Teaching how to read music--where to start for beginners
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    Hi, everyone. As some of you already know, I have been forming a schola in my parish. Right now, we have 7 members, including me (praise God!). Besides me, only one other member can read music. I have been going through everyone's parts individually and I also send them practice recordings, so they seem to be picking things up pretty well that way. However, I just can't help but think that things would go more smoothly if they could read music, even if they had a very basic understanding of it.

    So my question is, where should I start without overwhelming everyone and taking up too much time? I was thinking about starting with teaching them about different notes (quarter, half, etc.) and rests so that they would at least kind of know the rhythm and when to take breaths right off the bat. I'm not a music teacher and I don't pretend to be, so I was hoping that maybe some more experienced members of this forum might be able to help. Thanks, everyone!
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    What type of music are you singing, primarily?
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    There is a really great book called "How to Read Music" by Howard Shanet.
    It's the best book I've found for beginners. You can get copies on Amazon for like $1.00.
    So, you could but a set for your schola for very little.

    http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-Music-Howard-Shanet/dp/0671210270/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1414354860&sr=8-5&keywords=How+to+read+music
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    Thanks, ghmus! Adam, we're primarily singing music with modern notation: propers from the Simple Choral Gradual and hymns with some occasional chant.
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Start with Solfege. A solid foundation in Solfege is key to sight singing. Simple Gregorian Chants can reinforce it, since chant is completely based on Solfege and is not metrical. I use the Curwen signs to do simple exercises where the choir has to follow what Solfege syllable and tone to sing by watching my hand.

    Do as much part singing as you can because this reinforces the idea of musical line in each part. Emphasize "follow the dots:" this will help them figure out what is going on with the notation. The goal is to be able to allow the eyes to guide the voice, and sing accurately while doing so.

    We used the Ottman book for sight singing class in college and it was very good for beginning adult ear training. Combined with Solfege training and regular practice, it didn't take me long to be able to sight sing (about a year). Just make sure you are doing sight singing at every rehearsal.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Kathy
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Thanks, ghmus! Adam, we're primarily singing music with modern notation: propers from the Simple Choral Gradual and hymns with some occasional chant.


    solfege
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    Thanks. I have some work to do myself since I never learned to sing with solfege. It just never made much sense to me for some reason, but I will do some research and give it a try since it worked for you.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Moreover - teach how to sight-sing pitches more than how to sight-sing rhythm. This will bring you better in-choir results, and speed the learning of new music considerably.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    solfege - because then they can use the same skill to read chant and modern notation. Once they get the idea that the chant will tell them where do or fa is, and in modern notation the key sign will tell them where do is, then the same skills of working out do re mi etc applies. teach length of notes after, if you are starting with simple chant there is not much there to worry about.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    Note-reading, like word reading, is a complex skill. Scale awareness (solfege) is the foundational skill, like phonics. But once readers start to read,they begin remembering "whole words".... intervals, arpeggios, certain neumes. Knowledge of tonality gives grammatical clues. Make sure your singers get equal practice with all intervals. Basses are usually pretty good with 4ths and 5ths, because they do them so often, while sopranos often have no clue.

    Pattern recognition has both visual and audio elements. After a disastrous outing with the Kyrie of Mass 13, I worked on visual differentiation of 4ths and 5ths. "You have to have a line and a space to get "Here comes the bride". If you have two lines or two spaces, you get "twinkle twinkle."" The problem with the tunes thing is that the context is rigid, generally involving tonic and dominant. A la-re descending 5th feels different from do-sol ascending.
    Thanked by 3ClergetKubisz Arthur Connick CHGiffen
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    Make sure your singers get equal practice with all intervals

    This. Something I learnt to do from reading Justine ward.
    "You have to have a line and a space to get "Here comes the bride". If you have two lines or two spaces, you get "twinkle twinkle.""

    genius. On the agenda for my next terms childrens schola. thanks!
    Thanked by 2pipesnposaune Jeffrey Quick
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Here's a Solfege Exercise (in chant notation) that I cooked up that strengthens singing intervals: perfect fifths (both ascending and descending) as well as sixths (ascending) and perfect fourths (descending).

    Don't get tricked into thinking it's the verse "Sol doh la fah mi re do." from The Sound of Music, although the first three notes are the same.

    As the user-notes suggest, learn parts 1 & 2 first, then split the choir into two parts and sing them together, taking great care to tune the intervals, almost all of which are perfect fifths.
    Solfege Exercise.pdf
    35K
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • pipesnposaune
    Posts: 113
    Check out Sight Reading Factory as well for sight singing practice. You can do this in rehearsals or ask choir members to do at home on their own. You can choose a solo exercise as well as multiple part choir. You can toggle on solfege if needed - and in major, minor (la and do based). Finally - a release coming soon will allow you to customize your sight reading. For instance, if you want to practice trouble intervals such as fourths, you will soon be able do so. If you sign up as an 'educator' you could send assignments to your choir members and assess their progress.
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    On the agenda for my next terms childrens schola

    Age-appropriate? Maybe this belongs on a different thread. :-)
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    Not sure what is age inappropriate? Generally I find the children in the schola (age 6-9) learn to read music more quickly and easily than adults. As for adults who read modern notation, teaching them to read chant can be a real challenge!
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    "Sol doh la fah mi re do."

    Out of "tea" are we?

    ;-)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Ask Rogers & Hammerstein ... it's their song.

    But it continues, "Sol doh la ti doh re doh."

    "When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything."
    Thanked by 1Choirparts
  • ChoirpartsChoirparts
    Posts: 147
    Yes......Guido the Monk would like the "Sound of Music"

    check the 22:30 mark on this video....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u2T4boK2FE
    Thanked by 2bonniebede eft94530
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    Bonniebede, my little trick can be seen as a trope on natural marriage vs. unnatural "marriage" But apparently, it's OK for kids, since nobody gets it. Hence the "wrong thread" comment; maybe it should be on the ""Was" Catholic Musicians in Protestant Churches" thread.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    Ah. I see. Reviewed, now I get you. However the idea of teaching intervals by nursery rhyme tunes they know remains very useful. Sorry I missed your humour. :-]
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    The "tunes they know" is an old trick. It's not foolproof, because intervals tend to sound different to people if they're on different scale degrees. But if it weren't of value, it wouldn't be such a long tradition (one can argue that solfege itself started as a version of it.)
    Thanked by 1bonniebede
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    Thanks so much for all of the replies everyone! To be honest with you, I am completely overwhelmed right now. I guess I just need to start slowly and everyone will catch on. I don't think I said in my original post, but it is a schola of adults, which I think makes a difference. They're all very willing to learn and interested, which helps. It's just difficult to teach adults sometimes, though. I don't want to have any exercises that make them feel like little kids or something. All of your suggestions were great, thank you again.
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 708
    musiclover88, your first inclination sounded like the best option. Don't over complicate matters. Keep it simple and keep your CD's or recordings coming. Our music director makes recordings for our group and it's more helpful than all the solfege you can drum up. As a choir member, schola member and cantor, I hate solfege...yucky-poo.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    I hate solfege too (so did Johann Mattheson, whose Vollkommene Capellmeister has a tart little poem on the subject). I don't ever use it personally; I don't HAVE to. But some form of scale-degree awareness seems to be essential for literacy.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,981
    I hate it, too! When I was in college we studied sight singing using numbers instead of syllables. I guess it is what you learn to use that matters, and all else seems odd.
  • Arthur Connick
    Posts: 496
    Why do you hate solfege - ineffective, boring, too hard? Are there ways to make it more palatable to adults?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    The music director of our local 135-175 member unauditioned but very talented community chorus uses numeric scale degrees for warmups and interval exercise patterns with great success.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    I started teaching ciphers because they are easily remembered from the start as homework, but getting people to say "seh" does take a little work and I think in the long run the open syllables are more hygienic. One of my singers who joined my community chorus has had to become bi-lingual, without any ill effects.

    I learned the intervals before I was in a choir and practiced 'dead reckoning' in an arm chair and at the library. If one plays an instrument the map of the 'virtual' fingerboard helps in remembering what came before and in catching and backing up from mistakes. This approach is more useful than solfeggio with Webern or Stravinsky! But in a real time choir what counts is to keep going.
  • Musicus
    Posts: 1
    This is great advice. Just what I need!
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Teach intervals.

    A simple warm-up exercise can help: it uses solfege syllables, but does not get bogged down the way some exercises do. Start on the tonic, and sing progressively larger intervals Do-Re; Do-Mi; Do-Fa; Do-Sol; and come back down.

    One other thought, though it is likely to draw canon fire.... teach pitch awareness beyond intervallic work -- this is what an A sounds like; can you match pitch.....

    (In my opinion, solfege is helpful if and when one already has a sense of the intervals and the accuracy of producing them.)
    Thanked by 2stulte Casavant Organist
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