Vocal knowledge
Jan. 29th, 2008 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4Okay, this is a bit of a left-field question, but you lot are a fairly eclectic bunch, so some of you may be able to help...
If you wanted to teach someone to sing, how would you go about it?
No, I'm not entirely sure what I mean by "teach someone to sing", which is part of the problem... IME most people can sing (and when they say "I can't sing" what they usually mean is "someone told me when I was a child that I couldn't sing"); what they can't necessarily do is stay in tune (with others, or even with themselves). So let's say you want to get somebody to the point where they're able to do that well enough that they can join in confidently with 'community singing' (weddings, carol services, etc.), and eventually do simple part-singing. Where do you start? Am I asking the wrong questions?
Reading music is sort of orthogonal (and the sort of people I'm thinking of could probably teach themselves that fairly easily anyway, because they're bookish kind of people).
If you wanted to teach someone to sing, how would you go about it?
No, I'm not entirely sure what I mean by "teach someone to sing", which is part of the problem... IME most people can sing (and when they say "I can't sing" what they usually mean is "someone told me when I was a child that I couldn't sing"); what they can't necessarily do is stay in tune (with others, or even with themselves). So let's say you want to get somebody to the point where they're able to do that well enough that they can join in confidently with 'community singing' (weddings, carol services, etc.), and eventually do simple part-singing. Where do you start? Am I asking the wrong questions?
Reading music is sort of orthogonal (and the sort of people I'm thinking of could probably teach themselves that fairly easily anyway, because they're bookish kind of people).
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Date: 2008-01-29 03:28 pm (UTC)Working with tunes that it's likely they already recognise the sounds of - nursery rhymes and so on - also helps. It can seem a bit juvenile but it is useful.
Some people find that the Kodaly handsigns help a lot, too; at least one of my voice students (okay, I only have two at the moment) can match pitch if he's doing the handsigns but has great difficulty doing it without. He's a kinaesthetic learner. We'll gradually get to the point where he doesn't need the handsigns but in the meantime they're a very good thing.
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Date: 2008-01-29 05:28 pm (UTC)but good reminder, yes, if the friend is a kinaesthetic learner.
you a kodaly teacher? Where? (she said hopefully)
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Date: 2008-01-29 06:18 pm (UTC)I'm not specifically a Kodaly teacher at the moment but it's something I will be looking into after I finish my BMus. I grew up in Canada, where there's a fair amount of Kodaly in school music lessons, and I also had to take a Kodaly class for my first two years at Trinity (http://www.tcm.ac.uk). At the moment I have piano students and a couple of voice students. I've not integrated any Kodaly into my piano teaching but I do use it with voice students because it makes so much sense.
I'm in London, at least until I finish my degree (so another year and a half), and possibly for some time after that too.