The New Technique

I thought that this forum related most closely to what I want to talk about.. I think that this new method of warming up and learning music that Mr Young taught us today is going to be tough, sometimes not very enjoyable, but if it works out, we will definitely be a stronger CHorus program. We will also be more like the Strings and Band kids, because we will be doing some hardcore sight-reading and learning complete pieces without the piano. In that way, i think this new method make us more like instrumentalists, and hopefully approaching singing this way will make most of us better musicians, or at least appreciate how much help the piano was giving us before.

I agree with Aoife that we will be more like the Band and Strings students by doing more hardcore warmups and ear training exercises. When we learn music, we can use a piano to play our part and be able to hear what it sounds like before actually trying it ourselves. However, when you are playing an instrument and learning new music, you have to read your music and play to notes yourself. You don't have a piano to rely on for learning notes. By not using a piano when we warm-up, we are improving our musical literacy by actually reading the notes on the page rather than relying on another instrument to play it for you. In singing, YOU are your own instrument, so if band and strings musicians have to use their instruments to learn their notes, then we singers should use our instruments to learn music: our own voices.