The classic opera Cinderella Story: The prima donna breaks her leg, the understudy has stormed off in a huff, and a replacement must be found! The Powers-That-Be call you up: Can you be here tomorrow afternoon with the part learned?
Version two: You’re a lowly chorister or comprimario in a production. But you pour your heart into your work, come to the first rehearsal 100% off-book with no pitch or rhythm problems, and pick up on changes faster than anyone. Your great work ethic and quick-study abilities come to the attention of Someone Of Importance. “Who is that plucky young chorister?” they ask, then adopt you into their next project.
Version three: A composer has taken note of your ability to master challenging new music, and engages you to sing a part in his world premiere. The work is a smash hit, and your fame is cemented as the creator of the role.
We all have some idea of the abundance of opportunities that can come from being a quick study. But so few of us expend any effort on the cultivation of our music-learning and sight-reading abilities! I myself have gotten more paying gigs from my reputation as a quick study and a “good ear” than from anything else. I don’t have perfect pitch; I simply have always considered sight reading an important part of my package.
“Oh, I’m a terrible sight reader,” moan so many singers. “You’re so lucky that you’re good at it!” It’s not luck, folks: It’s practice. Yes, some people are born with perfect pitch and some are born tone-deaf (hopefully that’s not you), but that doesn’t mean that a “terrible sight reader” can’t up her abilities with a little extra effort.
And the best part is that it doesn’t need to take time away from the rest of your practice session! You don’t need to sit down every day and go through a whole slew of tone rows. Nor do you need to purchase books of exercises or software. It just takes a few alterations to the way you already run your practice sessions. Once you get the hang of it, it will take no extra time at all!
Part 1: Vocalises
Do you go through the same couple of warm-ups and exercises every day? How would you like to kill two birds with one stone and make your vocalizing more interesting and varied? Have you ever noticed that we pretty much always sing our vocalises in a major key? Why is that? So much of today’s music is no longer in a simple major key. It can be minor, modal, atonal, or anything in between! So why should we hang on to out-dated major-scale warm-ups?
Next time you go to practice, try doing your staccato triads in minor tonality. All you have to do is lower the third by a half-step, but the change can break the mold and get your mind working to actually have to think about where to find that pitch! Too easy? Try your 9-note run on a harmonic minor scale. Got that down? Try lydian mode. Try phrygian.
It may make you stumble at first, but soon you will get the hang of each scale, and your brain will thank you for it. Then when you go to warm-up, you will have a whole repertoire of tonalities to choose from!
Part 2: Music-learning
When you first sat down at a computer or a type writer, you probably typed out your first words with just your index fingers. In fact, you may have continued plucking your words away in this manner for quite some time! But if you’re still functioning in today’s world, that means you most likely trained your fingers to the right keys at some point. It was a pain in the rear end when you were first trying to get the hang of it, wasn’t it? But once you got into the groove, you sped along at lightning speed, leaving the “pluckers” in your dust. It was worth the effort to train yourself, wasn’t it? This method of music-learning works the same way.
So many singers that I know start learning a new piece of music either by listening to a recording, or by sitting down at the piano and plunking it out. I find this parroting technique to be the least efficient way of getting the music in my head. Sure, I can sing it back the first time, but it won’t stick. Unless it’s irresistible catchy, I won’t remember the tune right away and will have to play it and sing it back again and again until it becomes ingrained.
However, if I start by sight reading the music, when I come back to it again, I will remember how I found it the first time. Then I can read it again the same way, only faster. My mind remembers the intervals, the leading tones and the triads that make up the line, and memorizes them. It’s challenging at first, but if you continue with this technique, you will eventually find it a more efficient way of learning music – and your sight-singing skills will make leaps that defy gravity!
Here’s how to do it. Go to your piano, but instead of playing your first line, only play your first note. (Better yet, try to guess your first note, then see how close you came!) So what’s your second note? DON’T TOUCH THAT PIANO! Try to sing it. Use whatever system you prefer: solfege, intervals, or good old-fashioned guess-work. But don’t touch the keyboard until after you’ve sung the note. If you’re not sure, check and see if you were right or not. Otherwise, keep going until you get stuck.
Beginning sight singers might have to check themselves after every note. More advanced students can sing entire lines, and eventually entire songs this way. Imagine being able to read an entire aria just by picking up the music, with no piano involved! You’ll get there eventually!
Part 3: Repertoire Exploration
How do you pick new songs for your next recital? Do you listen to recordings? Take recommendations by your teacher? Sing something you heard at someone else’s recital? How about choosing your music by singing it?
Go to the library and pick out a book. Songs by Satie, Rorem, somebody you’ve never even heard of. The opera score of a role you’re curious about. It can be anything, as long as it’s something you don’t know. Then, set aside as much time as you want – daily, weekly, or just whenever you’re looking for new rep – whatever you want to spend, depending on your other musical projects and priorities. Then start from page one and sing. This is pure sight-reading practice, but at the same time, you’re learning new music, trying out repertoire in your voice, exploring a composer or an opera that you might not have experience with. At first you might just feel like you’re singing notes, but the more your sight-reading skills improve, the less you will be bogged down by intervals and the more the melody and the nuances will strike you, even on the first reading. You’ll be expanding your musical knowledge, and you’ll probably find some real gems for your next recital! There are plenty of simple, tonal melodies for the beginner – Händel, Rameau, and Offenbach come to mind, or even a church hymnal – whereas advanced students can go straight for the contemporary stuff. But the important thing is to just go for whatever interests you!
What I’m offering you here are some ideas to incorporate sight reading into your existing practice routine. None of these exercises require extra time except for the time it takes to get used to them. So get them under your belt, and watch your musical possibilities expand before you!
Solfege or Intervals?
The debate rages on between the three major sight-singing techniques: Fixed-Do solfege, Moveable-Do solfege, and Interval Training.
Fixed Do is predominant in Europe, and involves simply saying the names of the notes as you sing them – but instead of calling them “C, D, E,” you use the standard international terminology: “Do” for C, “Re” for D, “Mi” for E, and so on.
• Advantages: Good for training perfect pitch, if you use separate references for your sharps and flats, which is rarely done. Also helps to get the hang of calling the notes by their international names, in case you plan on singing abroad.
• Disadvantages: It doesn’t really give you any information that just looking at the note on the page would. Additionally, saying the syllables can become a crutch, and make reading on the words challenging further down the road.
Moveable Do is the form of solfege that you’re more likely to find in the United States. In this case, you decide what the key is, and make the tonic the “Do,” whichever note it is.
• Advantages: Great for tonal music, Moveable Do helps you think in terms of musical structure by pointing out triads, leading tones, and key changes.
• Disadvantages: While still useable, becomes quite complicated when atonal music is introduced. Some people swear by it, however, despite the challenge of moving the Do every couple of beats. And like Fixed Do, syllables become a crutch.
Interval Training is where you calculate the precise interval between each note, singing “a fourth up” followed by “a fifth down.”
• Advantages: Preferable for less tonal music, you can sing on any syllables you like, including the lyrics.
• Disadvantages: You have no center to relate to. If you make one mistake, everything else is off.
So which to choose? People will usually center their sight singing on one or the other technique, based on personal strengths and goals, or just what they were trained with at school. But in the end, it doesn’t have to come down to a big decision of one over the others, because most of us use a mix, often without even realizing it.
For example, I prefer Interval Training, because I sing a lot of contemporary music and because that’s what I was trained on first. But if I have a tricky interval from an A down to the B below it, which continues up to its neighboring C, I might think of that B as a leading tone to the C, and find it much faster than telling myself, “Descending minor 7th!”
