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Shape Note Sight Singing
Have you always wanted to sight sing sheet music, but found it too hard? Don’t worry, shape notes can help. Read more to experience shape note sight singing success.
Last post centered on singing melodies with a specially tuned synth-organ sound. Namely, we focused on harmonic tuning. This week we will look at the same melodies, but from the angle of melodic tuning. At the same time, we will use solfege and shape notes to sight read music. All of the examples have sing-along soundtracks, except for the last example which is a shape note sight singing quiz.
This post uses technical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the article.
Solfege and Sight Singing
Guido of Arezzo and Do-Re-Mi
Solfege sits at the heart of shape note sight singing, but solfege has a longer history than shape notes. The roots of solfege go back to the early 11th century when Guido of Arezzo wrote the hymn, Ut queant laxis. He had his monks learn it by heart to help them with sight singing music they had never heard before.
The first syllable of each phrase began on the next higher note of the mediaeval scale. By memorizing the hymn, the phrases helped the singers remember the notes they needed to sing. Here is the text:
Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum
Solve pollute
Labii reatum Sancte Joannes (64)
In time, Ut was replaced by Do, and Ti or Si was added to the mediaeval hexachord.
Do, Re, Mi by Rogers and Hammerstein is a modern equivalent of Ut queant laxis.
Listen to the song until you have learned the sound of the note relationships that go with the syllables.
Do-Re-Mi Video
Melodic Sound Model Versus Harmonic Sound Model
Mediaeval composers wrote monophonic music. Monophonic means that the chant had only a single melody. Therefore, “Ut queant laxis,” by default, creates a melodic sound model. Solfege is one of our oldest and most enduring music teaching methods.
Solfege will not help the student learn harmonic tuning. (See 10 Elements that Impact Singing in Tune to learn about singing chords in tune). However, solfege is a superb method for teaching sight singing and also for teaching melodic tuning.
Vibrato and sustained note length have an impact on harmonic tuning. However, Paul C. Greene found that vibrato and note length had no impact on melodic tuning.
Also, when working on harmonic tuning, singers should stick with only one vowel. That way they can focus on one tone color as they work on tuning up the chords.
However, with pure melodic tuning, tone color does not factor into tuning up the notes. Therefore, it does not matter if a singer sings more than one vowel in the singing examples.
This means that we can work on melodic tuning and sight singing, using solfege syllables, in the same singing exercises. Also, remember that solfege sits at the heart of shape note sight singing, which we’ll cover in the next section.
The Background Info for Shape Note Sight Singing
A Micro History of Shape Notes
The four-note shape note method has been around for a long time. William Little and William Smith wrote the first method, The Easy Instructor, back in 1798.
The seven-note system came soon after. It first appeared in 1845 with Jesse B. Aikin’s The Christian Minstrel.
Aiken talks about his seven-note shape note sight singing system. “But this work differs from all others in the use of seven figured notes, each of a peculiar shape… The system adopted in this work will be found to have the double advantage of giving to each sound its own name, and to each note or name its own form…
“The round notes teach nothing which is not taught by the use of the seven figured notes. But the figured notes do teach what the round notes do not. The musical ideas are the same, whether the notes be round or figured.
“But as the ideas are expressed unambiguously, and with equal precision, and, withal, may be read with greater facility when written in figured notes, seven characters are used in this work, as best adapted to increase the number of readers of music” (9-10, italics in the original).
Shape Notes as a Multisensory Teaching Aid
Color coding uses colored note heads to help instrumental students discern the notes. Likewise, shapes notes use different shaped note heads to help vocal students know which solfege syllables to use.
Shape notes makes it easier for anyone to sight sing. However, shape note sight singing remains critical for the ADD, ASD, LD, and special needs vocal student’s music learning experience. Because it functions as a multisensory teaching aid.
The Research on Shape Notes
In 1960, George H. Kyme studied shape note sight singing. He found that the shape note groups performed statistically significantly better on the sight singing tasks than the non-shape note groups.
He talks about other benefits of shape notes. “In addition to the measured skill in singing at sight, the experimental groups seem to excel in other ways.
“The students in the experimental sections were the only ones to develop skill in notating their own created melodies. They alone attained a grasp of the harmonic structure in music necessary to create an autoharp accompaniment” (8).
How Shape Note Sight Singing Works
Mobile users: for best results reading the shape note score, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Moveable Do Shape Notes in C Major:
Moveable Do Shape Notes in D Major:
Shapes notes act as a moveable Do system. Namely, Do serves as the tonic (or first note) of any major key.
The first example above shows shape note sight singing in the key of C major. Shape notes differ from standard sheet music by having noteheads with different outlines.
In other words, each note of the major scale has its own shape. Therefore, each solfege syllable also has its own shape:
- Do = upward triangle
- Re = cup shape
- Mi = diamond shape
- Fa = downward triangle
- Sol = oval
- La = rectangle
- Ti (or Si) = shield shape
The second example is in the key of D major. It shows how the shapes remain the same for the solfege syllables even when the notes change.
All the interval relationships remain the same. However, now all the notes sound one step higher.
This is the big advantage of shape notes over standard sheet music. The singer does not need to analyze the music to know which note Do, Re, or Mi stands for. The notation provides this information, because the solfege syllables always get the same shapes.
As you sing along with the sound tracks, say the solfege syllable name written under each note in the music examples.
The song tracks use synthetic voices rather than actual voices. Research has shown that this will help with the ability to identify and produce absolute pitch information. For more information, read Why Use a Synth Voice Instead of Real Voices.
Shape Note Sight Singing Melodies as Melodic Sound Models
Exercise Inspired by the Pole-Vaulting Image:
According to Ron Gorow, musicians need to listen to the interval span when transcribing music. This method also works well when focusing on melodic intonation.
Span is the distance between the notes. An interval of a second is a small interval, the interval of a third is a bigger interval, and so on up to an octave. Gorow uses the image of a pole vaulter.
For example, singers can imagine the intervals getting progressively bigger, like larger and larger hurdles for the pole vaulter to vault over. Sing the pole vaulter inspired exercise above.
Then, sing the melodies from the last post (below). The focus on the parts has shifted from harmonic tuning, which stresses tone color, to melodic tuning. As you sing, pay attention to the melodic distance between the intervals.
Practice these exercises daily until you have mastered them. After you have mastered the sing-along songs, try the shape note sight singing quiz at the end. It does not have a soundtrack, so you have to imagine the sound in your head.
Soprano:
Alto:
Tenor:
Bass:
Shape Note Sight Singing Quiz
Conclusion
Science has statistically proven that students find shape notes easier to read. Therefore, solfege works with the note shapes to help students achieve shape note sight singing success, especially LD, autistic, and other special needs students.
At the same time, solfege functions as a melodic sound model that helps students to hear melodies in tune. Have fun and keep at it!
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
Related Content
- Sight Singing with Solfege
- Shape Note Singing Lesson
- Sight Singing with Rhythmic Syllables
- Singing with the Kodaly Rhythmic Syllables
- Sight Singing Chromatic Shape Notes
- Singing Shape Note Solfege Flats
- Singing Shape Note Solfege Minor Melodies
- Singing Shape Note Harmonic Minor Melodies
- Singing Sixteenth Note Rhythmic Syllables
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in 3-4 Time
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in 2-4 Time
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in Cut Time
- Singing Dotted Half Note Rhythm Syllables
- Singing Shape Note Solfege Dorian Melodies
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in 6-8 Time
- Singing Shape Note Solfege Phrygian Melodies
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in 9-8 Time
- Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies
- Singing Rhythm Syllables in 12-8 Time
- Can I Learn Sight-Singing if I Haven’t Learned an Instrument?
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