I'm not sadistic. Really I'm not. Maybe my students think so, but the pure joy I feel is not because of their suffering, but because I actually think that what we are doing is fun. (And no, I'm not masochistic either.)
Last week, each student got a new song. Because choir auditions for next year are just a few weeks away, we need to be working on music reading skills, so I've been having students learn their new music by count singing and singing on solfege. And I've been having a blast! Except of course when they have complete melt downs and I have to tell them that it will take time and work but they will get it eventually.
Why do I love count singing and solfege? Because I am a total geek. This is the logical, straight-forward, one-right-answer part of music. It's a game and I love a good challenge. In fact, a few years ago on a long road trip, I kept myself entertained by singing on solfege every folk song and hymn I could think of. It was awesome.
But solfege was not always my friend. I had had a very brief introduction to it in high school, and of course, I sang along with The Sound of Music, but I never really worked with solfege until I became a music major and skipped first semester theory and skills. I missed all of the first semester easy stuff and went right in to the tougher second semester. I did well enough to pass, but I would never have said that I loved sight-singing. In grad school I took a remedial class and got much better, but still no love. The love actually came from teaching it.
As a teacher, I learned to love solfege because I was doing it nearly every day and I saw how much the students improved over all as their reading skills increased. And that is what the students just don't get at this point. It's totally normal for it to be hard. (There are those freaks, and you know who you are, that get it immediately, but most of us have to work at it.) I love it because it is now familiar, an old friend. And like any friendship, there are still times that I am challenged, but that challenge is exciting rather than discouraging.
I keep thinking of the medical teaching model of see one, do one, teach one. For me, the see one step was easy. I understood it intellectually. The do one was trickier, but necessary. The teach one step is where you really learn. I need to find ways to have students teach each other or ask more questions and get them to "teach" me. Most of them get it, they just have not spent enough time applying it and teaching it.
I suppose that the same ideas apply to count singing, but to be honest, I don't remember my own learning process. I began piano lessons at 4 and I didn't just count out loud, I sang along, so I was count singing long before I knew what it was. I know a lot of people hate it, but I've had lots of light bulb moments with kids this week as they finally get the big picture of rhythm. And if it was good enough for Shaw and his choirs, it is good enough for my kids.
I am a firm believer in the fact that theory and music history knowledge makes you sing better. Yes, I teach better tone and proper use of the instrument, but I want my students to be musicians not just singers.
Long live sight-reading and count singing!
-- Posted from my iPhone
