Product Description

Many voice students are incorrectly taught to sight-sing by memorizing the sounds of intervals. This book is for you if you'd like to be able to look at any melody and instantly know how it sounds. It will show you how to memorize the sound of each scale degree in both major and minor keys, sing chromatic tones, and much more. Packed with tips and tricks, this new book is essential for every vocalist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #289455 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781575605142
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

Sight-Sing Any Melody Instantly??
The title of this book promises to teach you to "Sight-Sing Any Melody Instantly". A more appropriate title would have been: "An Introduction to Sight-Singing".
The author rejects the 'interval method' as "flawed" - he says it "doesn't work". Yes, it is true that this time-honoured method has its limitations, but so has the method ("trick") that the author advocates. In fact the author writes "as you become more proficient in sight-singing, you'll gradually memorize the sounds of the various scale degrees and thus be able to sing pitches automatically; that is, you won't actually have to go through the ordeal of pretending you're going to sing a famous song for every note you see." Towards the end of the book the author concedes that "although in general I strongly oppose the use of intervals in sight-singing ... sometimes they are indeed the best (or only) choice." The author then provides a very brief description of how you can learn intervals and includes an appendix listing and describing them. The author also uses another time-honoured method to learn how to sing at sight - memorising the relationships the various scale degrees have to each other in major and in minor keys, eg memorising what degrees 1, 3, 5 sound like across major keys.
The main shortcoming of the book (a thin book) is that there are not nearly enough practise exercises to be able to "sight-sing any melody instantly". And, the exercises that are provided do not include markings to indicate tempi, dynamics, articulations or phrases (these are all part of singing a melody). Also, the author writes that the "exercises presented here contain no difficult or tricky rhythms ... I wrote all the examples in common keys only ... and in the treble clef only." Finally, the author seems to imply (at least at the start of the book) that you can learn to sing at sight without using an instrument. I would strongly recommend an (inexpensive) electronic keyboard so that you can check the accuracy of the pitches you sing (not necessarily for every note or exercise).
The 'trick' the author describes is one way to begin the journey and it is a useful strategy to sing the first note of an unseen song (when there is no accompaniment or pitch pipe). Personally I found the general approach adopted by other sight singing books to be quicker and easier, ie going straight to learning the relationships the tones have to each other in different keys (the author's second method). To memorise scale degree relationships, to sing challenging rhythms, phrases, staccatos, crescendos etc requires consistent practice with a LOT of carefully graded unseen material. For most of us there is no short cut to acquiring the skill of sight-singing "any melody instantly".

Misleading title but good anyway
Learning by this method does not happen "instantly", at least not for everyone. A lot of practice is necessary before one can become quick at recognizing each key and mapping the memorized seven notes onto a staff. It's taken a couple of weeks to get halfway through the book. My choral director told me there are faster ways of learning. Having said that, I can give the publication high marks because it actually works. I may be slow, but if given enough time I can accurately hit the right notes. At rehearsals my sight reading has improved noticeably and I'm starting to get a feel for other keys besides C major.

Who Knew Sight-Singing Could Be Fun?
Mark Phillips uses good-humored commentary to provide a very natural and easy way to sight-sing. Using his approach, the process becomes second-nature, allowing you to sight-sing any melody regardless of whether you have perfect pitch or not. This method is more effective than anything I ever learned in high school or college music classes and is a lot more fun! And the best part about this book is that there isn't a lot of boring stuff to get through before you actually start singing. It's great!