I Have To Do What? Sing?

Here are some suggestions to get started

Purchase a sight-singing book. Every musician should own at least one book specifically devoted to the subject of sight-singing. Typically these books contain hundreds of short melodies written or collected with the intent of improving singing ability. There are many to choose from, and a modest investment will provide a wealth of practice material.

Learn solfège. There really isn’t much to learn. The word solfège is simply the French term for what most people know as “do re mi.” The most common system in the United States uses “movable do,” which means that “do” is the first note in whatever key you happen to be in.

So, for example, a G scale would be sung “do re mi fa so la ti do” from G to G.The solfège system also includes a way to sing accidentals that do not belong to the key signature. The ascending chromatic scale becomes “do di re ri mi fa fi sol si la li ti do”; the descending form is “do ti te la le sol se fa mi me re fa do.”

Sing often. Never miss a chance to sing when you’re alone. (For that matter, sing for your friends if you’re so inspired.) I take advantage of spare minutes in the car to practice short vocal exercises. Sing scales, arpeggios, scales in thirds, random intervalsanything that challenges you. When major and minor keys become too easy, try singing diminished seventh chords or whole tone scales.

Aurally identify things that you hear. It is said that Thomas Jefferson could walk through a garden and identify virtually every flower, plant and tree by its scientific name. Some might think this takes the charm out of the experience; others feel just the opposite.

Similarly, musicians are in the habit of aurally identifying what they hear.Musical giants such as Leonard Bernstein or Igor Stravinsky could comprehend and retain large portions of extended works after a single hearing. Students in the early stages of training can at least have a general idea of the melody and basic harmonies. Most trained musicians have developed abilities that lie somewhere in between.

The best way to develop these skills is simply to exercise them. We hear music every day. Students should get into the habit of attempting to identify every musical phrase they hear.

I recall an incident when I was first developing these skills. While listening to a song on the radio, it dawned on me that the final harmony had a sixth and a ninth in it. How did I figure it out? I sang up the scale until I found all the notes. We can all sing, and we can all count. Therefore, with practice, we can learn to identify virtually anything we hear.

Know your voice. The first question I ask freshman music majors in sight-singing class is, “What’s your vocal range?” Amazingly, nine out of ten students don’t know. I find this amazing because a student simply has to sit at a keyboard for 15 seconds to find out.I first have students find their lowest note. This is a relatively fixed point for the untrained voice. From there, most students can easily sing to the octave above and, with a little coaxing, can arrive at a working range of nearly two octaves.

But expanding the range or developing the voice is not the point of sight-singing. I allow students to jump octaves when necessary, rather than have them strain their voices. After all, no singer could possibly sing instrumental parts without adjusting octaves. Students might as well get in the habit of doing this early on.

As far as tone is concerned, the only thing I ask for is a relaxed sound. Singing should not hurt.

Like many endeavors, becoming a fine instrumentalist requires a broad range of skills. Accurate hearing is among the most important. Unfortunately, many young instrumentalists feel self-conscious about singing and thus neglect a crucial aspect of their training.

A few minutes a day spent on basic sight-singing exercises will do much to improve a student’s aural abilities, resulting in greatly improved instrumental skills.

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