Because of the somewhat "inside baseball" nature of discussions on any message board, I know people can feel a little lost.

I want to repeat something, and then add something.

Whatever you succeed in doing is wonderful.

I would add:

However you get there is fine.

Some think anyone can learn the scales and then read from there. In fact, some think, you have to. I have never been able to do that, and I have very good pitch and good training. It turns out there is a reason.

This is something I teach in school: what's known as the "critical period" in your brain's development has a lot to do with how you handle pitch. Basically, at puberty, your brain finishes bifurcating into hemispheres. Certain things are set. I am great at accents, but most people have their accent set at that age. That is why adult immigrants who REALLY study may master reading, writing, and speaking a new language, but most will NEVER lose their native accent entirely.

I read something about a specialist in neurology who set out to test the "10,000 hour theory," which is that you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at something. 6 hours a day for four years--an undergraduate career--gets you a little over 8,000 hours. Kids seem to master things quickly in part because they have hours of free time and don't mind repeated action as much as adults do.

So this guy set out to do 10,000 hours of music, and became quite adept, but he never seemed to be as able to go the distance, so he now just has a lot of fun. But the point of the book he wrote was of course the science, and he says one interesting thing: you can't do much about how you handle pitch; not surprisingly, if your accent is set at puberty, so is your pitch.

That doesn't mean you need to be TRAINED in pitch, and so you should be able to learn to sing no problem. What I am talking about is HOW THE PITCH GETS INTO YOUR HEAD.

Now, anyone who is genuinely musical picks up pitch from what is around them. One pop singer with very, very good pitch (I will not mention his name for fear of reprisal) began spontaneously singing harmony at 2.

In my case, the household I grew up in was not musical and I learned pitch from the piano. So, try as I might, it is likely that pitch will always be associated with the keyboard in my mind. I pointed out that Giovanni Vianini, who has a schola in Milan and has some very nice demonstration videos on YouTube (actually, about 1000) says in one that he always checks the melody at the keyboard. Purists would say he should be beyond that, but I have heard few scholas as good as his volunteer schola, so what in the world does it matter?

And if you have had NOT music, it is entirely likely that you will remain dependent on the keyboard or on musicians who can pull it out of the air. SO WHAT ?!?!?!?!?!?! Just ignore the guys who pull their handkerchief out of the sleeves and go on about the TRRRRRREEEEWWWWW art of this or that. Just sing: bless us with your singing and be blessed by singing.

I have been working on sight singing chant. I mentioned that I can sightread German lieder without much paying attention to the notes written on the page--the key signature seems to correlate to a scale in my head, and even Brahms gives you leading notes. The melody just seems to follow in my mind--but I still have to have a page to look at. I am not going "note, note, note" at all. It's quite unconscious, but I can do it.

Chant, however, is hard. My jazz guitarist housemate, during the hour or so a day we see each other, has heard me and he one day said, "In about a year you'll be able to do it." It's only been six already.

And if you need to do it from a keyboard--just keep you hands on the white keys for four months. DOH (always spell it that way--I am an English teacher, and "do" is "do" in my mind. Anyway, Do=C. Start from there. Don't let anyone pull you off in directions you cannot go.

It was interesting reading that there is a phuysiological reason for this.

Now, there is no reason to NOT try and just do it from the scales...maybe you can. I can't. But I can sing Chant.