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About Sight Singing

Sight singing is the ability to read and sing music at first sight. It is sometimes also referred to as vocal sight-reading. This skill not only helps musicians with their ability to read sheet music, but also significantly improves their pitch accuracy and rhythmical skills.

Sight-singing naturally goes hand in hand with ear training. In order to vocalise the notes they’re reading at the right pitch, musicians need to train their “inner hearing”. Inner hearing means being able to picture how notes sound by simply looking at them. This takes plenty of time and effort, but once mastered it makes sight-singing at the right pitch much easier.

How do you learn to Sight-Sing?

As mentioned previously, sight-singing isn’t an easy skill to master. It takes even the most talented singers plenty of time and patience to completely get the hang of it. However, as with almost any other skill, it’s something you can learn and improve over time.

One of the first steps you should take is learning the solfege system. You may have heard singers sing ascending scales like this: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. The solfege system might look difficult for beginners so it is important to practice regularly. A good way to do this is to practice as often as you can by choosing your favourite songs and trying to identify the "tonic note" of the piece.

Apart from learning the solfege system, you’ll have to know how to read music. It is possible to start from the first note on the page and count the number of spaces and lines up or down to the next note.

What are the benefits of Sight-Singing?

Although sight-singing might not be a requirement for musicians it’s certainly beneficial and can be very helpful. Improving your sight-singing abilities will also create a stronger foundation in rhythm and pitch. Furthermore, musicians who can sight-sing are able to hear the music before playing a single note. This improves overall accuracy significantly because of the ability to anticipate the rhythm before playing.

Last but not least, being able to sight-sing will not only increase a musicians confidence but it will also expand their musical opportunities.

If you’re a musician who wants to learn how to sight-sing, then TutorExtra is the perfect place for you. We offer online courses in over 1000 subjects, including sight singing. Browse through our list of tutors, find the one that suits you best and book your first lesson as soon as possible.