My sight singing isn't bad, but I wondered just how good it needs to be in order to pass at grade 4 level. I read rhythm well, and my notes are probably about 70% accurate. Would that be adequate? I know I probably need to work with a specific technique, but haven't learnt one so far, and given that my exam is in Feb, I'm not sure it's a good use of my time right now, if my current abilities are adequate. I thought that if I was ok as I am, I might leave fixing it till my grade 5 exam, which I think I'll take at the end of next year.

Yes, Meerkat, that should be sufficient to pass, but make sure that you do well on all of the other parts of the exam (ie. aural and four songs) or else you may not pass. Really, just keep practising all the way up until the day of the exam, and then all you can do is your best! Good Luck!!!

I don't have a lot of experience of this, meercat, being a pianist.

I do a lot of work with a young singer\violinist\saxophonist for whom I am accompanist, repetiteur, theory guru and general musical factotum, including sight-singing.

When practising, Heidi's sight-singing can occasionally wander off in random directions, so she is not perfect. She gets 18 or 19 for sight-singing each time she takes a singing exam. I think this is because the exam accompaniments are quite helpful; she responds to it and is able to hit the jumps accurately.

For practise, jazzywench and DomRUK recommended Sing at Sight by William Appleby. Assuming you can pick out notes on a piano or jeyboard, you can work alone on sight-singing using this book.

Hope this helps a bit.

Steve

I don't teach singing but for helping students with the sight-singing part of their aural tests for the higher grades, I get them to work through Improve Your Sight-Singing by Paul Harris and Mike Brewer. It is available in both treble and bass clefs for different levels and different voices. Lots of useful material in it too.

Thanks! I've worked through the Appleby, and am waiting for the Brewer to come from Musicroom. One of the things that's thrown me a bit is that I read and sing notes - I guess that means I don't have a 'method'. My note reading is pretty good, and it's the way I feel confident singing. I tried to do the do ray me thing that the appleby book wanted me to do but just found it too hard to shift gear that dramatically. I'm scared to mess that much with my way of doing things this close to the exam. I've always kind of felt my way up the gaps. I've got nowhere near perfect pitch, but I can generally feel reasonably accurately where my voice needs to go to, if that makes sense.

Hi,

At the end of the day I think it just comes down to practice, practice and more practice. I really struggle with sight singing, and my new year's resolution is to do some practice on a daily basis - even if it's just 10 minutes.

Good luck with it.



Amber
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