the wonders of sightsinging

[Tash]

ok if you're like me then the concept of sightsinging (or any singing for that matter) is ridiculous and should be banned for non-singers like myself. however i am forced to do this in aural at uni for the next 1 1/2yrs and have never done it before.
so apart from just randomly picking a melody to attempt to sing and practicing, are there any tips anyone has to make this ghastly process easier?

[DarkWind]

Go back in time and make yourself acquire perfect pitch. Anyways, I thought this was a piano forum? But, that aside, there is this program that claims to give you perfect pitch, but I don't know if it works. Or, you can also try digging up every single singing piece ever written and practice them so you'll be ready. :p Sorry I'm not of much help.

[squinchy]

Sight singing...is that singing a line without seeing it first, like sightreading, or is it completely different? Or does it involve picking out a 'part' of a harmony?

I guess if it's like sightreading, you can try familiarizing yourself with different intervals, particularly P4ths and P5ths. There are many drills that I had to do in elementary school choir that would probably help-One was singing an octave of broken triads, and the other was singing an octave of broken intervals.

Triads:
[Piano plays C chord] C-E-G-E-C (hold)
[Piano plays C# chord] C#-E#-G#-E#-C# (hold)

This would continue until we reached the C an octave above, and then we'd come down in minors. I suppose you could do augmented and diminished too, but we always ran out of time in choir.

Intervals:
[Piano plays C] C-C-Perfect-First [all on C]
[Piano plays C and C#] C-C#-Mi-nor [on C]-Se-cond [on C#]
[Piano plays C and D] C-D-Ma-jor [on C]-Se-cond [on D]
[Piano plays C and Eb, C and E, C and F, etc.]

Or you could just memorize the wedding march-that has plenty of useful intervals.

Hope I was somewhat helpful and not too mis-informational,
Squinchy

[Tash]

lol provation that pianists and sightsinging do not mix! yeah it's just like sightreading but instead of playing it you have to sing it which is crappy cos i despise singing. yeah practicing my intervals could help cos i suck at them. oh but now i own this wonderful 325 page book of lots of different sightsinging melodies! it's o so wonderful i can sightsing to my heart's content (or however much i'm forced to cos i have to learn them for class...)

[Lacrimosa]

I used to be scared to death of sight-singing exams: I simply didn't understand how anyone without perfect  pitch could 'guess' what the next note would sound like. With time I discovered my own little secret; I' don't know if it'll work for you, but now I'm always the best in my class and I ace all my exams.

First, you have to be able to identify interval skips. There is a trick to this, too: treat the first note of any interval as the tonic, and then see if the second note is part of that tonic’s unaltered major scale; if it is, then the interval is major or perfect. For example, let’s say we’re in any key, and the skip upward form E-G# comes up; what is it, a major third, or a minor third? Treat the first note of the interval (E) as the tonic, and think: Is G# within the major scale of E major? Yes; therefore it is a major third. Had the interval been a skip upward from E-G natural, the answer would have been no, G is not within the E major scale; therefore it is a minor third. It doesn’t matter what key signature you are in, always treat the first note of the interval as the tonic.

Once you've got this interval thing clear, the rest is just a real cheap trick that's gonna make you laugh, but it works! Think musically: a major third upwards from any note mirrors the first two notes in the left hand of Bach's 1st C major prelude to the Well Tempered Clavier. Whenever I’m confronted with a major fourth upward, I think of the opening upbeat to Chopin’s Nocturne op 15 no. 1; a major sixth upward is the upbeat to Chopin’s Nocturne Op 9 No 2. It’s best to use only the opening of a melody that you know real well, and it’s easier if it is from a tonal composition (avoid Debussy or Schoenberg, for example).

Now you're probably thinking: how can I think of two different melodies in my head at the same time, the one I’m sight-singing and the one I’m using as interval reference? Trust me, it’s not that hard at all (unless I'm some kind of a wiz, which I seriously doubt). After a while the intervals come to you quite naturally, and this method will greatly enhance your key transposition skills. Practice half an hour every day. I mastered this method in about 4 months. I learned with a book called ‘Ear Training and Sight Singing’ by Maurice Lieberman, which gives you thousands of little melodies to practice with; but sometimes I just play any note on the piano, and try to sing any given interval above or below; that helps also.  

[Tash]

hey thanks lacrimosa! yeah i need to start thinking of the intervals individually, i tend to get caught up just guessing which i probably half my problem. yeah we did the whole find a piece starting with each interval, didn't get one for a major 7th though...i think just one i start to think of the several components at a time i should be right. damn the do re mi's though i keep getting them muddled and start singing ma's and de's (stupid solfage i do not like it)!thanks heaps

[monk]

Hi tash,

the first and most important thing for you to do is:

Get away from rejecting sight-singing! If you dislike a subject, you will have difficulties learning it, regardless of what it is!

Don't try to "think positive" like saying to yourself "Yeah, sight-singing is really great fun" or so. That's ridiculous bullsh*t. Instead just accept sight-singing as a fact in your life; and see clearly the big advantages sight-singing brings.

Very important for sight-singing is to know the tonal relationships. You have to know the key of the piece - i.e. what the tonic is.

Example: You have an F followed by an A. In the key of C that is: You go from the fourth to the sixth. But in the key of F it is: You go from the tonic note to the third. It's obvious that the same sequence of notes FEELS different if the key is different. So tones and intervals must not handled "abstract" but always in relation to a tonal center.

That is the point behind solfege. Learn solfege. Unfortunately in Germany it isn't common in the music universities to teach solfege - I don't know why.

Best Wishes,
Monk

[Tash]

oh don't worry my attitude towards sightsinging is changing cos i'm determined to cane it- was practicing it today and it seemed to go ok. would you call it cheating to sing one interval and then play that note on the piano just to see if i got it right?