Weeks 7-8 · ear · working memory + clean restart
Hold two phrases. Deliver both. Don’t pause too long between them.
The rule
pass: both phrases in ±50¢ · gap ≤ 500 ms · 5/8
Two stacked contours, one per phrase. The emerald glide through both rows is the passing trace: every note inside ±50¢, both phrases delivered. The grey dot on the last note of phrase 2 is the typical failure mode — singer holds the shape but loses the final pitch as working memory frays. The vertical bracket between the rows is the inter-phrase gap; it has to stay under 500 ms or the restart isn’t clean.
Hear it first
First clip: two 3-note phrases back-to-back — both delivered in tune, clean restart. Second clip: phrase 2 starts a beat late — the singer hesitated, lost the running tonic. Third: phrase 2’s last note drifts flat (memory fray). Both are common fail modes — different rescue drills.
What’s happening.Songs aren’t one phrase long. You have to hold the shape of phrase 1 in working memory while phrase 2 is being demonstrated, then deliver phrase 1, hold phrase 2, and deliver phrase 2 — without losing the tonic, without inserting a breath, without an audible reset between them. Each phrase alone is the phrase-from-memory drill; this is the next layer: two of them, in sequence, on one mental thread.
Why a 500 ms gap ceiling. A normal breath between phrases is ~300–400 ms. Anything beyond 500 ms suggests you stopped to remember the next phrase rather than running it on continuous mental playback. The ±50¢ note tolerance is unchanged from phrase-from-memory — we’re testing recall continuity, not introducing tighter pitch.
Why this bridges to song. song-from-memory upstream is 8–14 notes in one breath-controlled gesture. This lesson is the 6-note halfway house: two phrases stitched together. If two clean phrases with a clean restart still wobbles, the full-verse capstone will fall apart every time.
Session ahead
8 trials · two 3-note phrases per trial, played once · 5/8 clean two-phrase sets promotes.