25th Annual Student Research Conference
Perceptions of Singers Sight Singing Abilities:
How Singers Rate Themselves
Christopher M. Thomas♦
Dr. Mark Jennings, Faculty Mentor
The goal of this study is to investigate singers perceptions of sight singing in a choral setting. Over the course of six weeks, a college choir of approximately 25 members will participate in a series of sight singing excerpts. The choir will sight sing on numbers a different Bach chorale at the beginning of each class (Monday/Wednesday/Friday). After familiarizing themselves with the key by singing its scale, the choir will proceed to sing the excerpt once. Instruction will be given to aid notably difficult passages. Finally, the choir will sing through the chorale once more. For evaluation, each member will fill out a questionnaire at the beginning and end of the six-week experiment, answering questions about their successes and failures with sight singing and previous experience with sight singing, among others. The aim is to determine whether or not they feel more confident with sight singing after six weeks, whether or not they enjoy singing the chorales, and if there is any correlation between confidence level and perception of improvement.
Keywords: sight singing, choir, Bach, music, perception, confidence
Topic(s):Music
Education
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 108-3
Location: OP 2117
Time: 8:30