(This post originally appeared in my old blog about choir and singing. Enjoy!)
How do you sight read music in a choir or ensemble when you don’t know how to read music? There are actually a lot of ways you can train yourself to sight read without actually learning how to read music. Here are 5 tricks for sight reading when you don’t read music.
I’ll start off by saying that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with NOT reading music and learning by ear Some of the best musicians and singers I’ve ever known learned and played completely by ear and never learned to read music. I was fortunate to take music lessons from an early age but that just means I have a few more resources when I have to sight read my music.
People in choirs come from all different backgrounds and there’s no reason to be intimidated because you may not have had a lot of music lessons. Most people who don’t read music record their parts and take them home to practice. That’s an excellent way to learn.
Sheet music can be overwhelming sometimes, I get it. Perhaps you’ve found yourself in the situation where you’re given a piece to sing in rehearsal – maybe you’re at your community choir practice or a local community theatre company practice. You get your music and it looks like a big jumble, kind of like this:
It looks like a secret code that can only be decoded with super powers, right?
Fear not. Take a breath. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- The little black dots on the page can give you a general idea of where the melody is going. The composer is not trying to trick you 🙂 Most of the music you will encounter will be tonal – meaning that it sounds like something a regular person can sing. Choir music especially is written with the singer in mind and the composer wanted to make it as enjoyable to sing as possible. Think about your favourite song or favourite choir piece, the melody is fun to sing and its easy for it to get stuck in your head. Atonal music, on the other hand, can be a little difficult to get stuck in your head. So remember: if the little black dots on the page are going up then the melody goes up, if the little black dots on the page go down the melody goes down. It may seem really obvious but in the panic of sight reading it can be helpful to remember this.
- Listen for the notes from the piano. In most choirs, you’ll hear your first note on the piano. Sometimes the pianist will play the first line or phrase as well. Do you remember that song “Do, a deer, a female deer…” from the Sound of Music? That song was all about the degrees of the major scale: do re mi fa so la ti (and do). When starting off a new piece you will always (99.99%) of the time be siging do mi or so depending on your vocal part. Sopranos and tenors will have do for example and altos and basses will have the mi or so. And for the most part, choir music will end on the same do mi and so you started on. So if you feel panicked and are thinking “Oh geez, what’s my starting note!?” just think of do mi and so. Even better, if you want extra keener points, write the solfege right in your score. If you start on mi, write “mi” in pencil above your note.
- Look at the time signature: the thing at the beginning of the music that looks like a fraction:
The top number tells you how many beat per bar, and the bottom number tells you what kind of beats. In the first example there are 4 quarter notes per bar. The second example indicates that there are two half notes per bar. In the last example, the time signature indicates 6 eighth notes per bar. If this is all too much to remember just try to listen for the feel of the music: does the piece have a waltzy feel to it or a square feel? What I mean is does the piece have a three beat or a two beat? Listen to the melody on the piano and notice whether the music is in a waltzy 1-2-3, 1-2-3 pattern or in a more square 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 pattern.
4. Use a pencil. Some music is really hard to follow and the lines seem to jump all over the place. Don’t be afraid to mark the beginning of each line in pencil so your eyes know where to follow. This can help you with getting lost. You can also use your pencil to follow along on the page. You can actually move your pencil along the page in time to the music like one of those bouncy balls on the screen at a sing-along.
5. Listen for patterns. Think of a nursery rhyme or hymn: there are parts of the music that repeat right? Try to listen for repeating blocks of music. If you see that one of your phrases repeats later on in the music, mark it with your pencil. Also, if you hear another section singing a part that is very similar to yours, try to sing along (silently) in your head. This can help with learning the your part later on.
I hope this helps a bit! Good luck with your sight reading!