Sight Singing, Any sight singing teachers out there ? Options

[maya]

I would like to find a sight singing teacher for my 10 yr old daughter please, in Edinburgh. can anyone give me some advice on anything related to sight singing please :lol:

[musicgurl]

hello maya,

I am a singing teacher and any mention of sight singing with my pupils brings about a chorus of groaning... and that's before we've started!!

Unfortunately, there are no short cuts with this one - just back to basics and lots and lots of practice. Does your daughter play any instruments? - as this usually helps with reading music. Rhythm and note values is probably the best place to start so that she can recognise the rhythm with ease at least.. start with simple crotchets, minims, dotted rhythms etc. Clapping the rhythm before attempting to sing may help and give her some confidence.

Regarding the melody...if she is given the starting note, she could try to count the notes up the stave and try to hear the intervals in her head. From experience, this sounds much easier than pupils find it though! The important thing is to be patient - she should get gradually better over time with practice.

In the AB singing exams, many of my pupils lose marks in the sight-singing section after gaining so many marks in their pieces - which is such a pity!

Ok, I've gone on enough i think! I hope this helps a little - sorry I can't give you any info on a sight singing teacher in the Edinburgh area

All the best :rolleyes: let me know how she gets on!

[maggiemay]

I run a sight-singing course, but unfortunately don't live near Edinburgh :(

in my experience students learn to sight-sing with least pain if they take one small stage at a time. In the beginning I treat pitch and rhythm quite separately, and only combine them when the early steps are really confident.

Much depends on whether she already plays an instrument; if she does it will help.

I take it one step at a time, something like this:

1) Scale pattern (step-wise) exercises on equal notes (ie no rhythm to think about, just practise pitch, and get confident going up and down.)

2 Simple rhythm ex's on one note.

3) Combine scale patterns and simple rhythms (nothing complicated, maybe just crotchets and minims at first).

4) Memorise arpeggio pattern (doh me soh) and try exercises based on that ( 3 lines or 3 spaces on the stave, ) no rhythm at first.

5) Combine scale pattern with some arpeggio bits (eg doh me soh la soh fa me re doh) etc.

and so on. A really well-planned book is useful, with carefully graded exercises. You might find something at your local music shop, but make sure it's aimed at the right age-group.

Some church choirs have excellent training schemes in operation for youngsters, which include being taught to sight-sing. I wonder if that might be a possibility ?
I believe St Mary's episcopal has a good choir.

I hope these rough notes might give you a start. Ideally you would find someone local who could help person to person - let us know how you get on!

Maggie