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Dawnie
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| Posted: March 14 2007 at 12:32am | IP Logged
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Anyone have any thoughts on teaching sight-singing to young children?
I am a classically trained singer and learned to sight-sing by number. I've heard some say that learning to sight-sing using solfege is better.
I'm wondering how I would go about doing this with young children. My oldest daughter can match pitch and we sing hymns and simple songs together. I am teaching her to play the piano and she will learn to read music that way. Should I wait until she is proficient at reading music before trying to teach her to sight-sing? Any programs to reccommend? I've heard of a sight-singing program for children by Alan Jemison, but it's not on his website anymore. 
Thanks!
Dawn
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MacBeth
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| Posted: March 14 2007 at 10:21am | IP Logged
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I have used the sight singing program that Jemison had. It's fine, but the lessons were reinforced by the excellent theory teachers that my kids have had over the years. My kids all use the sol-fa method, and all sight sing well. The Suzuki Program uses the Kodaly method with hand signals to reinforce the sight singing. See the hand signals.
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JennGM
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I haven't seen Alan Jemison, but I've talked before about the Ward method. This was a program started by Justine Ward. She learned from the monks of Solesmes the principles of Gregorian Chant and wrote a program that was teaching music through Gregorian Chant to children. It incorporated all three: sol-fa, numbers and hand signals to sight singing. So, for example, I would have a pointer to use on a chart, the numbers would be written on the chart, but the children would sing the solfege and use hand signals to match.
Church Music Association of America has reprinted but also offering free .pdf downloads of her original series, so you can see for yourself. You can also take training at Catholic University for a 3 week intensive course (I did it one year and it was fabulous, but that was before marriage and children). The texts have been revised a bit and are available through Catholic University, with workbooks, charts and such.
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JennGM
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Just a couple of addendums. here.
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Dawnie
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Thanks Jenn...I am looking into the resources you listed. I can tell you right now that a 3-week intensive course is out of the question, though  .
MacBeth, i looked on Alan Jemison's website and couldn't find his sight-singing program...is it out of print?
Dawn
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MacBeth
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+Sing Praise to God by Note (elementary sight-singing manual w/ 5 tapes) ..... $39.80
It's under "HYMN, CAROL AND SONG BOOKS". There is no direct link, since his page is really all one big page.
Jenn, I think I saw pdfs of the Ward Method on the CMAA site, too. And there's that great video of the method in a German classroom . I like the combination of movement and music, especially with boys, who may not be keen on dancing  .
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JennGM
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MacBeth wrote:
| Jenn, I think I saw pdfs of the Ward Method on the CMAA site, too. And there's that great video of the method in a German classroom . I like the combination of movement and music, especially with boys, who may not be keen on dancing . |
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Yes, Here's the .pdf file for Book 1 of the original Ward method.
The newer version includes the notation with number notation, finger notatation and melodic gestures, but there is also rhythmic gestures and metrical gestures. It really gets the whole body involved with the music, VERY Montessori.  I didn't see all that in the original, although it might be there.
scroll down this page to DOWNLOAD Gisbert Brandt's video of Ward classroom and Follow along with Brandt's lesson plan...the German classroom that MacBeth is talking about.
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So Jenn, do you have any experience teaching the Ward method? Do you think it would work well in a homeschool setting? And is this something I could do w/o the intensive training? I studied vocal music education for 4+ years in college...I took all the music classes required for the degree, I'm just lacking some of the education classes. So I have a good background in music theory, although I'm sure I could use some brushing up.
Dawn
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Dawnie wrote:
| So Jenn, do you have any experience teaching the Ward method? Do you think it would work well in a homeschool setting? And is this something I could do w/o the intensive training? I studied vocal music education for 4+ years in college...I took all the music classes required for the degree, I'm just lacking some of the education classes. So I have a good background in music theory, although I'm sure I could use some brushing up. |
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Dawn, you have more training than I, and I'm sure you could catch on quickly to this. I would say it perfectly suits homeschooling, but you'll have to make your "fit".
I haven't had the time to sit down and plan my approach in my home but I'll share my experience and current brainstorming.
When I took the Ward method, the newer version of the books have the approach of 20 minute, short, repetitive, daily lessons--perfect to implement in the home learning. You and the children would set the pace, of course. AND, some of the lessons taught here could be interspersed throughout the day, not just branded as "Music class". For example, when I awakened my son today, I sang simple chant "Good morning, G!" "Good morning, Jesus!" He can answer back to me in the same chant.
Before I was married, I taught in two different situations. One was in a Catholic school, and I had two different age groups, K-3, 4-6, each 30 minutes, once a week. It was NOT long enough, hard to give individual attention. So often in schools music is marked as an "extra" and not a frequent class.
I also taught a little class of homeschoolers once a week, all mixed ages. While the once a week was okay, it didn't really progress and take root in the children. They all loved it, all ages responded well.
This method does recommend the child being able to do some basic reading before beginning, so I haven't implemented it here officially with my son. I've been kicking around ideas on how to start or do some even without reading, since Suzuki and other methods can manage that very well. But all this requires some planning, which for me means uninterrupted thought time, which is so rare in my life. I need to figure out how to think deep thoughts in small chunks of time.
The original manuals by Mrs. Ward that are found online are for the teacher training. There were a few series for the classroom based on the Ward method, and you can find some of those out of print textbooks. There are also some other Catholic school textbooks that incorporate both the Ward method and regular note-reading.
The newer texts are available from Catholic University bookstore put in Ward Method to bring down the list. These texts, the Teacher's Manual, have lessons broken down, so they are VERY easy to implement.
I have been trying to figure out if there's a way to incorporate having my son learn piano and this approach, or if I need to keep them separate.
One thing that was stressed when teaching this is to not rush the children. The worst thing for children when they are learning to match pitch, sight-singing, note-reading is to put pressure on them to have a Christmas pageant or some kind of musical program when the first year is really learning about basics.
Oh, one more thought. For your training, this Gregorian Chant Master Class might be just the ticket. I'm waiting for my copy, my mother's birthday gift to me. So if you want to wait for a review, I can pass that along. I took Ward Method 4 class under Dr. Marier, and I believe this is similar.
I know I've talked about this ad nauseum elsewhere on this forum....so I'll stop now. I do get so excited about silly thing! I'll be glad to answer any more questions, on or offline.
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Topic: Sol-fa?
