Sight-Singing SOLFEGE VS. NUMBERS

Allowing teachers to use which ever method they prefer would greatly benefit the students: Teachers are much more likely to develop a positive attitude towards teaching sight-singing if they are allowed to choose a specific instructional method to use in the classroom. (1) As extensive research has shown, students generally perform better when their teacher has a good attitude. This is especially true with sight-singing. When teachers feel passionate about the method they use, they will likely become more ingenious in presenting sight-singing to the students. (1) This creates a fun filled learning environment for everyone and motivates students to work harder, both in and outside of class. Moreover, as the students express greater enthusiasm for sight-singing, music teachers will likely dedicate more rehearsal time to learning this technique. This would be highly beneficial for numerous students, since sight-singing is under taught in many American schools. As one study determined, more than fifty percent of choral directors do not include sight-singing instruction in their daily curriculums. (1) Clearly, students would benefit greatly if their instructor could choose which sight-singing system to use. Learning seven simple syllables is not that difficult: My opponent continues to insist that learning solfege takes a considerable amount of class time. If this were the case, students who used the numbers system should have scored significantly higher in the experimental studies I described in round one. However, this was clearly not the case. Both sight-singing systems have advantages and disadvantages: My opponent notes that numbers are used in identifying intervals, and thus, they can be integrated with the study of music theory. This does appear to be an advantage to using numbers with students who are just beginning to learn about intervals and triads. Nevertheless, there are also several advantages to using solfege. For instance, the traditional solfege syllables are much more conducive to promoting open, pure vowel sounds than numbers are. Therefore, choirs which use solfege are likely to have better overall tone quality. Studies indicate that roughly 15 percent of choir directors prefer to use solfege for this reason alone. (2) Furthermore, many teachers use numbers to count rhythm, especially in middle and high-school. If these teachers were to adopt a counting system to describe pitches, there may be some uncertainty as to which usage of numbers is intended. My opponent points out that syllables could be used to count rhythms instead of numbers. However, studies have shown that high-school students tend to perform better when they use numbers to count rhythms. (3) Conclusion: On net, the advantages of using numbers roughly balance the advantages of using solfege. Thus, teachers should feel free to use which ever method they feel most comfortable with. This would help teachers develop a positive attitude towards teaching sight-singing. As a result, students would be more likely to enjoy which ever method is used and work towards perfecting their sight-singing skills. References: 1.http://etd.ohiolink.edu... 2.http://gradworks.umi.com... 3.http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu...