Listening Exercise!!!

Okay everybody - remember this week at practice when I played two notes on the piano, and it was really hard to hear and sing the bottom note, but super easy to sing the top note? I want to teach you how to find the bottom notes - and not just that, but how to hear and sing middle notes.

So, here is a link to a Wikepedia page about a very famous Symphony - this is Symphony No. 5, movement 1 by Beethoven. I am sure you will recognize the beginning of it.

What I want you to do is listen to this and list all the instruments you hear. There are a lot! I especially want you to listen to the lower instruments - tuba, cello, and double bass. Hear how they repeat things that the higher instruments play? After you listen to it once, listen again, and see if you can pick out something you didn't hear before. Maybe another instrument. Also, listen for short notes and long notes. Does one instrument hold a long note while another instrument plays short notes?

So. here is the website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven%27s_5th

Click on that link and scroll down until you see this on the right side of the screen:

You can see there are two recordings here. Both are the same music, but one is a college orchestra, and the other is a professional orchestra. Start with the second one - the Fulda Symphony. Then, listen to the other one. See if you can hear differences in the way they perform the music.

Have fun and listen away!!!