[Menvi-discuss] sightsinging Class

[Bettie Downing]

Well said!!



On Oct 23, 2012, at 8:13 PM, Gillespie, Jeffrey wrote:

> Brandon:
> 
> I teach sightsinging. It's really not in your best interest to argue with an instructor.  It's ok to ask for clarification on the goals of the class and such. Just be careful about arguing.  I can understand the teacher's point about preferring to avoid octave transference in the middle of a melody.  If you do much of that, it destroys the contour of the tune. Being able to adapt to transposing tunes to other keys is a good skill to have.  It won't destroy your relative pitch. Truthfully, having relative pitch doesn't really matter.  It's a neat skill to have but it really has no bearing on your work as a performing musician.  
> 
> Jeff Gillespie
> Butler University
> ________________________________________
> From: menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org [menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org] on behalf of Brandon Keith Biggs [brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:52 PM
> To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy
> Subject: [Menvi-discuss] sightsinging Class
> 
> Hello,
> I just had a huge discussion/argument with my sightsinging teacher about the
> goals of a sightsinging class and what should be the objectives reached by
> the students.
> I felt that singing a high F down an octave when I see it in the middle of a
> melody is more acceptable than playing an A when the piece is in C. My
> teacher insisted that the melody had to be unaltered when performed in
> class. I explained to him that there will be very few times when I would be
> encountering an aria that I need to sight sing that is out of my range in
> the real world and as an Opera singer, shattering my developing perfect
> pitch is more detrimental than the point of the class. Especially
> considering I do much more sightsinging out of class than I ever do in
> class. He told me that I had to sing the melody and that was that, he didn't
> care what key.
> 
> My question is, what do people recommend? He gives us the exercises we are
> to perform the week before and then we practice them and bring them in. I
> thought of putting them in lime and transposing them to something I can sing
> easy. They are only like 8-10 measures, so although this will take more
> time, I think it will be better for me.
> Does anyone have any other techniques in dealing with a class like this?
> Thank you,
> 
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> 
> 
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