Is it easier to teach minor intervals within a scale? It seems to make sense to me, that if you begin singing sol- me, and recognise that as a minor third, it will be easier to recognise and reproduce, me-fa or ti-do =m2, me-do' = m6, re-do' =m7.
Your comments, or suggestions please?
Hi Diana.
Do you remember the beginning of Kodaly's sight singing steps?
Sing the Minor third la-do(for example) with numbers. This step create a memory of the sound that can be worked in other keys. How much more you training, best results you achieve. After that you can try to sing using the names.
Good luck.
Acácio
Along with Acácio's comment, I would be sure to teach the students the music theory that underlies the minor intervals. I'm someone who has always found that the mathematical connections in music make singing easier to do.
A minor key has a clear relation to a particular major key. This point is related that offered by MacGregor. Minor intervals make more sense in the context of the theory of scales. So, I recommend against focusing on a minor interval and instead the way minor keys are related to major ones. This leads me to point out that the key signatures will change in systematic ways. So, perhaps you want to wait to introduce minor keys after a couple of major keys -- the latter will require learning about sharps and flats.
There are simple theory books that you could use for yourself.
rg
Thanks for taking time to answer. I agree that the underlying theory is important for sight singing. I find however, that student get stuck when trying to learn the minor keys - it seems to really throw them off for some reason. As for myself, for the natural minor, I simply sing the major tonic, then mentally re-focus on the relative minor as the new tonic.
Does anyone know of any research on sight singing?
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