singing a simple harmony

Singing harmony can be as simple as singing a three note bass line.  In today's lesson I will show you how to do this with the song "Skip to My Lou".  The chord progression goes back and forth between the I and V chords.  Since the I and V chords share one tone ("so" or D in the key of G major), you could sing this note throughout the song and be singing harmony, but this would get monotonous and you would not get the feel of the chord changing.  A better way to do the bass line is to use the common tone and then add another tone from the chord as it changes.

solo sight singing

Try your hand at sight singing this mystery song. 

practice with sixteenth note rhythms

Today's lesson gives you practice with reading sixteenth note rhythms as you sing "Red River Valley" while tapping the rhythms for "Skip to My Lou".  It's not as hard as it seems.  It's kind of like rubbing you head and tapping your stomach, but with different rhythms.

sixteenth note rhythms

Today's lesson uses the song "Cripple Creek" to practice rhythms with eighth and sixteenth notes.  It is notated with 8/8 and 4/4 time signature.  The difference between the two is that in 8/8 time the eighth note gets the beat and in 4/4 time the quarter note gets the beat. 

ear training with dulcimer

I am teaching a workshop tomorrow on playing the Appalachian mountain dulcimer, so I thought I would do an ear training lesson today using my dulcimer.  The dulcimer is well suited to solfege singing because the frets are arranged so that you play a major scale when you start at the 3rd fret and play consecutive frets through number 10.  If you tune the dulcimer strings to DAA then you can play melodies on the A string closest to you and let the other two strings (D and A) sound a drone throughout.

intro to sixteenth note rhythms

This lesson is an introduction to subdividing the beat using the quarter note as the beat.  You'll practice various rhythm patterns with eighth and sixteenth notes and learn how to notate and read the rhythms in  "Skip to My Lou".

Michael Row - part 2 - rhythms

Here is part two of notating "Michael, Row You Boat Ashore."