HEN I FIRST READ LUCAS Tappan’s article from a few weeks ago, What If You Never Again Had To “Teach” Your Choir Notes? my first reaction was to wish that I had a “proper” choir.
Curiosity got the better of me and I looked around John Bertalot’s website and even ended up buying a copy of the book Five Wheels to Successful Sight-Singing. I am very glad I did.
The book is aimed at conducting a children’s choir, but many of the lessons are very useful for parents too. Having only a small number of students is actually an advantage for teaching sight-singing.
Sight-singing has been something of an unattainable ideal in my head for as long as I can remember. I’ve always needed some instrument to turn sheet music into something audible. It turns out that I had all the first steps in place to learn sight-singing all along. It was like seeing that I have been riding with training wheels all this time.
Bertalot’s book is pretty short. It is unlike any other book I have read on music. Instead of diagrams and explanations it is written as a lively dialogue between a student and a master choir director. This is really helpful as one of the main lessons is learning how to talk with students so that they listen and learn – a very handy skill in all areas.
It is also heartening to hear that learning to read music, just like learning to read words, does not require specially formulated textbooks. Bertalot uses a blackboard and a regular hymnbook.
I look forward to reading more from Lucas Tappan as he sheds more light on how to apply these lessons.
