I went to church at Christmas, and they didn't give us music with the words for the service. Fine, except when it came to psalms and their responses. The choir would sing and then you'd have to repeat it. I can do that, but I can't remember 6 line long verses when I haven't heard it before!
The same thing happens depending on which choir your in at school. In the Festival choir, they get taught line by line with only words to look at. In chamber choir, which I go to, we get music and we sight sing through it.
What do other people find easier, learning with or without the music? And whether one or the other is a better/worse method? When I started in school, I think I preferred learning by ear, but now that I can sight sing, I prefer having music.
Just random thoughts!

I really prefer having music to look at!!! I'm a visual learner so I'm completely lost when learning a piece without being able to look at it! As it's also very good for learning/improving sight singing, I think that this is the better method (at least for me). Though other people might find that it sticks in their head better if they only hear the meoldy?!

QUOTE

What do other people find easier, learning with or without the music? And whether one or the other is a better/worse method? When I started in school, I think I preferred learning by ear, but now that I can sight sing, I prefer having music.

me too. I find it quite hard if I have to sing something I've never heard before and just try to pick it up as I go along. In fact my harmonic memory seems to be stronger than my melodic memory, so I sometimes find myself singing a harmony note here and there, rather than the correct one in the melody. Guaranteed to get you strange looks!
I'm used to singing with the music, (sometimes with only one rehearsal - eek!) so find that much easier than picking up by ear.

Maggie

I much prefer having the music as I have perfect pitch and can read it straight off. Then after a few times singing it like this I will try and do it without the music.

It is not usual for a congregation to have music editions of the hymn book (cost for one).
Most of the people are likely to be unable to read music anyway.
Regular worshippers most likely know the tunes to congregational items just because they have been often enough to learn them. After a couple of verses most stuff is easy enough to pick up. One way of teaching a congregation a new tune (if you don't have a choir to lead) is to play it over several times as part of the voluntary. With advance warning this can be done over 2 or 3 weeks before using it. It really does work.. people just wonder where they heard the tune before
I think you could also find that choirs who are taught the tune by rote are mostly made up of people who wouldn't be able to get much of a clue from the written music.

Thanks for the replies! Playing it in the voluntary sounds like a good idea, they may have done that but I only go to church occassionally, so wouldn't have heard it if they had! Our teacher made us learn a song by ear a couple of years ago, when the two choirs merged. We asked us for music, but he wouldn't give us it, saying the rest of the people there had learned by ear so we could aswell!