Stephen Larson

2

Abstract

Published materials to teach sight-singing in an SATB, mixed-voice choral setting are few. This

master's project set out to create classroom materials to fill this need. First, a survey of 13 sight-
singing methods marketed for use in high school choir resulted in only two books completely

devoted to mixed-voice exercises; the remainder consisted only of unison, two-part, and a rare
three-part exercise. Previous research shows, however, that singers sight-sing best with a
harmonic structure (Boyle, 1990). Second, following the suggestion of Demorest (2001) and
McGill and Volk (2007) that hymn tunes set in four-part harmony are a useful source of
repertoire for choral sight-singing, this master's project created new sight-singing materials
utilizing chorale-style hymns. As moveable-do is the most widely accepted solemnization
system in the United States (Kuehne, 2007), this mixed-voice sight-singing material was also

prepared with solfège written under the notes. Finally, to evaluate student reaction to the sight-
singing sheets printed with solfège, a non-scientific experiment was carried out to determine if

high school students would choose to use this helpful instructional scaffolding if given the
opportunity to do so. For the purposes of the experiment, the music was printed double sided,
with the syllables under the notes on one side of the page, while a duplicate of the music was

printed on the reverse, without the solfège. Over the period of one month, choral students sight-
sang from these sheets, and were encouraged to use the solfège assistance for as long as needed.

Data showed that most students used the pages with solfège syllables as long as they continued
to be available.… (mehr)