Reading Rhythms Part 2: Introducing Notes

Once it is comfortable to clap the patterns in the previous post, we get to match them with notes!

(The following correspond with the most common meters, also called simple meters:  2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, which we will explain and explore in a later lesson!)

Downloadable worksheet to practice matching notes with number of beats:
(I recommend that students fill in notes as illustrated above and then write the name of the note below as well)
Reading Rhythms Worksheet 1 PDF

Reading Rhythms Part 1

One of the things that is daunting about reading music is the language of rhythm.  And this is understandable!  Rhythm is difficult to learn because time is an abstract concept.

BUT we are already used to it!

One hour is a space of time that even the youngest people can relate to.  We understand that we have to move through it, and that it is constant (even though sometimes it doesn't feel so!)

An hour is a space of time.
a "beat" or a "count" is a space of time.

We are also used to stringing spaces of time together:

 Exercise one in practicing musical time is to clap through these "circles of time," choosing a constant space of time for each circle.  (A metronome is very helpful and free ones can be downloaded on most devices!)
I use a "clap-slide" method which later translates into held notes:
example, 4 beats would look like this:  "clap-slide-slide-slide"

Warming-Up to Perform During "Sick Season"

You know that gorgeous feeling when you sing and everything is working?  You are physically healthy, emotionally stable, got plenty of sleep the whole week before, the air quality is good, the humidity is perfect, and every note just feels like Heaven!

It is the best feeling ever! 

I have been performing for 37 years, since I played Gretel in The Sound of Music at age five.  I can count the performances where I had that "everything is perfect" condition on my fingers.  They are so rare that each one still sticks in my mind.

Imagine:  If you are performing in theater, performances occur at the end of a long and exhausting rehearsal process.  Travel or stress may interfere with the perfect night's sleep.  Where I live and teach, the days when the air quality is good are few and far between.  And colds and allergies certainly don't respect our performance schedule!

So what if you *have* to perform under less than perfect conditions?  Since this question is coming up among my students often lately, I thought I'd post my long performance warm up that can generally get a voice from "gunky" to "ready" in the course of 45 minutes to an hour. Back to sight-singing in a couple of days. :)

IMPORTANT!  There are conditions that can't be warmed up out of.  There is a difference between allergy/cold gunk interfering with production or a tired voice needing an extra TLC warm-up and serious conditions where swelling creates potential for long term damage.  Know your voice, be careful, and see a vocal coach or an otolaryngologist if you are unsure.  If it hurts to sing, STOP.  If you start a slow warm up and don't hear/feel gradual but steady improvement, STOP.

1)   Before beginning, drink plenty of water and have a good stretch.  Continue to drink and stretch during the entire process. 

2) Long up and down quiet "sirens" on an "ng" hum.  (Like the end of "sing")  Depending on how bad the day is, there may be big gaps in these sirens.  Don't push, just let the gaps happen.  Eventually the gaps will lessen and disappear.  Be patient, don't succumb to the temptation to do it louder to get through the gaps.  Easy, relaxed.  This bit of the process can take a long time, even up to 15 minutes.  

3) Once all the gaps are gone, start a mid-range descending five note scale on one "Ya."  (Sol fa mi re do)  This is not "good vocal production."  Don't try to have good pressurized breath or sing very forward.  It is quiet and easy, moving air through your vocal folds.  Move down through your comfortable range and back to mids.

4) Now do a long top-down siren (on "ah" for men and "oo" for women and trebles).  There will probably be some small gaps or "rough patches."  In the range of these rough patches or gaps, do a three-note ascending and descending scale on a "lip trill."  (do-re-mi-re-do) A lip trill is the sound that people often make when imitating a horse snort, if you are unfamiliar!  If you cannot achieve the three note scale on a lip trill, use a voice "th" as a substitute. (And then plan to put some effort into your breath connection! This is a tattle-tale exercise!) Move the three note scale around in the ranges that were rough until they are clear, and then repeat the process!  If there is a lot of mucus, it will move around and create new rough places as it loosens and relocates!  Nasty!  What were you thinking choosing your body as your instrument???

5) Now you can do your regular warm-up! 
I recommend focusing on exercises that bring your voice into forward placement.
Some examples here:
Female Warm-Up  
Brief Tenor Warm-Up
Kid Warm Up


During your performance, remember three things-- It is tempting to try to compensate by pushing -- fight that temptation!  Second, sing more forward than usual.  Third, don't be a "breath hero" -- a voice under pressure requires more air for production -- plan ahead to breathe more often. 

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments! 

"Singers" vs. "Musicians" -- i.e. Why is Music Literacy Important for Singers?

If you have ever set foot in a music school or concert hall or a theater you have heard many jokes on the same theme... are you a singer or a musician?

While I often deeply resent the assumption that singers are not legitimate musicians, I have to admit that it can be a deserved criticism.  I have even avoided it myself by claiming my role as a conductor or theorist before that of a singer in order to establish my own skills as a musician.

The fact is, not only is sight-singing more difficult than playing most instruments, with the necessary pre-requisite of "hearing it in your head" more often a skill of conductors and composers, but it is easier to learn music "by ear" as a singer than it is with any other instrument.  This is a deadly combination when it comes to the discipline of learning music literacy as a singer.

However, in 2014, music literacy and especially sight-singing have become a competitive point.  In a business over-saturated with singers that are talented and technically skilled, people rise to the top of their competition in two major ways:  excellent acting skills that transcend the music, and music literacy and the ability to sight-sing.  I know several casting directors that focus on this second point because there is no longer the budget to pay a music director to teach music.  Of course a singer can pay a vocal coach or accompanist to teach them parts but that is not a guarantee -- casting directors and music directors want to see "sight singing/reading music" under a resume's special skills section, and if it is not followed up with absolute skills the singer will not be hired again and could quite possibly be replaced.

So, vocal coaches, if you have never taught sight-singing as part of your studio's culture, how to begin?  Singers that have always learned by ear, how do you turn the tide and become a master of your chosen craft?

I use a very incremental approach that first establishes rhythmic literacy, then note-reading and interval work on a major scale before learning other scales and steps on the already known "ladders" of intervals.  In the next several weeks, I will detail how sight-reading is part of the culture of my studio and my step-by-step sight-reading course.

Step one -- decide that it is important!  Make a decision to put in the work.  Remember that the rewards of not depending on another person to teach you or your students songs are great! 

Next week... A new way of looking at rhythms... clocks and circles of time... first worksheet pages!

Vimeo:  Beginning group voice class sight reading on numbers: https://vimeo.com/89637357