19 Sight Singing Instructions

Scales

It is a good idea to preface any attempt to sight-sing a melody with a scale or two in the key of that melody. Daily practice of your own instrument should include theory-related fundamentals such as scales. By doing so, you increase your musicianship as well as your technique.

Melodies in Minor Keys

When you sing in minor keys, you can still utilize the general principles of sight singing, such as:

• Locating the tones of the tonic triad (in this case, do, me, and sol) as melodic “signposts”
• Noting important rhythmic details such as
  • beat pattern
  • beat note
  • divisions of the beat

However, a minor key has an additional challenge: the need to pay mindful attention to the sixth and seventh scale degrees. This is because there is more than one type of minor scale.

• The natural minor scale, called this because no accidentals are added, has le and te as its sixth and seventh degrees.
• The ascending melodic minor scale, by contrast, raises the sixth and seventh degrees to la and ti, while the descending melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale.
• The harmonic minor scale, so called because it corresponds to the tones of the triadic chords in minor keys, has an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees, le and ti, which many people find hard to sing in tune. Take special care over this interval.

Be aware that some minor-key pieces may contain collections of pitches from more than one of the minor scales. Therefore, check before you begin to see which solfege you will need to assign to the sixth and seventh scale degrees.