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Teaching adults to sight-sing
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John Bertalot
(Book)
Product code: 1450316
ISBN: 978 1 84417 234 4
ISMN: M 57004 321 1
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Here is an excellent new book for helping adults with their sight-singing. Dr Bertalot draws on a liftetime of experience to produce a volume which is both approachable and interesting. There is no 'talking-down' to the reader - indeed much historial material of general interest is included. But the approach is basically straightforward and pratical, going right to the heart of the matter. This friendly book should do much to encourage adult singers - and thus their whole enjoyment of choral singing.” Dr. Harry BrammaFormerly Director of the Royal School of Church Music
"John Bertalot is a great writer who is able to reduce a complex subject to its basic essentials. His book on sight-singing is superbly structured, practical, down to earth and amusing - essential reading for both choirmasters and singers. I highly recommend it: the book is beautifully written, a good read and destined to become a classic." Colin Mawby Formerly Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral
Contents1 What sight-singing is, and is not
2 The essence of teaching sight-singing
3 How to start
4 Pulse
5 Musical notation
6 A short history of notation (i) Before AD 1000
7 A short history of notation (ii) After AD 1000
8 A short history of notation (iii) To the present
9 A short history of notation
(iv) How vocal parts got their names
10 A short history of notation
(v) How clefs were invented
11 A short history of notation
(vi) How accidentals evolved
12 Useful time names
13 Writing simple rhythms
14 Clapping simple rhythms
15 Clapping and counting
16 Putting theory into practice
17 Four-beat notes, bar lines and time signatures
18 Looking at words and music
19 Rests
20 Dotted notes
21 Learning new music by clapping rhythm
22 Looking at the pitch of notes
23 Pitching notes using warm-ups
24 Clapping quavers
25 Warm-ups using quavers
26 Key signatures
27 Intervals: the third
28 Flat keys
29 Intervals: the fourth, fifth, sixth and octave
30 Slurs, tied and dotted crotchets
31 Minim beats
32 Compound time
33 Syncopation
34 Starting off the beat
35 Rehearsal techniques
36 Coda
Warm-up exercises
PROLOGUE
When I took my church choir from Princeton, New Jersey, to sing in Washington National Cathedral a few years ago, I stayed the night with a young attorney whose passion was church music. We spent the whole evening listening to his recordings of English Cathedral choirs; it was delightful.
'Why do you enjoy church music so much?' I asked him.
'When I was a boy I was head chorister of the leading church choir in the United States.' (He told me which choir it was!) 'We rehearsed the finest church music every day and sang many services every week. It was very exciting. Even Leopold Stokowski came to hear us.'
'Are you singing in a choir, now that you are living in Washington?'
'Yes; I joined the local church choir a couple of weeks ago. They were rehearsing the Hallelujah Chorus.' He leaned forward and added, 'Do you know, I found myself singing the treble part an octave lower.'
'Why?' I asked.
'Because I can't read music!'
I was appalled, for he was an intelligent man, an attorney who had had the finest musical upbringing, but his choirmaster must have taught him to sing by rote for he had no idea what the written notes meant.
Many adults, who were brought up in less exalted choirs, suffer from the same musical blindness. They can only sing the notes which are played to them or which their neighbour, who can read music, sings for them. Someone ought to do something about that right now.
I have.
Now it's your turn. Read on.
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