Sight-singing and voice lessons

I've taught singing lessons for high school age students for over nine years. With that much time and experience, I've changed how I teach lessons, especially regarding the Region Vocal Competition.

My first All-State singer, Mark M., was a Bass II.  In addition to being a fine singer, he was a wonderful actor and VERY intelligent.  What made him special as a singer, however, was his sightreading ability.  He could read music and sing the pitches and rhythms accurately without any preparation.  This was invaluable when he reached the Pre-Area and Area rounds of the vocal competition.  Sight-singing counts as 20% to your total score.  When the points separating 1st from 5th Chair is in the single-digits, EVERY point counts.   Being able to sightread a perfect score can easily give you a few points to beat your competitors.

For the first few years of my teaching, I didn't accurately value the importance of sight-singing.  My rationale was two-fold: sight-singing does not improve your vocal tone or musicality, and I personally struggled with sight-reading in high school.  My attitude was such: if I turned out okay, why would my students need to worry about sight-reading.  This attitude was misguided, and not just because sight-singing helps you in the State Vocal Competition.  The reality is that good sight-readers make better musicians.  In addition to learning music at a much faster rate, sight-singing also improves your musicality, as you learn to anticipate harmonic changes and melodic shapes.

In my voice lessons now, I always try to include one sight-singing test.  It's a bit like eating your broccoli instead of the chessecake: not many students like sightreading, but it sure is healthy for you.  I've noticed my students are goign farther in competition, but they are also better musicians because of it.

DWS