Sight-singing is one of those areas of music that it’s worth learning to do well. But often, people don’t know how to go about it. Some think you’re either born with it or you’re not. Ralph Allwood wants to convince you that that’s not the case!
To be good at sight-singing means we can take part in singing more complex music with our choir. Over the years, Ralph has found that we all want to be better at sight-singing. We all want be involved in these more exciting pieces of music. So he wrote ‘The Novello Guide to Sight-Singing’ along with Timothy Teague. It’s this book that will form the basis of our new ‘Sight-Singing Series’, breaking down sight-singing into 8 stages, from the very beginning of learning notation to advanced sight-singing of awkward intervals in a variety of choral pieces.
It is a very helpful course, and it goes at just the right pace. I have noticed an improvement in my sight singing.
All stages of the book are now available as part of the series.
I have really enjoyed the way in which the lessons have been delivered as I have been able to work at my own pace and watch each lesson multiple times
Stage 1 – Notation - from the very beginning, note names and lengths, ledger lines, and rests.
Stage 2 – Rhythms on one note - building confidence with sight-reading rhythms without worrying about pitch!
Stage 3 – Neighbouring Notes: moving by step - The importance of scales, recognising key signatures and looking out for accidentals.
Stage 4 – Leaps of a third - Learning a strategy for pitching reliable thirds, finding patterns and remembering the key note to help you
Stage 5 - Leaps of a fourth and fifth - continuing on from the interval practice in stage 4, with the introduction of perfect fourths and fifths
Stage 6 - Leaps of a sixth, seventh and octave - building on the knowledge learnt so far to incorporate bigger leaps into sight-singing
Stage 7 - Chromaticism, tritones and other awkward leaps - introducing the chromatic scale, improving your ability to notice notes that are outside of the key signature
Stage 8 - Additional case studies - using a combination of the skills you have learnt using examples you might meet in your choir
The videos are fantastic! I've always been a nervous sight singer but being able to go over the videos again really helped when I was stuck. The different stages meant that I could focus on one area and therefore didn't feel overwhelmed.
The full cost of the course is £15, but those in full time education can take part for free. We recommend you have a copy of ‘The Novello Guide to Sight-Singing’ - so, courtesy of Musicroom, we are offering a 10% discount on the book if you do need to buy one. We’ll send you the discount code once you’ve registered.
Each stage is a separate, pre-recorded film and you will be given access to all eight films when you register.
To register, please click here. If you are in full time education, you will need to upload a picture of your current student card.
If you’ve any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
