Solfege Exercises
Reflection:
After watching the video, I found my intonation to be slightly problematic whenever I sang "mi". I think this is partially to do with the vowel shape, seeing as though it's very easy to fall a little flat on "ee". However, I believe the main reasoning behind this is the fact that in this context, I treated "mi" as somewhat of a transition note, therefore not paying it much attention when it came to support or intonation. This is something I now know I will need to pay extra attention to in the future. Intonation is something that needs to be constantly thought about, not just at the beginning and end of a phrase.
Canons
Reflection:
I feel as though I definitely put a lot more musicality into the exercises this time around, especially for number 18. There were definitely elements of nice phrasing, specifically on ascending passages - the descending ones were a little more choppy. I feel as though this might be because I concentrate more on intonation when notes are descending (due to the fact that I find it harder to stay in tune) and so I wasn't focusing as much on phrasing. Now for number 19, I feel as though the intonation was slightly more off than it was in number 18, and I think that's because this one had several instances where the two parts were in unison. I find that it's far easier to tune up to a part when the notes are in harmony. When they're in unison, it becomes much more difficult because even the slightest bit of discrepancy with intonation will be noticeable.
On the Moor
Reflection:
This homework assignment turned out to be a little harder than I expected it to be. Tuning up to myself was incredibly difficult, especially once there were all four parts because there were so many other tracks that I was trying to listen and tune up to at the same time. I also struggled a bit with making sure the tempos of all three tracks lined up perfectly. This time around I didn't use a metronome, I simply listened to the other parts and tried to match their tempos, which definitely created a challenge in making sure everything lined up. However, I feel as though taking away the metronome helped quite a lot with the musicality. I was really focusing on creating beautiful phrases, and I realized once I listened to the first track that by doing this, I actually pushed and pulled back a little bit on the tempo as I went along. This definitely felt and sounded far more musical, rather than sticking to a strict tempo the whole way through. Overall I was quite happy with the musicality of the final product, however I do think there is still work to be done on my intonation. I feel as though I tend to focus too much on one or the other. My goal is to work on being able to divide my attention equally on both.
Canon #132
Reflection:
Before recording this canon, I thought it would be very hard to stay in tune due to how busy the melodic line is. However, once I actually began to sing it, I realized it was actually much easier than in previous exercises. I think this is because it’s more common to become a little flat on sustained notes, so I guess it would make sense that while singing a fast moving melody, you’d run into this problem far less. In terms of the musicality, I think I struggle more with keeping that in mind as the number of voice parts increase. I just get very flustered with all the parts I’m trying to listen to, and so I feel the need to put all of my focus towards staying in tune and keeping up with the tempo. This is something I definitely need to continue working on.
Learning Canon #75
Reflection:
Learning this canon was quite the challenge. There were several intervallic leaps that I didn’t see coming and wasn’t used to, such as do to la and do to fa. I found I had to repeat these jumps over and over again until I could really get them into my head. I also interestingly noticed that there were several times where I struggled going down to fa from sol. This surprised me since it’s step-wise motion and therefore should be quite simple. However, we haven’t incorporated fa into our solfege exercises nearly as much as we have the other syllables, so it makes sense that this particular syllable is still quite unfamiliar to my ear. Furthermore, when singing sol in past exercises, we almost always jump down to mi, so I think this is another reason why I had trouble finding that fa.
Canon #84
Reflection:
I found the most difficult part of this canon, by far, was counting and the alignment of the parts. The ties that went over the bar lines made it incredibly hard for me to keep track of the downbeat seeing as though it often had somewhat of a syncopated feel. I had to record several parts over again because I kept losing track of what beat I was on due to the ties throwing me off. That being said, I found I had far less trouble with my intonation and phrasing than in past exercises. I absolutely loved this melody, which made it really easy for me to sing this as musically as possible because I didn’t even really have to think about doing it - it sort of just came naturally. In terms of the intonation, similarly to Canon #132, the large amount of movement in the melody made it easier for me to stay in tune (sustained notes are where I run into most of my intonation problems). Overall, I feel as though I’m definitely improving when it comes to dividing my focus amongst all aspects of the technique behind singing these canons - or any music for that matter!
Canon #85
Reflection:
This has by far been the canon that I had the most difficulty with in terms of making the parts align. There are so many rests, and so following along with the other parts becomes substantially more difficult seeing as though half the time, you’re trying to follow along with silence. This particular exercise really tested my counting skills. I had to not only count, but also feel the pulse internally throughout the whole canon in order to ensure that all parts stayed together. Furthermore, I also found it slightly more difficult to make beautiful, musical phrases due to all of the rests. However, I simply had to keep in mind that I had to “sing through the rests” in the sense that I had to avoid treating them as periods, but rather treat them as commas instead. The idea isn’t necessarily complete just because there’s a pause in it!
Minor Solfege Improvisation
Reflection:
I found this exercise to be far more outside of my comfort zone than improvisation with major solfege. I definitely noticed that this limited my creativity in that I was hesitant to take risks, and I confined myself to only 5 or 6 notes of the scale. I believe I simply need to continue practicing with using minor solfege, because that’s really the only way for me to become more comfortable with it and therefore be able to explore it to its fullest potential.
Major / Minor Canons
Reflection:
I had to practice this exercise quite a few times before getting the intonation just right. I found it very hard when recording the canon in the mode opposite to the original (ie. recording a major canon in minor and vice versa). Since the original melody and solfege was so engraved into my mind, I found it very difficult to hear it in the opposite mode. I would either have problems with intonation because my habit was to sing the pitches the original way, or I would get the right pitches but then mess up the solfege by, again, saying it the original way. That being said, I think this was an excellent exercise to really work my musical brain. I had to pay attention more than ever to the solfege syllables and really think about its proper pitches.
Canon #38
Reflection:
I found it quite difficult to achieve proper intonation when I first added the second part. It took a while for me to really get the key and mode into my brain, but once I did, I found it much easier to stay in tune. It also became easier once I added the third part, because I was able to use the other voices as a form of reference for what I was singing. This required me to listen very intently so that I could tune up to the other parts as accurately as possible. I find that the more parts there are, the easier it is to stay in tune seeing as though you’re provided with several different reference points for making consonant intervals.
Canon #41
Reflection:
The challenges of this canon were definitely the two leaps: la - fa, and la - re. I had to repeat these intervals over and over a few times to get them into my head, but once I did they actually became my favourite part of the canon. The use of fa’s in general in this canon was so incredibly beautiful because of the crunchy harmonies it created. I personally love the use of these slightly dissonant intervals that resolve to consonance - I feel as though it really draws the listener in.
Minor melody with pedal tone
Reflection:
I found that the addition of the pedal tone with this melody really helped me stay in tune. It acted as a constant reference point for my intonation so I could always tell whether or not I was singing in tune. I also just wanted to comment on the fact that I felt far more liberated to really push and pull the tempo with this melody because it wasn’t a canon. When recording the canons, I always feel the need to keep the tempo really strict in order to ensure that the parts all line up. It was nice to be able to let go of that worry for this exercise and simply focus on singing a beautiful, musical melodic line.
Canon #49
Reflection:
It took a while for me to get the sound of “fi” into my head, but once I did, it was surprisingly easy to sing. This was especially true once I began to add in other voice parts. I always find that tricky solfege syllables become much easier to sing once they’re in relation to other parts, because then you can hear them functioning as a harmony rather than an individual note. I find that everything always seems to make much more sense once I can hear how it fits into the overall puzzle.
The Christ Child's Lullaby
Reflection:
The hardest part about recording this song was definitely the fact that it was written in (what we assume is) the mixolydian mode. It took me a while to really get the solfege, because I kept thinking that my syllables were incorrect since I’m not used to referring to do as sol. However, once I did get the solfege, it made it significantly easier to get the correct pitches. Thinking about this piece in a normal major mode was really difficult to hear due to the lowered leading tones. So once I was able to think of these notes as fa, I didn’t even have to think twice about what pitch I was supposed to be singing.
The Alphabet
Reflection:
Contrary to most of the canons we’ve been doing, almost every single beat in this 3-voice piece created a chord, so it was more important than ever to make sure the intonation was super accurate. That being said, it was because of all of the sonorities that I actually found it quite easy to stay in tune since I was constantly listening to the related chord tones in the other voices. This was especially noticeable when I was recording the chromatic lines in the lowest voice. I was struggling a bit with staying in tune when practicing this part on its own, but once I heard how it fit in with the other voices I had no troubles at all. I feel as though this is because I stopped thinking about the notes as individual pitches and starting thinking about them as chord tones.
Dictation Exercise
Reflection:
The trickiest part about this exercise was definitely the octave leaps in the lowest voice. I find that it's very hard to get the perfect pitch when you jump down or up to a note from a large interval. When singing step-wise motion, good intonation is fairly easy to maintain because it's easy to hear the following pitch in your ear before singing it. However, when singing big leaps, you have to work a lot harder to hear that pitch because it's nowhere near the one you're currently singing. I had to practice these intervals quite a bit before recording a track that I was satisfied with in terms of the tuning.
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Reflection:
This was a really fun song to record! I had a lot of fun playing around with adding notes to the tenor and bass parts. I had to sing through a few different versions until I was able to find harmonies that I felt really fit into the piece. I found it interesting that often times, what I thought would be the obvious harmony to add didn't actually sound the best with the other voices. It was often a solfege syllable that I never would have originally thought of that ended up making the most beautiful harmonies. However, once I looked at things from a theory perspective, it made a lot more sense as to why these harmonies sounded the most consonant and appropriate in the song.
Once in Royal David's City
Reflection:
This was the first exercise I've done in this course where I had the chance to really explore my lower range. I wanted to keep the harmonies as authentic to the original score as possible, so I kept the tenor and bass parts as close to their original octave as I could. In doing this, I noticed that for me, it is far more difficult to stay in tune when singing in a really low register. I felt as though it required so much more work to maintain accuracy in the pitch, so I had to work extra hard when recording these parts to ensure they tuned up to the soprano and alto lines. My guess is that this is because I hardly ever sing in this register, so these pitches were very unfamiliar to my ear. When looking at a soprano or alto note on a score, I'm usually quite accurate in getting the right pitch because I know how those notes are supposed to feel in my voice. But for those lower TB notes, I had no idea how they felt in my voice before I gave it a try.
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
Reflection:
This was the second recording where I was able to sing in my low range, so it was definitely easier this time around since I now have had more practice with it. That being said, it is still very difficult to control the intonation down in that register because low notes require SO much air, which means you have to really support the sound. The other thing I wanted to talk about was the tempo of the piece. It is already quite slow to begin with, but I decided to record it at an even slower tempo so that I could really make use of the extra long beautiful phrases. It’s definitely a lot easier to shape a phrase when you have more time and space to do so. The next step would be figuring out how to create just as beautiful a phrase with a faster song!
Pop Song Solfege
"You Are The Reason" by Calum Scott
Reflection:
What a fun exercise this was to record! I decided to pick a random song off of my everyday playlist rather than purposefully choose a song that I thought would be easy to find the solfege to, just to see what would happen. However, when scrolling through my songs, I realized that nearly every single one of them had an incredibly easy melody to sing solfege to. It’s amazing how such simple, beautiful tunes can earn so much success. I was also surprised by how fast I was able to figure out the solfege. This was essentially a creative dictation exercise, so it was a chance to put the skills that we’ve been working on in class to the test. I have to say, I can definitely tell that there has been such an improvement in my ear training skills when it comes to solfege.
What Child is This
Reflection:
This piece was full of really beautiful harmonies. My absolute favourite one occurred in the third system where the tenor part starts the phrase on a "ti". This harmony was a little hard to find at first because it's not at all what your ear expects to hear, but once I got it, I couldn't get it out of my head because of how much I loved it! This one note completely changes the flavour of the chord and really pulls us to want to resolve to the next chord. I find that these tendency tones really help me with my phrasing because I naturally want to grow when holding a dissonant tone that wants to resolve. In my opinion, adding phrasing and musicality always sounds the best when it happens naturally due to the content of the music itself as opposed to when it's forced.
Away in a Manger
Reflection:
I really liked how this song started with both parts in unison, then added alto harmonies, then added the tenor and bass parts on top of that. The layering effect was really cool and made the individual harmonies really stand out. I found that this allowed for some natural phrasing to occur because by adding parts, the dynamic level automatically increases and then goes back down when we slowly take them away again. I find that often times, the way that a certain piece is composed affects what I do with it musically. In this song, for example, the composer added and took away parts as the piece went on, so I was inspired to crescendo and decrescendo when singing the voice parts.
Carol of the Bells
Reflection:
Although beautiful, this was such a difficult song to record! I struggled the most with getting the correct solfege syllables due to how fast pace this piece is - it was very easy to stumble. There were also some interesting elements of chromaticism in the lower parts that added such a cool colour to the harmonies, however, I had some troubles getting the intonation really accurate. This was mostly because the other parts that I was listening to were often throwing me off. Overall, recording this song was definitely a big challenge, but I really feel like I used my ear training skills to their fullest extent!
Angels We Have Heard on High
Reflection:
The biggest obstacle I had when recording this song was tuning "mi", particularly when I approached it from a leap. I'm not sure why I find this particular solfege syllable so difficult to sing in tune, but it took me several attempts at recording the alto line until getting it to something that I was mostly satisfied with. I find that tuning becomes particularly difficult when it involves singing in unison with other voices because you can really tell if the intonation is off. Aside from that, this was a really beautiful piece to record. My favourite part was when there was the echoing motion throughout all four voices with the descending sequences. It formed a nice call and response that I really enjoyed!
God Rest You Merry
Reflection:
I absolutely loved how the first two phrases of this piece started with all four parts in unison and then out of no where they all broke off seamlessly into the various harmonies. This was such an incredibly beautiful effect, and it really made each individual part stand out. I had to work very hard to get perfect intonation during the unison portions of these phrases because even the slightest discrepancy was noticeable. However, once I was able to sing every single part perfectly in tune, it made the effect of breaking off into the various harmonies that much more effective because it sounded like there was just one voice singing and then all of a sudden there were these three additional beautiful harmonic lines.
The First Noel
Reflection:
When listening back to this recording, I noticed that I was phrasing each voice part differently. I think this is because since I recorded the parts separately, even though I had the other parts playing in the background, it was easy to think of each voice part as its own melody when recording them. Since every part was of course different, the way in which each one was composed lead me to phrase each one differently. However, once I put them all together, I realized that the finished product didn't have the musical effect I was going for. Now that I've learned this lesson, I'll be sure to identify the entire piece's overall phrasing before recording each part to ensure that every voice part is on the same page. I think this will be far more effective!
Bach, Cantata No. 197
Reflection:
This was definitely a very challenging piece to sing. In the middle on the song, there was either a modulation to V or an extended tonicization of V which made it really difficult to be able to find my way back to the original D=do. However, through simply repeating the parts over and over again while practicing until they were completely engraved in my brain, I was able to sing the notes sort of through muscle memory. Then, since I could actually sing the correct notes, it was really interesting to hear the shift in tonality. The other challenge to this piece was the fast eighth notes. Although they were eventually easy to sing, it was difficult trying to fit all of the solfege syllables in without getting tongue-tied. Again, this problem was easily fixable with lots of practicing!
Yonder Come Day
Reflection:
What a beautiful piece this was! This song is so simple, yet still so impactful due to its lovely harmonies. Building off of the conversation we had in class, I think it's easy to assume that due to the simplicity of this song that it would typically be done with younger children. However, everyone has varying levels of musical experience so it's important not to assume musical ability based on age. Also, even if a piece is more on the easy side like this one, that doesn't mean that it can be done with a group of more experienced musicians. Beautiful harmonies and lovely text are always wonderful additions to any choir's repertoire!
Two-Part Rhythm 7.1.1
Reflection:
I wanted to play around with a whole bunch of different timbres for this exercise, so I chose to do it twice, the second time being with two different timbres than the first. For the first repetition, I used percussive sounds; one was with my voice, the other was with my hand and the piano. Within this, I made sure to add dynamic contrast and phrasing even though there were no notes. For the second repetition, I wanted to incorporate pitches to create a completely different timbre, so I created an incredibly simple melody on the piano using only perfect fifths. This gave a completely different feel to the exercise in my opinion. It was really cool to see how two simple rhythms can be interpreted in so many different ways to create unique sounding “pieces.”
Three-Part Rhythm 7.1.1
Reflection:
Funnily enough, the hardest part of this exercise for me wasn’t actually the rhythm, it was the intonation! This isn’t what would be expected since each individual part is only sung on one pitch - seems like it would be super easy to sing. However, I noticed that it is incredibly difficult to stay in tune when singing the same pitch repeatedly. I had to really use my ear and listen very intently to the other parts in order to ensure that I was constantly tuning up to them. In addition to that, I had to really support my sound because even the slightest discrepancy in pitch would have been noticeable.
Three-Part Rhythm 6.1
Reflection:
This was a fun song to play around with before recording. This was clearly written to be a rhythm exercise only, so it was challenging to try to incorporate harmony into it due to all of the differing ties that occurred in the three parts. It was hard to find places where a shift to a different harmony went smoothly and seamlessly for every part, but in the end I think it sounded lovely! On a separate note, I found the overlapping rhythms to be really cool. On their own they were fairly simple and easy to sing, however when combined all together the parts complimented each other so nicely. I find that listening to surrounding parts is just as important when it comes to rhythm as it is in intonation. You have to really pay attention to the other rhythms to ensure that everything is locking in, because the slightest discrepancy will be noticeable.
Bach, Menuet
Reflection:
Before deciding on what I thought would be the most appropriate solfege throughout this song, I first had to analyze the score harmonically. I noticed that there was a modulation to V, so the next step was figuring out where the modulation occurred and when it modulated back to I. I decided to put the pivot chord in bar 19 for two reasons. Firstly, bar 20 already has a C# which means that by that bar, we're already in the key of V, so it makes sense that the pivot chord should be the bar before. Just to double check that this was true, I analyzed the chord in bar 19 in the home key (which was a vi chord) as well as in the key of V (which was a ii chord), and since this chord is diatonic to both keys, it makes perfect sense that that is where we pivot. I went through a similar process in determining when the pivot back to I, which ended up being in bar 24 before the C naturals came back in. After finishing all of this work, I adjusted my solfege throughout the song according to whatever key I was in.
Augmented Sixth Chord Models
Reflection:
Such beautiful chord progressions! I loved the dissonance and tension brought on by the augmented sixth chords. I found that recording each individual voice part at a time was quite easy. Most of the parts involved predominantly step-wise motion, so it was fairly simple to follow the score. Good intonation was also far easier to accomplish in this section because I was able to hear how each note fit into the overall harmony of the chord. This exercise became far more challenging once I had to sing each chord arpeggiated. Firstly, it was really hard to hear the jumps between voice parts, especially in the augmented sixth chords because of how chromatic they sound. Additionally, it was very difficult to stay in tune because I had no other notes to listen to as a form of reference. I really had to rely on my ear.
Bolyongas, Bartók
Reflection:
This song was quite the challenge! There were several key changes with really difficult transitions, which made it really hard to sometimes find my next note. However, I found that simply switching my "lah" or "do" to the tonic of whatever key I was in was a really helpful tool. This helped me hear the pitches in the context of each new key rather than simply trying to sing notes and figure out accidentals. I find that knowing how your part fits into the overall context of the piece makes a world of a difference in how easy it is to hold the part. I also think that it makes the piece as a whole sound much more in tune because listening to how one part fits in with the others results in constantly tuning up to ensure nothing goes sharp or flat. The use of solfege is also an excellent tool for this because I can see the chords made by the multiple voices which helps that much more with finding the correct pitches.
Siyahamba
Reflection:
This song is so simple to sing and yet so incredibly fun and beautiful! For those reasons, I think it would be an excellent song to do with a beginner level choir. It's very easy to teach by rote, and it is also quite repetitive which helps with making it easy to pick up quickly. But on top of all of that, the song is so fun and energetic! I think it's important to remember, especially when working with an inexperienced group of singers, that easy music doesn't at all have to be boring. Additionally, just because it's more on the simple side doesn't mean you also can't do it with an advanced experienced group of singers too! I think this would even be great as a warm-up to start rehearsal off on a high note while getting everyone engaged.
Say You Won't Let Go
Reflection:
I had such an incredibly fun time putting this recording together! It was really cool having completely free range to do whatever we wanted with our chosen pop song. I wasn't sure where to start at first, because I knew I wanted to do more than just chords for the "accompaniment" parts. So to gain inspiration, I listened to the song I chose and paid specific attention to the instrumental parts. I really loved the repeated motif in the guitar part, so I decided to keep that as one of my accompanying voices. Then, I listened closely to figure out what the chord progression of the song was, and once I had it figured out, I wrote the remainder of the accompanying voices based on those chords. I also added a bit of my own personal touch by incorporating some tension and dissonance that I absolutely love. Lastly, I finished off by recording the melody of the song! This was such a fun and simple assignment to play around with, and on top of everything, it was a great way to exercise my solfege skills!
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
Reflection:
What an incredibly creative piece! The concept behind it seems so simple - shift the second part a beat to the left each bar. However, in practice, executing it is quite difficult. Even though the metre stays consistent the whole time, the sense of pulse and downbeat is constantly changing which makes it really difficult to stay in time. I found that in order to properly execute this, I had to pay just as much attention to the rests as I did to the claps. Knowing where to be silent is just as important as knowing where to come in. I also found that paying attention to how the second part fit into the ostinato part was really helpful. Seeing where the claps aligned and where they didn’t made it much easier for me to stay on track.