I agree with you Susan. I am surprised that someone would say this would only carry a person through the first rehearsal when in fact it takes a while to remember a piece in any situation - at least a few days.
s
----- Original Message ----- From: SMSchneider Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 7:48 AM To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [vocalist] Re: reading skills or rather a lack thereof......
Mariella wrote:
> The sight-singing ability will carry you only as far as the first rehearsal, > beyond that it's useless.
Sorry, I completely disagree. That's like saying studying theory will get you through your exams in school, but you don't need it after that. How about when you're reading the score (piano/vocal or orchestral) during a performance or rehearsal? Looking/listening for your cues in the different instruments? Singing with other singers in a duet or quartet and following their lines? If you can't read what they're supposed to be singing, you won't know if they're right or wrong and you'll just have to depend on them to get it right so you get your entrance right. Experience has taught me that's a bad idea!
Yes, you must know your music very well, if not by memory, by the first rehearsal of an opera or concert. But sight reading does not only mean the ability to sing through a piece the first time you see it. It's a much broader skill than that. It carries with it tremendous ear training - not just knowing some intervals, but hearing an *entire* piece - or at least way more than just your line. Combine it with any theory knowledge you have and you hear/understand/learn a piece in a completely different way just by looking at the score. Being a musician is not just being able to sing pretty. You are part of an entire musical production (in Lieder or opera), not just an ornamental soloist in front of the instrumentalists. BTW, the respect you get from instrumentalists and conductors who pick up on the fact that you have good skills is really gratifying. But most important, those skills get you performing on a different level and that respect you get results in helping to get *rehired*.
I will concede that being a good reader, I HATE memorizing! But I find that in opera, memorizing staging along with the music helps me memorize both. Being in a specific spot on stage makes me remember what to sing, and singing specific music pulls me to the correct spot on stage. So memorizing staging isn't an abstract thing (go here on this measure, do this business on this word).
FWIW.
Susan Schneider
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