Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Want to be able to sight sing melodies? Shape notes makes reading easier. Read more for your shape note singing lesson.
- Last post, we sang scales and songs in the keys of C, Db, D, and Eb. The more keys you know, the better your will sight sing.
- Therefore, in this post, we will explore the keys of E, F, Gb, and G for both scales and songs.
- As we sing, listen (on the sing-along song tracks) for how the relationships between the notes remain the same yet the whole melody sounds higher.
- 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.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
Shape Note Singing Lesson: Review
For a detailed discussion of sight singing with shape notes and solfege read:
Breathing, Phrase Structure, and the Shape Note Singing Lesson
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Joy to the World:
- We will use “Joy to the World” as our solfege song for today. This song also creates the chance to talk about breathing and phrase structure.
- Look at the music example above. The symbol that looks like an apostrophe tells us to take a breath.
- As a rule, singers breathe at phrase endings. In other words, you breathe when you see the punctuation in the text. Since breaking up the text phrases makes the lyrics harder to understand, you should try to avoid it if you can.
- However, exceptions exist, because sometimes you need to breathe more often and other times less.
- Regardless, you need to breathe fairly often. If you run out of breath, your pitch will sink, making you go out of tune. Also, it makes your vocal tone sound bad. Therefore, you need to carefully map out the points in a song where you will sneak a breath.
- After you have sung the short “Joy to the World” phrases, for fun you can sing the full song. The video has the lyrics.
Scales and Melodies for the Shape Note Singing Lesson
Scales
E Major Moveable Do Shape Notes:
F Major Moveable Do Shape Notes:
Gb Major Moveable Do Shape Notes:
G Major Moveable Do Shape Notes:
Joy to the World
E Major Joy to the World:
F Major Joy to the World:
Gb Major Joy to the World:
G Major Joy to the World:
Shape Note Singing Lesson Quiz
Joy to the World Video
Conclusion
Shape notes help anyone to sight sing better. However, they remain a particularly powerful multisensory teaching tool for helping LD, ADD, autistic, and other special needs students learn music.
The more you match the sounds of the solfege with the note shapes, the better your sight singing will become. Therefore, daily practice with the sound files in the shape note singing lessons will help you master the solfege.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
Active Versus Passive Voice: How to Write Them
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What Exactly Is Attenuation for Home Recording Studios
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Playing the Piano with Color Coded Rhythm, Fingering, and Notes
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