Melodic Sight-Singing different method

[koeno100]

I have some criticism about the melodic sight-singing part.

Now I'm studying in the conservatory, I thought I could use EarMaster as a good tool for my solfège and eartraining classes. For a lot of areas in my studies, EarMaster works great, but the melodic sight-singing course is one that does more harm than it helps me...

The way that this currently works in EarMaster. is that you start with Do Re, then Do Re Mi, then add Fa, etc. until you have all the 7 notes of the diatonic scale. In the end there's also a bit of minor and harmonic minor. I'm not sure how these melodies are being generated, but most of them are very jumpy (many skips emphasizing Fa to Ti or the other way around and lots of big skips in a row) and once 8th notes are added, they are nearly impossible to grasp.

Many sight-signing methods, on the other hand, start by only outlining the tonic triad, thus using only Do Mi Sol (Do') and La Do Mi (La') as pitch material. From here, the gaps between the chord tones are added, creating scalar figures like Do Re Mi Fa Sol Fa Mi Re Do, etc. After this, more distant skips are added, such as Do to Fa or Mi to La, etc. More advanced stuff would probably be adding chromatic notes to tonicize the sol and from there it can really go anywhere.

This, of course, is only my own and many solfège teachers' vision, but I would really recommend revising the way the sight-singing course is structured right now, since the main reason I purchased EarMaster was to get better at sight-singing.

[Quentin]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your feedback. There is no doubt that there are many approaches to learning solfege and sight-singing. The approach taken by EarMaster is similar to the one you will find in 'Beginning Ear Training' by Gilson Schachnik, published by Berklee Press. It is definitely not uncommon and focuses on a more empirical approach to sight-singing and solfege than the other method you are referring to. Fortunately, it is very easy to configure EarMaster to do almost anything you need, and you can set up exercises that match your personal preferences better.