Sightsinging Procedure

RULE OF THE COURSE: Do not play sightsinging examples on an instrument!

Doing so goes against everything the course is trying to accomplish.

Every note you give yourself from a piano (or other instrument) stops the learning process because every note you give yourself is a note you could have figured out and learned from.

So how do I do this stuff?

Follow this sequence. Some steps can be skipped if that aspect of the example is particularly easy for you, but try doing the entire procedure at the beginning. Later you can internalize it and collapse parts of it.

I. Analysis

a. Pitch

i. What key(s) is it in?

ii. Structure: are there any pitch patterns? Where are the phrases?

iii. What parts might be difficult for you and how will you deal with them?

b. Rhythm

i. What meter is it in?

ii. Structure: are there any rhythmic patterns?

iii. What parts might be difficult for you and how will you deal with them?

II. Performance

a. Dry read – speak solfege syllables in rhythm (do not write in solfege syllables in your music; that is a crutch you will not have on exams or in the real world)

b. Sing the pitches, with syllables, in rhythm

c. Sing in correct tempo and character with correct dynamics and syllables

If the rhythms are particularly difficult, you may want to also sing the rhythm only (without pitches) using rhythm syllables.

What notes can I give myself on an instrument?

TONIC!

You should establish the key of the melody by playing tonic on an instrument, and singing a scale or tonicization pattern in that key. Thereafter, if you feel you have made a mistake, or have lost your key, you should only give yourself tonic on the instrument, re-establish the key as before, and then continue with the melody.

For each class, you are responsible for the melodies and rhythms assigned for that week. Before the first class day of that week, you should have looked over all of the melodies and rhythms assigned, and sung through a number of them (not all) to make sure you had mastered whatever skills were being reinforced. In class you will be expected to sing any assigned melody or rhythm, so it is important that you have practiced enough of them long enough to perform any of them proficiently.

TIP: Frequent practice for short periods of time is more advantageous that infrequent practice for long periods (such as once a week, for an hour).