how to pass sight singing and dictation

i think i almost gave this speech word for word last week in my both my musicianship classes. here is a few excerpts (with comments) from johnathan filbert's blog, sound on. i'm sure many of you probably haven't encountered edwin gordon's rhythmic solfege system (du-de's). i use it to introduce rhythm to younger students.

the biggest point that always needs to be emphasized is to improve sight-singing and dictation skills (i.e. musicianship) you need to primarily sing or play. the idea of passively sitting and responding by (either selecting writing the correct answers or pressing the right button) doesn't improve anything. this is the main reason why students who do not have good 'ears' to begin with improve so slowly. practice at home should focus on performance. lets say you are doing interval drills at a computer. sing or play them back first. you need first make that hand-to-ear/mouth-to-ear connection between the physical action of making a sound and the mental processing of the interval/melodic/harmonic pattern.

you hear the sound
you make the sound (imitate)
your brain processes the sound
you associate the sound with a symbol

eventually you should be able to skip the middle steps, but you need thousands of repetitions to create the connection between the sound and the symbol. i have never seen students who do not have those conncection ever improve enough to be considered 'fluent'. just my observations, obviously this is where i'm heading with my research....

How To Pass Sight-Singing And Dictation

If you so desire, can you hear music when there is no sound physically present? If so, you are audiating, and you are well on your way to passing this class. If not, you should listen to as much music as possible (especially folk music, and repetition is good), learn to sing the melody, listen carefully to the bassline and learn to sing that too, and see if you can sing the song silently to yourself in your head without actually singing out loud. Then follow these instructions:

Get To Class

Being in class is more musical exposure time for your brain, not to mention the advice, instruction, and good will of your professor. So get up and get there, no matter what (unless you are very ill).

Solfege

You are probably be using a system of verbal association to help your brain organize a large number of tonal and rhythmic patterns. For tonal syllables, if your professor uses moveable do with a la based minor, they are very smart. More commonly, they will use moveable do with a do based minor, meaning you must alter the syllables in order to sing in different tonalities with “do” always as the resting tone. With this system, you cannot, for example, determine what tonality you are in by determining the correct solfege for the resting tone, since it will always be “do.” You will also be doing quite a bit of mental gymnastics as in tonalities like Phrygian and Locrian. But even if your professor isn’t using the best system, they are probably just old and set in their ways, and still have a lot to offer you in terms of musical instruction, so for now, use the system they want, and when you become a music teacher, use moveable do with a lot based minor.

Likewise, for rhythm, your professor will probably have you use the 1e&a system. The system that can help you the most is known as “du de,” because the syllables are based on beat function, not notation. There is at least one other beat-function rhythm solfege out there, but just use whatever your professor wants for now. Some kind of verbal association is better than none at all.

To get a better grasp on solfege, use it all the time. Solfege everything you hear – a little motif from a popular melody, your applied instrumental/vocal assignments – everything. This will carry you a long way towards mastery.

Rehearsing Sight-Singing Assignments

Each week you will probably be given a series of melodies and rhythms to later perform accurately for your professor or their grad student. It seems silly, like you are almost memorizing a bunch of music – but the goal is not memorization per say, but rather to commit the tonal and rhythm patterns you perform to memory where they can serve you. Then hopefully you learn to hear what you see, even when the sound is not physically present.

On the day you are given the assignment, go and try to sing through all of the lines. Sit at a piano and check your accuracy if you must. Pencil in the occasional syllable if you are just learning solfege. Do not leave until you have accurately performed each line at least once. It may take several hours, but your time will be well spent, and your total average daily time will be much lower if you solidify your performance now. Get into a good habit by doing this with the very first assignment, even if it seems pathetically simple.

The next day, again sit down and make sure you can accurately perform each assignment at least once. It will only take you maybe 25% of the time it took the first day.

The next day, do the same thing again: perform each line with 100% accuracy. Time spent now is a very small fraction of the time you spent on the first day.

The next day, do the same thing. Keep going through the assignment and performing each one with 100% accuracy, if only once per day. By now you will get to the point where you do it perfectly the first time. Keep practicing every day, even if all you do is reinforce perfection, until you actually perform for a grade. You will get better and better at the examples, with less time. They will become so easy as to make you sick of them. They will haunt you in your sleep.

Harmonic Dictation

When you must do harmonic dictation, listen for the melody first, then the bass line, and then any inner lines. Use logic to narrow down your choices of inner voices, and use your audiation instrument (your brain!) to confirm which tones you are actually hearing. Sometimes it really helps to write chord symbols (I IV V I) across the top, and then work from there. Use slash notation – don’t bother filling in circles for note heads; just draw a diagonal slash.

Rhythmic Dictation

Again, use slash notation. Sometimes it helps to quickly jot down tick marks across the top, and then go through and fill in the rhythms with the proper beaming.

Stick With It

I have seen people take this same class year after year. Keep plugging away and sticking with it. Get help from your professors. Practice with your friends. Keep singing along melodies and basslines to your favorite tunes, and solfeging your large ensemble music. You will get it and your musicianship will benefit!

There’s No Such Thing As Sight-Singing

In reality, there is no such thing as Sight-Singing. You can either read music, or you can’t. If you are truly learning to read music for the first time, this is a formidable challenge. But practice for a perfect performance daily, and you will find this class to be a very satisfying accomplishment. You might also enjoy How To Be Ridiculously Successful In College. Good luck, and happy reading and writing!