Customer Reviews

Solfege, Ear Training, Rhythm, Dictation, and Music Theory: A Comprehensive Course

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book isn't aimed at teaching music theory. Is about learning to sight sing and acquiring all the skills associated with that (pitch recognition, music dictation, etc.). The step by step approach is systematic. It starts with recognising and singing simple patterns first in major then in minor keys. The recognition of pitch is covered in tandem with learning to cope with increasingly complex rhythms. I've tried a few books and I find that the approached used here is the most intuitive I've come across. It's possible that different systems appeal to different people. I'm a choral singer with a basic grounding in music theory but my sight singing skills were poor. I don't think you need much music expertise to use this book other than the ability to read notes and key signatures. Ideally I would like to see this published in a workbook format (instead of a hard bound book) which could be left open easily on a music stand or at the piano.

I am a music education major at Florida Christian College...I purchased this book because my teacher switched over to it in the middle of the semester even though we were originally using a different sight singing and ear training book. The director of our music department who is a Julliard School of Music graduate recommended the change. The main reason being that the lessons in the book are so well structured were you get a ear training,rhythm,dictation, and music theory in a progressive fashion in every lesson. It's helping me a whole lot because I started working on my theory really late in life... so this book is perfect for a person like me who is not so good on sight singing and ear training but needs to get up to speed in a relatively short period of time. Again, "if you stick to it", due to the well thought out structure of this book anyone can learn how to sight sing and ear train a whole lot faster. As a result I am now enjoying my "Sight Singing Ear Training" class a whole lot more.

I have used this book before with a private tutor to study the the "G" and "F" clefs. Later I wanted to learn the "C" clefs and I have found that the alto and tenor solfeges further back in the book are excellent for self-study. I have taught myself to read the alto clef with the help of Dr. Ghezzo's book, and I'm starting on the tenor clef. There are also solfeges for change of clefs. I don't know of any similar book that is as thorough and comprehensive, and that works as well as this one. I hope that possibly in a future edition she will include a chapter on the soprano clef, but all-in-all this is an excellent book. I'm unsure of the distinction between "solfege" and "sight-singing;" you would have to be a graduate student or professional musician to sing some of these solfeges at sight. But they are all musical; some are quite nice, even beautiful, which does a lot for one's motivation. Dr. Ghezzo offers sensible, helpful advice for practice, such as "Practice the solfeges in small fragments, then connect the fragments." I agree that the book is systematic and intuitive. You just cannot help learning with this book. The exercises increase in difficulty gradually so that you are never overwhelmed and you end up going beyond what you thought you could do. Mel Powell says in his preface, "The results invariably have seemed to me akin to miracle-making." I do not think that is an exaggeration.

I had the privelege of studying Solfege with Dr. Marta Ghezzo. Prior to this study, I had tried solfege with many well-known professionals in the music industry without success. I am a professional singer and now carry this book whenever I am on tour or otherwise performing. The accompanying two CD's help keep your ear-training on point and the book is laid out in a manner that you can study on your own. The lesson progress at an even manner, and you practice, dictation, rhythms and ear training all in one. I highly recommend this book - it comes from one of the best in the profession.

I went through most of this book and used the fixed do system. It is very systematic which I appreciate. It goes from very tonal to atonal pieces. No book is perfect but I like this one a lot.
I also like Adlers too. That book has examples from real music or should I say masterpieces of music whereas in this book under review the examples were written by the author. I also experiment with thinking the solfege while singing on la, thinking numbers when a piece is in a key, thinking intervals-as recommended by adler. All have their benefits but overall singing solfege is just easier than singing on la which is what Hindemith recommended. I always visualize on my instrument(guitar) when singing this kind of stuff as well. I don't think I could turn that off if I wanted too excepting maybe by learning a different instrument and visualizing that. All in all it is an interesting process to go through and for me very time consuming and laborious but I sense that I hear music better as a result so that is why I do it.

Good book for Solfegio teachers. Would be hard for people, who wants to study Solfegio alone, because it requires assistance when it comes to exercise and dictation. I agree, that it is a "Comprehensive Course".

I really had great expectations about this book because of the previous reviews, but I got frustrated to see that it has such an old-fashioned approach. The exercises for sight singing progress based on the number of alterations that appear on the key signature. Today we know that the relationship between the different grades in a tonality are the same, wether you sing in D flat major or in D major or in any other key. The range of the melodies are quite difficult for singing and they are written in an instrumental style, not vocal. This is book is not a good choice for teaching sight singing.

This out-of-print book arrived in perfect condition. I was so happy with the price, delivery and condition.