Wikieducator.org/Whats the score?/Course description

What's the score?

A short course in reading sheet-music designed for singers and musicians with no or limited music theory or training. The aim is to be able to make good us of the score while you practice and play, so that your singing and playing becomes easier, better and pleasurable. In particular, we aim to reduce the need for lots of rote learning. If you can use the score to guide you, you will learn the song by making sense of it - rather than having to just do it over and over from memory.

It will include:

• an overview of the parts of a musical score
• reading rhythms - which notes are fast and which are slow
• basic time-signatures - counting and then conducting in blocks of 4, 3, or 2
• the first seven notes - do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti and back to do
• importance of internalising rhythm and pitch by conducting, singing, clapping
• reading pitch - following the blobs as they go up and down
• all 12 notes - including those pesky sharps and flats
• the formula for major and minor scales - including why some songs have some sharps, and others have flats, and some none at all
• reviewing some songs you already know and getting to know them better
• some good exercises to get you on a path to singing by sight