Teaching Sight-Singing: Finding Your Way


As a young middle school choral


educator, I struggled to find an effective way to teach my students to sight-sing. Much like when one learns to read words at a very early age, in my personal experience (thanks to the piano and theory lessons paid for by my mother), I only remember knowing how to read music, not how I learned. When I started teaching choral music, I struggled with making the connection between knowing how to sight- sing and knowing how to teach sight-singing.


I


searched for something (anything!) that would work. I observed successful peers, asked them questions, and tried to incorporate their suggestions into my thinking and teaching. Still, I felt lost and ultimately, even though I was trying my best, I felt like a failure because I knew I was failing my students. Based on conversations with teachers in conference sessions, I can only speculate that some feel the same way I did.


Searching for a Solution Recently I searched “sight-singing”


on Google and received approximately 4,460,000 results in less than a second (actually about 0.37 seconds). Google tries to help its users by ranking the results in order of what its algorithms view as useful. However, search engines results are based on specific words on the webpage, search engine optimization keywords, and many other elements (Fishkin & Moz Staff, 2015) and ultimately we cannot be sure what Google deems is valuable is what we will find valuable. When I searched “sight-singing” on


several music merchants’ websites (J.W. Pepper, Pender’s Music Co., Stanton’s Sheet Music, Sheet Music Plus, Amazon: Sheet Music and Scores), I received significantly less results, ranging from 59 to 289. For example, J.W. Pepper’s website (2016) returned 115 results, with 72 in the “choral” category. Some items in the list were no longer available or no longer in print. Some dated back to the 1930s while others were as recent as 2015. There were familiar and unfamiliar authors, composers, and arrangers. This was typical for all of the companies I searched. In a brief review of ACDA national


and regional conferences as well as state music educator conference sessions, usually there is at least one 50-60 minute sight-singing session in each conference. As one who provides sight-singing sessions, I am almost certain, though I try to give as much valid information


ala breve


as possible, a 50-60 minute session provides motivation and potentially helpful activities, but not necessarily much depth in how to teach sight-singing.


Sifting through several pages out of 4+ million different “sight-singing” websites to see if they are helpful is not realistic. Purchasing numerous sight-singing books for review takes money and time with no guarantee of usefulness.


Attending a 2-3


conference sessions on sight-singing each year certainly will help in some ways, but may not provide what is needed to learn how to teach sight-singing.


If we are going to spend


valuable time discovering how to teach sight- singing, perhaps we can use it more effectively.


An Old-New Idea The summer after my first year


teaching middle school chorus, when I felt like a complete failure, I asked for help from one of my mentors, Dr. Rosemary Watkins. In her intuitive way, she suggested I read (or re-read) learning theory and music teaching approaches, and create a sight-singing task analysis. My first reaction was, “Great, I need help and you’re asking me to do an academic exercise.” I wanted a quick (or quicker) fix. Though I was reluctant, I put my mind to it. As I read the books and articles she


loaned me, Ausubel, Vygotsky, Skinner, Bruner, Kodály, Dalcroze, Gordon, Madsen, and others came to life (perhaps for the first time). Several trends emerged from my reading that helped me think more constructively about teaching sight-singing. First, each subject area (including music) is constructed of many smaller concepts and skills that must be taught in a carefully sequenced order (Bruner, 1977; Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012). In addition, concepts and skills (such as melody and rhythm) should be taught individually before they can be combined (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012; Jacques-Dalcroze & Sadler, 1913). Second, internal hearing, or audiation, which is the ability to comprehend and construct familiar and unfamiliar musical sounds and silences, is the foundation of and the ultimate goal of musicianship (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012). Finally, though some advocate for using solfège with fixed do (where do always equals C), others agree that solfège with moveable do (where do changes with the key) is a highly effective tool for pitch/tonal training and allows students to sing in multiple tonalities


Jane M. Kuehne, Ph.D.


without making large adjustments (Choksy, 1981; Gordon, 2012). All of these considerations affected my thoughts on how to teach sight-singing.


As I read, I also worked on my task


analysis, breaking down skills needed to sight- sing music and listing them line-by-line from most basic to most complex. When I met with Dr. Watkins again, I presented her with 11 legal-sized handwritten pages. After she read my work, she suggested I create materials to teach and assess each step (or group of steps) in my task analysis. With so much time already invested in this process, I was motivated to continue.


I began creating


materials, first by hand, and then with notation software. By the end of the summer, I completed what amounted to my own personal approach or method for teaching sight-singing. In trying out my “method” with my


students, I realized the time I spent resulted in success for my students, and for me. The realization occurred in two places, first in the sight-singing adjudication room where they earned high marks, and second during my final teaching evaluation that year.


I


remember introducing a new 3-part (SSA) piece for our spring concert when my vice principal came into the room to observe. We went through our standard routine for sight- singing a new piece. The students made very few mistakes. We repeated the process and they made no mistakes. I said to them, “Do you realize what you just did?” Their expressions said they did not. “You just read this brand new piece, and in two tries, you sang all of the pitches and rhythms right!” I was excited (really excited)! When what they realized their accomplishment, you can imagine their excitement too. In looking back to that time, it was one of the most joyous moments I have ever had in teaching.


The Rest of the Story I would love to say synthesizing what I read and creating the task analysis (with materials) was easy, it was not. But, it was time very well spent. I was more comfortable and confident in teaching sight-singing and my students succeeded, not just in the sight- singing contest room, but also in every day practice.


I now extend Dr. Watkins’ challenge


to you. Familiarize (or re-familiarize) yourself with how students learn. There are many


39


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44