To answer the post from the teacher in Cape Town,
I would like give a suggestion for ear training singers that might help with
those who are used to non-western music or just singers who don't play other
instruments. Try having your students sit at a piano or other western
instrument (that is in tune, of course) and go through the tedious process
of playing the exercise, singing the exercise while playing it, and then
singing the exercise alone. over and over and over and over. The step in
this very simple solution that is usually missed, is that teachers often
play the exercise for the student. This is not as helpful, because the
student doesn't get the physical connection between action and sound. If
you watch a trumpet player doing sight singing exercises, often, they will
move three fingers on their left hand like they are fingering the notes on
the trumpet. That is because there is a mental connection between the
physical act of pressing down those fingers and the sound that is made by
that action. Students coming from oral music traditions or even western
singers who have never played another instrument often have trouble with
sight singing due to this lack of physical connection. Also, your
intonation problems will be solved quicker if your students learn to
understand what a semi-tone 'feels like' as well as what it 'sounds like'.
If I were teaching students that had been raised on music based on
whole-tone scales, I would start with introducing the concept of the octave
(not present in whole-tone scales). Have them sing the 1st scale degree
then the octave above, then root to fifth to octave and so forth, dealing
very specifically with how the scale is divided up and then setting them
about playing/singing different patterns to reinforce what they have learned
physically. I probably would not start with Vaccai, I would use basic sight
singing/ear training exercises, then move on to more technical singing
exercises like Vaccai, Viardot, Concone, etc. I hope that helps.
James Wintle
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