Singing Songs
Singing is all about communication and story telling through songs. It is easy to get bogged down with specifics of pitch, rhythm, theory, etc and lose sight of the most important elements which are communication and enjoyment.
When most people listen to a singer, they feel good because they are moved by the lyrics and the emotion, combined with the music. As a singer, all your study should be directed towards improving your performance of songs and communication with your audience.
Having said that, if you know nothing about music, your communication skills will be limited. Once you understand some of the basic concepts of how music is written, it becomes a lot easier to understand sheet music. Once you understand sheet music, a whole repertoire of songs becomes available to you.
On the facing page is the song Silent Night, which contains many of the things you have learned up to this point. It is in ^ time and the melody is made up of half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes, as well as dotted half notes and dotted quarter notes. The final bar contains a whole rest, which represents a full bar rest when used in ^ time.
This song is made up entirely of notes from the C major scale. At this stage, you may not be able to read all the individual pitches of the notes from the written music, so sing the melody by ear but pay close attention to the timing of the notes. If you have trouble, listen to the recording and watch the written music as you listen. Count along with the music as you hear it. On the recording you will hear a second voice in the background singing harmony – i.e., a different line to the melody.
