Sight Reading Jump Start - Group 1

Follow Me Curwen Hand Signs(1) SightReadingJumpStartPlan

Day 1

Welcome!

Using the movable-do solfège system and Kodály principles, we’ll build a strong foundation in sight-reading and explore a practical, repeatable method for developing these skills.

Today’s Goal: Gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals of sight-reading by beginning with two core skills: reading rhythms in 4/4 time and singing pitches in stepwise motion.

Today’s Assignment:
Watch Dr. Joel Clifft’s Sight Reading Course on the tonebase platform.

Download the "Sight Reading Jump Start Plan" PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day One Welcome Video!

Day 2

Expanding Rhythmic Concepts - Working in the subdivision. Today, we take our scale and sing it over an eighth-note pattern.  

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day Two Video

 

Day 3

Going backwards

For some reason, musicians who are just getting started sight reading often have a tough time reading below “do.” Today, you are going to focus in that skill! As always, be sure to count your score first and practice it with the kodály rhythm syllables. NOTE: these exercises do not have an appropriate key signature. The starting pitches are all “do.” Bonus: Write in the appropriate clef and key signature for each exercises and conduct yourself while you sing them. Hint! Watch out for the 3/4!

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day 3 Video

Day 4

Sight Reading Warm Up and Scale Review!

Today we are learning our warmup exercise for sight reading. You’ll sing this every time you come to a new sight reading practice exercise.

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day 4 Video

Day 5

Sight Reading Warm Up and Sing Your First Song!

Practice your scale exercise
Sing your warm up exercise
“Follow Me” (PDF in the Forum)-  count the rhythm first using the KodĂĄly substitute rhythm syllables. Answer the following questions:
What Key is this in?
What is the meter?
Are there any special markings that I need to look up?
What else is the score telling me?

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: "Follow Me Tutorial"

Day 6

Sight Reading Warm Up and Sing Your First Song!

Practice your scale exercise
Sing your warm up exercise
“Follow Me” (PDF in the Forum) - Speak the syllables using the solfège syllables (instead of “ta”). *remember to maintain the internal pulse, counting the beats in your head as you speak the solfège. Bonus: Conduct while you speak the syllables in rhythm. Mark in solfege hints if you need to (not too many!)

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: "Follow Me Tutorial"

Day 7

Sight Reading Warm Up and Sing Your First Song!

Practice your scale exercise
Sing your warm up exercise
“Follow Me” (PDF in the Forum) - Sing the melody on the solfège syllables. Maintain your inner pulse and counting while you sing.

BONUS: Record yourself singing and post it in the forum!
Super BONUS: Record yourself singing and playing!!

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: "Follow Me Tutorial"

Day 8

Singing Skips with Arpeggios and working on 3/4 time

Today, we are working on singing the I chord (do-mi-sol) and integrating skips into our singing.

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day 8 Video 

Day 9

Singing Skips with Arpeggios

Today, we are practicing the do-sol (I-V) interval.

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day 9 Video 

Day 10

Singing Skips with Arpeggios

Today, we are practicing the do-mi (I-iii) interval.

Bonus: record the duet with yourself and post it to the forum!
REMEMBER TO WARM UP USING YOUR WARM UP EXERCISE FROM DAY 4

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Day 10 Video 

Day 11

Reverse engineering

Today, you are going to use your own repertoire to sight read using the system you’ve learned so far. Choose an 8-bar phrase in one of the pieces you already know to reverse engineer.  The phrase should be in a MAJOR key that does not modulate. It should have a clear and discernible melody with mostly stepwise motion.

1. count the rhythm first using the KodĂĄly substitute rhythm syllables. Answer the following questions:
What Key is this in?
What is the meter?
Are there any special markings that I need to look up?
What else is the score telling me?

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Watch: Final Video 

Day 12

Reverse engineering

Using your 8-bar phrase, Sing the melody on Solfege.
Record yourself singing it and post it to the forum.

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Day 13

Reverse engineering

Record Yourself Singing your 8-bar phrase

Post your 8-bar phrase in the forum.

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

Day 14

Assessment

listen back to your recordings from this TWI. Answer the following questions:
Which area of sight reading do I struggle most with (rhythm, pulse, pitch, solfège..)?
What did I learn that was new?
What skill that I already had was reinforced?

Post your observations in the forum!

Follow the course outline PDF for detailed instructions and exercises!

22 replies

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    • Michelle
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Here's my Day 1 video: https://youtu.be/d7Vx_EtzG9Y

    I do find going "backwards" in solfege more challenging if I think about it, but if I just let it be it works fine. Rhythm is an area where I am fairly strong (for a beginner), so I'll continue working in that area as I've been taught  (using TAKADIMI rhythm solfege). I'm looking forward to the rest of the intensive and will try to make videos on most days. Thanks!

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Amazing! Day 1 assignment looks good (glad to see you conducting). I love that you are ahead of schedule here.. Keep up that great work :) 

      • Michelle
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Heidi. I'll have a couple of days where I won't have as much time, so I thought I'd get a head start since I saw it posted on Sunday. 

      Here is Day 2.

      When I first tried the descending eighth notes, even though I sang the correct solfege syllables, I didn't sing the appropriate corresponding pitch! That took a couple of tries to figure out. Here is the scale exercise: https://youtu.be/fXEvngMJrnw

      I tried the four exercises, not yet away from the piano for reference pitches (I inadvertantly played more references than intended). I'll try again tonight and see how conducting and singing on solfege goes. Here is what I did with the exercises: https://youtu.be/VNua_kH6mDI

      I'm finding that thinking and doing all these things at once is causing me to forget about my breath. I expect that will get easier as I go along. Thanks so much!!

      • Raymond_Gornik
      • yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Great work! I'm trying Day 2 tomorrow. I had the same breathe issue on Day 1, concentrating on Solfege and Conducting is difficult. Heidi makes it look so easy. Looking forward to hearing more from you. 

      • Michelle
      • yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Thanks so much! I'm excited to be here. I'm just learning how to breathe for singing (I've had a vocal coach for the past couple of months), so it's easy for me to forget. Heidi does make it look easy! I look forward to hearing what you share here. 

      • Michelle
      • yesterday
      • Reported - view

       And here’s Day 3: TB Voice TWI SRdng Day 3
      https://youtu.be/G7xJT5w6k1Q

      Rather than working on it until it was pretty good, I recorded my second try at singing while conducting. The result was fairly amusing (at least for me). I was confident with the solfège, but adding the conducting scrambled my brain a bit. I’ll practice more later, but it seems that submitting a not-even-close-to-perfect attempt might be informative and could elicit interesting feedback. Thanks so much! 

      • Raymond_Gornik
      • yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Nice! I've not tried moveable do before. I've done a little solfege with C always being do, so my attempt tomorrow should be interesting. Keep up the good work!!!

      • Michelle
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks! My son and I have the same piano teacher. He teaches my son with fixed do solfege (because if he goes to conservatory, that is what is used there), but has me use moveable do. It's funny in lesson because sometimes the teacher will start something in solfege, stop, then say: "Fixed-do, moveable-do" as if to make the switch in his mind. I wish it were that easy!

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      These are great! I'm a big fan of using pitch references OFTEN as you are building your skills. In working on our aural and pitch skills, it's easy for us to fall off the technical track and feel "off our breath". That said, coordinating ALL of these things at once comes with time and practice. You are certainly on the right track! 

    • tonebase_user.19
    • 2 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks - this will certainly help me.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      How is it going??

    • Raymond_Gornik
    • 2 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Day 1 Video https://youtu.be/CwlZbnRujz8

      • Michelle
      • yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Very nice! Sounds great.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Excellent! I love that you're maintaining a confident and consistent sound as you're singing this - that is a testimony to all of that fantastic work you are are doing technically (the technical muscle memory is really solid!).

    • tonebase_user.19
    • yesterday
    • Reported - view

    https://youtube.com/shorts/v5MMGjRxmNY?si=AOvkI5e9uIDJkc5M

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      I love the addition of the "ti" at the end. Consider practicing this with a metronome to keep you honest on that tempo. Always better to go slow and be consistent than have variation in tempo as you move through the exercise. Keep up the great work!

    • Raymond_Gornik
    • yesterday
    • Reported - view

    Day 2 Scale https://youtu.be/Re2BgSEEjS4

     

    Day 2 Exercises https://youtu.be/l3Zy-oOUXtA

    Very difficult to sing conduct and moveable solfege. 

      • Michelle
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Nicely done! I'm impressed at how well you conducted while singing. I'm finding that to be quite the challenge.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      don't feel obligated to sing the exercises in the key provided. You can start on ANY pitch that is comfortable in your range. We are working on relative pitch with moveable "do."  Make the exercises work for you  and your voice ;)

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 5 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      As with any motor skill - coordinating multiple actions at once takes time and consistent practice. Glad to see that you are finding that a challenge. As Lynn Helding notes in "The Musician's Mind,"  - It's in the challenge areas that we find the greatest opportunity to learn 😄

    • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
    • Heidi_Vass
    • 1 hr ago
    • Reported - view

    I noticed you posted a question on the LOOM, so I thought I would post the reply here, as well...
    I will walk you through all of the syllables that you need as we move through the intensive.  You can post links to videos that you upload to YouTube here simply by clicking the "reply" button :)

    • Raymond_Gornik
    • 27 min ago
    • Reported - view

    Day 3 Exercise: https://youtu.be/AJlQYbsbHCo

    I think I need to go slower to get the solfege and conducting happening in time. 

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