June 4th Community Singers Concert

I lead a community chorus called Community Singers whose purpose is to promote peace through music.  Please join us on Saturday, June 4th for a free concert of joyful music for all ages. You'll hear songs from many styles and cultures along with familiar folk songs for singing along. You’ll leave with a smile on your face, a song in your heart and a deeper sense of the common bonds that unite us all. The concert is on Saturday, June 4th, 7-8 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte, 234 N. Sharon Amity Road in Charlotte.

taking a break until May 12th

I will not be posting any new music lessons until May 11th or 12th.  I've got some catching up to do.

sight singing "Crawdad"

The song in this lesson is an old fiddle tune, "Crawdad Song" also called "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole".  This song gives you practice sight singing syncopated and dotted rhythms in 4/4 and cut time.  Cut time is when the song is written in 4/4 time and you make the beat the half note rather than the quarter note.  This makes the time signature 2/2 instead of 4/4.  The song is notated  in D major on the bass or F clef and uses only the pentatonic scale tones sl drm sl.  The tonic is D.  Try pausing the video and sight singing the song on your own before watching the video.

chords for Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)

This lesson adds the chord progression (I, IV, I, V) and the high part for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".  The back up "Wimowehs" are sung on the chord tones in the chord progression.

syncopation practice in 4/4

Today's lesson gives practice sight singing syncopated rhythms and the scale tones drmfs in the key of G major.  You will only sing the melody in this lesson.  Subsequent lessons will add the harmony and chord parts.

comparison of syncopated rhythms

Today's lesson compares three syncopated rhythms and shows how they are actually all the same pattern.  The time signatures used are 4/4, 4/8, 4/16, 2/4 and 2/8. 

sight singing with syncopation

Today's lesson gives you practice sight singing dotted and syncopated rhythms with a comparison of the rhythms in 4/8 and 2/4 time. 

syncopation practice

Today's lesson gives you rhythmic and melodic sight singing practice with "Tom Dooley". 

introduction to syncopation

Syncopation is when the rhythm of a song has the accents on the upbeat rather than the downbeat.  Today's lesson gives you an introduction to syncopated rhythms with the eighth-quarter-eighth pattern.

sight singing "Pachelbel's Canon"

Today's lesson is sight singing practice with a simple version of "Pachelbel's Canon".  The soprano and alto parts move with stepwise motion in parallel thirds as the bass line moves in descending 4ths.  There are also two simple melody lines.  Get a group together and sing all five parts.

major and minor thirds

Today's lesson explains and demonstrates major and minor thirds in the context of a C major scale.

sight singing practice in G major

Today's lesson gives the answers to yesterday's solo sight singing of "Down in the Valley" with the melody and two harmony parts.  You can sing along with me or try singing a different part than the one I sing. 

solo sight singing

Here is "Down in the Valley" with the melody and  two harmony parts.  It is in a major key. Remember to find the tonic first by looking to the last note in the melody. If you don’t have a pitched instrument to give you your tonic pitch, just pick a note that is comfortable for you to sing. The beauty of moveable “do” is that the relationships of the notes remain the same regardless of which key you sing it in. Tomorrow I will give you the answers.

sight singing practice in D major

Today's lesson is sight singing practice in the key of D major.  Try pausing the video and doing the sight singing yourself before I guide you through it.  Hopefully, you will be able to recognize the song before I tell you what it is.

sight singing "I Love the Flowers"

Today's lesson is sight singing practice with the song "I Love the Flowers".  This is a great round that I learned in Girl Scouts many years ago.  If you like, you can listen to it sung as a round and print out the song sheet.  The song sheet and audio file are in a different key from the YouTube lesson.  See if you can figure out the key.