If you can sing, you can play: Applying the legacies of solfeggio and third stream ear training to classical improvisation pedagogy

A musician's auditory memory is directly engaged in the act of improvisation. Two methods exist, from different improvisation pedagogies, that specifically target the development of auditory memories: the eighteenth-century solfeggio tradition, and Third Stream ear training created in the 1970s. Improvisation is enjoying a resurgence in classical music pedagogy, having been largely absent for over a century. Within this revival, however, there is little attention given to also developing students' auditory memories. This study addresses this by comparing solfeggio and Third Stream ear-training methods, to identify the key components for a new aural-training method for today's classical musicians learning to improvise.