Vocalist.org archive


From:  "S Owens" <shirleyowens@h...>
"S Owens" <shirleyowens@h...>
Date:  Fri May 11, 2001  5:03 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: reading skills or rather a lack thereof......


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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