Please click on the link below to access the sight singing assignment for next week. You must bring the assignment to your sight singing lesson. You may choose to print it out, or to view it on a laptop or tablet device. Please do not attempt to read the assignment from your phone in the lesson. This seldom results in a high score.
Melodies in Minor Keys
When you sing in minor keys, you can still utilize the general principles of sight singing, such as locating the tones of the tonic triad (in this case, do, me, and sol) as melodic “signposts,” and noting important details such as the beat pattern, beat note, and divisions of the beat.
However, a minor key has an additional challenge: the need to pay mindful attention to the sixth and seventh scale degrees. This is because there is more than one type of minor scale. The natural minor scale, called this because no accidentals are added, has le and te as its sixth and seventh degrees. The ascending melodic minor scale, by contrast, raises the sixth and seventh degrees to la and ti, while the descending melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale. The harmonic scale, so called because it corresponds to the tones of the triadic chords in minor keys, has an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees, le and ti, which many people find hard to sing in tune. Take special care over this interval.
Be aware that some minor-key pieces will utilize more than one of the minor scales. Therefore, check before you begin to see which solfege you will need to assign to the sixth and seventh scale degrees.