Exercicis d'Entonació per a l'Educació de l'Oïda 1. La tonalitat

Learning and playing music involve combining aspects of a complex of skills and abilities ranging from physical dexterity to complicated mental processes live in real time during a performance. Even simply reading a musical score displays the wide range of components needed for producing music: knowledge is required in order to identify the notes on the staff in different keys and the bars that determine the duration of each, to locate these notes on the instrument itself, and, of course, to give the whole piece appropriate artistic expression, as intended by the composer or by the players themselves.
Amidst such complexity, one of the most essential factors is the training of the ear. As music is basically addressed to our sense of hearing, it would seem logical that the development of this faculty should be of primary importance in the learning process. Despite this, it is often assumed that an ear for music develops by itself as instrumental skills improve. While it is clear that our auditory skills do get better as our instrumental techniques evolve, this is not enough. Instruments such as the voice, for example, are highly reliant on our capacity for auditory recognition. Furthermore, the instrument itself is dependent on our knowledge of how it should sound, and this in turn can prevent inapproriate 'anticipation', an important aspect of musical practice.