sight singing practice in natural minor

Today's lesson gives you practice sight singing a song in natural minor.  The key is D minor and the notes are the same as the notes in F major except that the tonal center of the song is "la" instead of "do".  For a detailed explanation and demonstration of natural minor keys go to Lesson 13b.

ear training in natural minor

Today's lesson gives you more practice with ear training in a minor key.  The key is D minor with "la" as the tonic.  The natural minor scale is ltdrmfsl.  You'll notice that the tones are the same ones used in F major except that you start and end the scale on D which is "la".  Just by changing the tonal center you move from a major mode into a minor one.  Pretty cool! 

The song in the lesson is called "Old Hungarian Round" which I first learned from an old Girl Scout songbook.  I learned it in Kodaly training with different words and a dance.  Listen to it sung as a round with the Girl Scout words. 

ear taining in minor

I haven't done any songs lately in minor, so today's lesson gives you a review of a natural minor scale with "la" as the tonic and then some ear training with the la minor scale.  I start out the lesson by playing "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" on the dulcimer.

partner songs part 2

Did you figure out "Make New Friends" from the last post?  Today's lesson gives you sight singing practice in 6/8 time with the "Sing, Sing Together".  It is fun to hear how these two songs work together as partner songs even though one is in simple meter (2/4) and one is in compound meter (6/8).  I play one and sing the other on the video, but it's much better to have two or more people so you can sing both parts. 

sight singing partner songs

Today's lesson gives you sight singing practice with a familiar song in 2/4 time.  It is one we have done in these lessons.  I think you can figure it out on your own.  In the next lesson we will do a song in 6/8 time that can be sung with it. 

comparing rhythms 2/4 and 4/4

Yesterday's lesson had four beat rhythm patterns in 4/4 time using quarter notes, paired eighth notes and half notes.  Today's lesson takes these same four beat patterns and shows you how they would look if written in two beats with 2/4 time.  Don't let the sixteenth notes make you think the rhythms are difficult.  Just take it slowly and tap on each eighth note (the divided beat in 2/4) and you will see that it is just as easy as quarter and eighth note rhythms. 

practicing rhythms in 4/4 time

Today's lesson gives you practice with rhythms in 4/4 time.  The rhythms are combinations of quarter notes, paired eighth notes, quarter rests and half notes. 

solo sight singing in F major

A few weeks ago I was at my Uncle Ervin's house in Bluefield, Virginia for our family reunion.  He had several boxes of things for us to look through that had belonged to family members.  The song for today's sight singing lesson was in one of those boxes.  It is a song written in my Aunt Robbie's hand.  She directed the children's choir at her church for many years and this is probably a song that she sang with them.  Try to pause the video at the beginning and figure it out on your own before watching the lesson.

singing harmony for "Little Liza Jane"

Today's lesson gives you practice singing harmony with the song "Little Liza Jane".  The harmony mostly follows the melody in parallel thirds.  There are a few places where it jumps to perfect fourths.  You can go back to lesson 121 for the melody and lesson 118 for the rhythms.

sight singing in Bb major

Today's lesson gives you sight singing practice in Bb major.  The melody is pretty easy.  It uses a pentatonic scale (drm sl) with a high "do".  The rhythms are a bit harder using eighth and sixteenth note patterns as well as syncopation.  You can go back to lesson 118 for a review of the rhythms if you need to.  Go to lesson 79 for an introduction to reading syncopated rhythms.  Pause the video and try to figure it out on your own before watching.  This is actually lesson 121 rather than 120 as it says on the video.

"Clementine" harmony

One way to practice singing harmony is to play the chords for a song and sing one of the notes in the chord.Today's lesson gives you sight singing practice with a harmony part for "Clementine".  With the exception of a few passing tones, all of the harmony notes fall within the chords.

sight singing "Clementine" melody

Today's lesson gives you sight singing practice in D major with a compound meter.  The time signature is 9/8 which means that there are 9 eighth notes in each measure and the dotted quarter note gets the beat.  The melody is a combination of stepwise motion and skips that outline the I (one) and V7 (five seven) chords.  In the key D major the I chord is D  (D, F#, A) and the V7 chord is A7 (A, C#, E, G). 

practice with simple and compound beat division

Time signatures can be divided into two categories depending on their beat division.  Simple meter songs use a duple beat division.  Examples are: 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, 2/2.  Compound meter songs use a triple beat division.  Examples are: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8.  Today's lesson gives you practice reading rhythms in simple and compound meter.