Solfege chromatic
Trying to establish a single, universal sight-singing system is unrealistic and contrary to the pedagogical freedoms that music educators expect. Teachers who find this process frustrating and time-consuming may stop using a sight-singing system altogether rather than look for alternatives that are simple to introduce and easy to apply at any grade. Not only do new students need to be taught a new sight-singing system, but they also must be brought up to speed. Transitory students make teaching especially challenging for music teachers.
Educators teaching at different grade levels within the same school district may also use different systems, increasing the variety of approaches that students must learn. (7) Students who move from school to school may be introduced to various sight-singing approaches, if any at all. In recent years, though, our society has become highly transient. Unless restricted by district curriculum decisions, music educators in the United States usually implement sight-singing systems (e.g., non-chromatic fixed solfege, chromatic fixed solfege, do-minor movable solfege, (5) la-minor movable solfege, (6) letters, or numbers) that best suit their teaching style. While students may use nontraditional notations in the fundamental phases of development, they should be introduced to standard notation soon after. (2)Īlthough experiencing music without written notation is important at first (3)-like learning to speak before learning to read-teachers ought to provide opportunities for students to make connections between sound and sight early in their development. They should possess an important skill that helps them become independent adult musicians: the ability to decipher and interpret musical notation. However, unless "Reading and Notating Music'-Content Standard 5-are introduced to students at an early stage, emphasized weekly and maintained through drill and practice, mastery of other music content standards (1) will be limited and possibly ineffective.īetty Atterbury and Carol Richardson stress the importance of children developing music reading skills at the elementary level: Children should not leave sixth or sixth grade musically illiterate! Your students should not be restricted for the rest of their lives to learning any music they want to sing or play via the rote approach. Teachers must make tough decisions about content material, prioritizing how and when certain standards will be addressed. In public school music programs, music educators, often working with a great number of students, have little time for adequate preparation and instruction, especially with upcoming performances, musicals, festivals, and contests.
Does it sound improbable? Now think of a place where students are taught to sing songs from rote and listen to music but are not taught the basic skills of reading and notating music. Imagine an English classroom in which students are taught to speak and listen to the language but are not taught to read or write.