round anyway.

No, as most of those schools still operate a catchment area and also due to changing instruments last year I didn't think her actual playing would be good enough. We are looking at a couple of Bishops Stortford schools where there is no call back, just the multiple choice aptitude test, so more pressure on the test itself.

Just upping this in case any one else has any suggestions re this texture section! thanks

Is it helpful to try to purchase online examples that play the individual notes in a chord before then playing the chord itself?