Sight Singing (it pays off!)

Although it is probably no one’s favorite part of chorus, sight singing really pays off in the long run. When I walked into chorus class freshman year and was handed a sight singing book, I immediately was overcome with dread. I knew almost nothing about sight singing freshman year, so this was definitely one of the most challenging parts of chorus for me. At times, I would become so frustrated with this task that I even claimed that I “can’t” sight sing. However, with a lot of experience and over time, sight singing has definitely become more manageable. I am still far from mastery of this skill, but I am astonished at how much progress that I have made in the past two and a half years. Sight singing is truly something that requires dedicated practice, so I think that our sight singing exercises really do pay off.
Caroline Randall

Caroline essentially summed up my feelings on sight singing. Most of us had very little experience in this field when we came into Concert Chorale freshman year but I feel like as a whole, we've improved so much since then. And I really think it helps to not have to stand up everyday and sing from a sight singing book. Sight singing directly from the music we will be singing helps us to not only get used to sight singing but also we are learning our music while doing it so it's very effective. This approach reminds me of a similar approach my Spanish teacher last year took with listening exercises. She would not have us do listening exercises from a tape but rather she would give us assignments and have us listen to each other speak. As a result from that, it became easier for me to understand Spanish when other people spoke in the language. I think that the approach we are taking at sight singing will also give a different insight than just singing notes from a standard sight singing book.