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Sight-Singing: Your "Key" to Success in Melodic Dictation
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by Suzanne M. Schmidt
Pennsbury High School
Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania
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| | Practical Suggestions for Skill Development
An important component of the AP® Music Theory Exam is the testing of a student's melodic dictation and sight-singing competencies in both major and minor keys. Since these are areas in which my students have demonstrated success, I would like to share some practical suggestions for teaching these skills to high school students preparing to take the sight-singing and melodic dictation portions of the AP Music Theory Exam.
Basic Themes
Here are some basic principles to follow:
- First, coordinate melodic dictation work with sight-singing. What we sing is what we write.
- Second, start simple and move to the complex, rhythmically, melodically, and harmonically, as well as in the length of the dictations.
- Third, stay with pentatonic materials for a significant amount of time.
- Fourth, prepare aurally now, through singing, for future written work.
Sequencing
As a Kodály educator, I base my students' aural and written skill work on Kodály 's sequence of singing development. My students also "sign" the various solfège syllables; this practice gives them the opportunity to manipulate the syllables they are both singing and hearing. With each pattern taking anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, my beginning students sing and sign the following sequence of pitch patterns (in various creative combinations and melodies) and scale work:
- Sol-mi
- La-sol-mi
- La-sol-mi-re-do
- Do'-la-sol-mi-re-do
- Do'-la-sol-mi-re-do-
(low) so
- Major scale (moveable do) -- stepwise motion only
- Major scale -- stepwise motion, plus skips of the tonic triad
- Major scale -- stepwise motion, plus skips of the tonic and dominant triads
- "La"-based minor patterns and scales (natural, harmonic, melodic)
Embellishments
Coordinating sight-singing with melodic dictation is the real "key" to success. My students sight-sing specific syllables in patterns and melodies. The same syllables and patterns are found in the dictations the students are writing. For instance, if the class is singing patterns and simple melodies using only the pitches la-sol-mi, then these are the only pitches that will appear in their melodic dictations. I also coordinate keys, keeping warm-up exercises and dictations in the same key on the same day. This gives the students the opportunity to examine pitch relationships on the staff, both melodically and intervallically, within a specific key.
The principle of starting simple and moving to the complex is important to all three types of dictation study -- melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic -- and has an immediate bearing on the length of dictation examples. My very beginning dictations are one measure in length, use only quarter notes, and incorporate sol and mi exclusively. We then advance to two-measure dictations, sequentially adding additional pitches (la, re, do) and rhythms (half notes, eighth notes). Four-measure pentatonic melodies, with an occasional fa or ti found exclusively in scalar passages, follow. The next step finds the students writing four-measure dictations in major keys with more complex rhythm patterns (adding dotted rhythms, eighth-quarter-eighth, eighth-two sixteenths, two sixteenths-eighth, etc.) or eight-measure dictations with simpler rhythms. These dictations employ predominantly scalar motion with skips in the tonic and, eventually, in the dominant triads. As my students become more competent in their minor key sight-singing, we begin melodic dictations in minor. In the beginning, nearly all dictations are in 4/4 meter, with a few in 2/4 and 3/4. After students demonstrate proficiency in these, I add melodic dictations in 2/2, 3/2, 4/2, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.
Focus on pentatonic for a significant portion of time. My beginning students write exclusively pentatonic exercises for several weeks. This allows them to really lock in the tonic triad (both aurally and in their written work) while examining its relationship to surrounding pitches. Once fa and ti are added to the sight-singing mix, and, ultimately, to their written work, sight-singing and melodic dictations become more difficult.
Aural preparation is important in reinforcing current skill levels and preparing for future sight-singing and dictation tasks. A major portion of beginning students' class periods is spent drilling sight-singing patterns and melodies at the students' current level of advancement. The students use class dictation time to practice listening to and writing the syllables they are studying. In addition, class time is spent preparing and singing patterns in the next step listed above in the sequential study. This continual reinforcement and preparation is an important element in students' grasp of and progress in the language of our tonal music.
Coda
I hope this article will encourage you to coordinate your students' sight-singing with their melodic dictation exercises. After trying various methods, I found that this coordination really enhances student success. In our music theory program at Pennsbury, my students' sight-singing is coordinated with their ear-training/dictation skills, which are then used to aurally prepare future units of their written music theory work. But that's another article.
Suzanne M. Schmidt graduated from the University of Michigan and is currently completing a master's degree at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. She developed and teaches a four-year program in music theory and has coordinated her unique Music Mentors Program at Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, since 1991, and is also an adjunct instructor at Rider University. Consistently named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers, she was selected for USA TODAY's 2002 All-USA Teacher Team. She has been an AP Reader since 2000.
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