Sightsinging, ear training and solfege

dales · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2002 10:49 am Post subject:

Can anyone recommend good methods for sightsinging, ear training and solfege? Are there any good self-study methods available?

Chicagoman · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2002 5:00 pm Post subject:

screamertrumpet · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2002 6:20 pm Post subject:

dales,
Dan is right. You can use basically anything to practice your sight-singing-transposing. I usually just use Guiseppi Concone's Complete Solfeggi because it's got some nice melodies in it. Perhaps you could use Getchel's books or the Vizzutti books as well.
Trevor

_Don Herman · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2002 6:37 am Post subject:

I don't have the book close, but I picked up a small volume on "sight singing". There were a number to choose from at my local music store; I just got the one my teacher used in college. It's a good supplement to the advice above, I think, and singing as well as playng really helps get not only the pitch but the sound you want in your mind.

FWIW - Don
_________________
Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

fzr Phil · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2002 2:07 pm Post subject:

What is 'Solfege' ?

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Phil Martin
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ChopsMcgraw · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2002 2:18 pm Post subject:

Do Ray Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do and the such.
You know, Like "Do, a deer, a female deer"
It actually helped my playing alot.

ChopsMcgraw

dales · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2002 10:36 am Post subject:

Thanks for all the advice. When I asked this question I was distressed about not being able to hear as well as I need to. I never addressed this part of my musical education before I quit playing to become a listener and collector for 20 years. After six months back, I'm now convinced that I have the physical makeup to play anything I want, and it's probably my ears that hold me back more than anything.

My trumpet teacher suggested taking a class. So I looked at the web page for the closest music school of repute (Longy, in Cambridge, MA). Its web site features its faculty and prattles on about its community music outreach and teacher/student relationships without ever giving a course catalog, or even any sense that it offers classes. Oh well. I'll ask friends who've studied there.

However, I've just picked up a book by Ron Gorow called _Hearing and Writing Music, Professional Training for Today's Musician_. It's a self-study course that leads you progressively through learning to hear intervals, then phrases, then transcribing. I noticed after I bought it that one of the endorsement blurbs is by Bobby Shew. I think if I can learn to hear well enough to transcribe, I'll also be able to conceive and hear phrases in my mind better, and my trumpet playing will improve.

bj · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2002 12:12 pm Post subject:

Hello
Tonic, sol-fa was commonly taught in the Welsh Chapels although I wasn't religious myself I learnt the system at secondary school (equivalent to US High School).
Also at music college I studied the Kodaly Method with Celia Vajda, a lady from Hungary who was a pupil of Kodaly.
all the best
Brian Jones

elbobogrande · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2002 1:44 pm Post subject:

A friend referred me to http://www.eartraining.com
He swears by it.
John

cybertrumpet · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2002 1:45 pm Post subject:

Do your self a huge favour and visit http://www.dickgrove.com
this is the best self study course on the planet for ear training. Get the "hear it, see it, play it" course. It is the best and it opened up my ears......worth looking at!!!
_________________
When I think of the perfect sound, I think practice. When I think of the perfect horn, I think Schilke.

Garroid · Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 5:17 am Post subject:

I found out in high school that I had perfect pitch, and this is what I recommend, who knows - it's free.
Close your eyes and hit a random key on the piano, and imagine what it would sound like coming out of YOUR trumpet, with YOUR unique sound. Then try to imagine what fingering generally coincides with that pitch or tamber, then take a stab at the note, open your eyes and see how close you were. On the flip side, when you practice be very critical of the tamber differences between fingerings, regardless of the note. Also work on memorizing music by getting the melody stuck in your head, and then playing that melody by ear. Marches work great for this. Pretty soon you can hear a march, and play it from 'memory' in most of the 12 keys, if not all.
_________________
Gary A. Wilder

CBTrpt · Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 6:01 am Post subject:

Go get Manuel Pratique by Georges Dandelot. You can get it through Paetleson's in NY. If you can sing and say all of these excercises at quarter=100 you'll have helped yourself greatly. After that sing all your excercises, etudes, solos and excerpts. Have fun and never stop singing!