The term 'sightsinging' is somewhat of a misnomer because it implies
having to sing something entirely new that you have never seen before. As
you will soon discover, most melodies are patchworks of familiar motives
and patterns that you have already seen and sung before. The only new element
is the order in which these patterns occur. When practicing sight-singing,
use the following routine:
ANALYZE THE MELODY. Determine the key and meter. Notice the starting
note and the range of the melody (to select what octave you should begin
in). Look for patterns--step-wise motion, arpeggiations, repeated notes.
Look for potential trouble spots (large leaps, tricky rhythms, rests).
ESTABLISH THE KEY. Establishing the key means linking the notes on
the page (visual) to the appropriate pitches (aural) and solfege syllables
(conceptual). Play the tonic pitch, then sing the scale (with syllables).
While you are singing, don't go on auto-pilot: look at the music
and find the line or space of each pitch you are singing. In particular,
memorize the location of DO & SO to use as a visual frame of reference
while sightreading.
ESTABLISH THE TEMPO. Don't just take off from the beginning. Look
for the most difficult passage and select your tempo to accommodate this
part. This may be the section with the fastest rhythms or it may be a difficult
melodic pattern. Once you decide on a tempo, figure out what it is on your
metronome (then turn the metronome off).
SING SILENTLY. Mentally 'sing' the passage while keeping time (e.g.
conducting). Afterwords look at the spots that gave you trouble and figure
out how correct the problem. This way you can correct some of your mistakes
before anyone has heard them.
SIGHTSING the passage (out loud) while keeping time silently (don't
tap). Do not stop or allow yourself false starts or corrections. It is far
better to miss one note but keep going (so that the rest of the notes are
in time) then to backtrack in order to 'fix' it. Think what would happen
if you did this in an ensemble. A late note is wrong whatever pitch you
sing.
When finished, check the tonic to see if your intonation has drifted
and the metronome to see if your tempo has changed. Review and correct any
errors you remember. If something didn't work, don't just sing it again
and hope that it will get better. Devise a new strategy for your next time
through.
Try to sing the passage two more times, repeating the above procedures.
If you do not think it is correct by then (and almost always you will know),
leave it and return to it another day. You are no longer practicing sightsinging,
you are now 'preparing' the melody. Similarly, never correct errors by playing
the passage on the piano or other instrument. Do this only to check your
performance after you think you have the passage correct. This is also no
longer sightsinging, it is earsinging (singing by rote). Prepared singing
and rote singing are both important skills which should be practiced separately.
David Loberg Code, School of Music, Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, MI, 49008. E-mail: code@wmich.edu