Sight Singing Guide
Sight singing is the practice of singing through a piece of music before you play it. It can be helpful to quickly sing through music before you play it and to understand the structure.
Many college theory classes will include sight singing as part of their curriculum. Sight singing is a skill that can be practiced just like any other and PractiecSightReading.com can help!
You will need the deluxe features to practice sight singing.
Playback Settings
To start practicing, navigate to the Playback Settings and use the following parameters:
- Set a slow Tempo, in this case, I choose 60.
- Set the Largest Interval to +1/-1
- Turn Starting Pitch On so a starting pitch will be played to start you in the right place.
- Set a small Range of notes to practice.
Custom Level
Next, go to the Custom Level page and select quarter notes under the Duple tab. Melodies that are created will only use quarter notes. You can also choose half notes if you want longer pitches, or change the tempo in the Listening Settings.
Now Practice!
Here is an example of a melody that can be sight sung:
The starting pitch will play before the metronome clicks in which gives you the first note. Sing along with the audio to the pitches, or sing the melody first and then use the audio file to test yourself.
Challenging yourself
To increase the difficulty, start by increasing the Largest Interval in the Playback Settings. This setting increases the gap between the notes.
Here is an example of +2/-2:
Other ways to increase the difficulty:
- Increase the tempo
- Use different key signatures
- Add in different rhythms - start small with eighth notes and add from there.
- Sing in harmony with the melody
Photo by David Beale