Sight singing...it ain't what you do but the way that you do it...
'Do you have any targets...?'...asked a friend after my first recent blog entry.
'Well, no actually'. I hate targets set by others - often 'controlling'- but my own are a little vague.
Instead, this morning saw the sun streaming through the window, frost on the ground (hence no exercise run just yet) and a mound of music by my bed. For reasons mentioned below, I felt the urge to write..computer/coffee/Handel's Solomon/Andreas Scholl playing..away we go...
Last night was spent at the first rehearsal for a concert by Gloucester Choral Society in March 2014, performing music by child prodigy Mozart in Gloucester Cathedral.
Now, my 'sight singing/reading' only started about six years ago, building on fragile knowledge of music from schooldays (saved for another later blog..) . More recently I've had to study it to cope with singing choral and solo music and ABRSM exam grades.
Sight reading - reading and singing directly from a music score never seen before - isn't easy is it?
For the modern student, a minimum of 5 music lines, like your hand, and 7 basic notes, A to G, to choose from.
Each note (let's forget 'sharps' and 'flats') fitting on or between those lines and sounding different because of it's 'pitch' and sung for a different period of time ... and eyes and a brain with huge processing powers to make sense of it all, (hahaha), and produce a semblance of competence at rehearsals such as mentioned above.
I assumed it was me...practice they said, read plenty of music, 'it'll come'...
Last night showed that yes it comes...given huge amounts of practice on your own, with others and some knowledge of what the symbols and notation all mean.
Perhaps if I'd had music under my nose in my youth it would have soaked in more easily..but having just tried here to explain a bit about it...no it's not easy, but is anything 'worth having' easily achieved??
Whoops, I've got myself a target....so onward and (tenor like) UPWARDS!!!
Ref. links :
http://www.greatkat.com/03/mozart.html
http://gloucesterchoral.com/2013-2014-season/mozart-mass-in-c-minor-te-deum-clarinet-concerto/
'Well, no actually'. I hate targets set by others - often 'controlling'- but my own are a little vague.
Instead, this morning saw the sun streaming through the window, frost on the ground (hence no exercise run just yet) and a mound of music by my bed. For reasons mentioned below, I felt the urge to write..computer/coffee/Handel's Solomon/Andreas Scholl playing..away we go...
Last night was spent at the first rehearsal for a concert by Gloucester Choral Society in March 2014, performing music by child prodigy Mozart in Gloucester Cathedral.
Now, my 'sight singing/reading' only started about six years ago, building on fragile knowledge of music from schooldays (saved for another later blog..) . More recently I've had to study it to cope with singing choral and solo music and ABRSM exam grades.
Sight reading - reading and singing directly from a music score never seen before - isn't easy is it?
For the modern student, a minimum of 5 music lines, like your hand, and 7 basic notes, A to G, to choose from.
Each note (let's forget 'sharps' and 'flats') fitting on or between those lines and sounding different because of it's 'pitch' and sung for a different period of time ... and eyes and a brain with huge processing powers to make sense of it all, (hahaha), and produce a semblance of competence at rehearsals such as mentioned above.
I assumed it was me...practice they said, read plenty of music, 'it'll come'...
Last night showed that yes it comes...given huge amounts of practice on your own, with others and some knowledge of what the symbols and notation all mean.
Perhaps if I'd had music under my nose in my youth it would have soaked in more easily..but having just tried here to explain a bit about it...no it's not easy, but is anything 'worth having' easily achieved??
Whoops, I've got myself a target....so onward and (tenor like) UPWARDS!!!
Ref. links :
http://www.greatkat.com/03/mozart.html
http://gloucesterchoral.com/2013-2014-season/mozart-mass-in-c-minor-te-deum-clarinet-concerto/
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