Do Singers Need Music Theory?

Do Singers Need Music Theory?

Singers are truly unique in the music world. We started learning how to play our instruments at birth. Our instruments go everywhere with us. And we need no formal lessons to become fairly proficient with our instruments – yes, this is coming from a voice teacher! You can learn to use your instrument without ever reading a note and be considered a “good singer”. Given all of this, do singers need music theory?

It depends.

How far can your ear take you?

In the twenty years of teaching, I would guess that half of the students that I worked with came to me either not being able to read music at all or having very basic knowledge. While I do incorporate music theory lessons into all of my lessons — even for those that read music already — these students were doing ok when they started with me. They learned their songs and met their vocal goals. In many cases, they didn’t focus on the music theory as much as I would have liked. They were there to sing! At some point, though, they always ran into some limitations that slowed their learning or goal achievement.

Learning the language

Much like learning to speak, learning to sing comes naturally for us. If we are surrounded by music when we’re babies, we’ll most likely start making music ourselves. We start by singing nursery rhymes, and as we get older, we sing along with the radio. In school, we might join choir or try out for the Spring musical. As adults, we sing in church, join a community chorus, or hit the karaoke bar. Depending on our interests and upbringing, we may become fluent “speakers” of music while never reading a note. For many musicians, this is as far as they go, and that’s fine.

When do singers need music theory?

When singers want to move into more complicated repertoire, music theory becomes essential. As lines get more complicated, our ears start missing important elements. While it’s possible to learn an opera aria or Stephen Sondheim song by ear, it might be very slow going. Without the visual cues to help guide your learning, you may end up teaching yourself the wrong thing and have to go back and re-learn it. Learning by ear means we don’t have as much written down for us – that we can read, at least.

In my article “How to Learn a Song”, I discuss the importance of the pencil. If you make a note in your music, you will more likely remember it. You can do this in your music whether you can read it or not. However, I often have students making notes in their music that tell them how to interpret what’s there instead of reading the music itself. Besides being able to interpret complicated phrases, music theory helps with learning harmonies and keeping track of phrases that are similar, but not completely the same.

Sight-Singing

Many of us can pick up a book and read a paragraph from it easily. However, plenty of good singers cannot pick up a piece of music and just sing it. Sight-reading and sight-singing are not exactly analogous, but the basic idea is the same. In both cases, you can read the language well enough to recite/sing what’s on the page with a certain degree of accuracy. Many singers don’t need this skill, but choral singers, musical theatre performers, session singers, and paid soloists absolutely need these skills.

When I started my career, I was hired as a soprano section leader for a large church music program. I was still taking lessons and I was considered a very good singer. During my audition, the director handed me a song that the choir had sung the previous week, gave me the starting pitch, and asked me to sing it. I handed it back to him, thanked him for his time, and told him that I couldn’t sight-sing the piece. Probably because he was desperate to fill the spot and we were coming towards the end of the season, he hired me anyways, but told me I needed to be able to sight-sing by the end of the season. Because I already could read music, it didn’t take me long to get my skills up to snuff. I stayed at that position for twenty years. If you want to be a leader in your choir or if you have goals to sing professionally, sight-singing will give you a leg up.

What do singers need for music theory?

If you are starting from scratch, break your learning into several broad chunks. While you’ll find plenty of overlap along the way, below presents an order for your learning. You may not need everything listed here, but even some of these concepts will help you become a stronger singer. If you’re looking for resources, at the end of this article, I provide links to books and websites that I use in my studio with my students. All of these are user-friendly – you don’t necessarily need a teacher to benefit from them.

Rhythm

• Note & Rest Types – learn their durations and how to count them.
• Time Signatures – what does the top and bottom number signify?
• Measures/bars – how is the music divided up?
• Syncopation – an advanced topic, but if you sing modern music and/or jazz, spend some time on this.

Pitches

When I teach, pitch and rhythm topics end up woven together to start. Once we get through the basics, the two concepts get separate treatment.

• Tonic Sol-Fa – DO-RE-MI isn’t just for nursery school. I find this system extremely effective for learning music intervals and sight-singing. I start with Tonic Sol-Fa first.
• Note Names – Depending on your range, you should learn treble clef and maybe bass clef. If you’re a treble voice (singing in the alto or soprano range), treble clef is all you need. Tenors use the treble clef, but sing an octave lower than what’s written. Basses sometimes use bass clef when especially singing choral music. Their solo music sometimes is written on the treble staff (to be sung an octave lower) or bass clef. Learn to identify the notes by letter name on the staff you use.
• Music Intervals – the distance between two notes. Bare minimum: Major 2nd, 3rd, 6th; minor 3rd; Perfect 4th, 5th, octave; Tritone. If you sing jazz, add the major and minor 7th to your list.
• Accidentals – sharps, flats, and naturals
• Key Signatures – learn how to read them and where DO lives for each of them.
• Relative Majors & Minors – an advanced concept, but incredibly useful to understand the overall tonality of your song

Harmony

If you sing harmony, improv, or like to riff, this list will help you hear your part faster.

• Triads, including why the 3rd is so important.
• If you sing jazz, add chords with 7ths to your list – Major and Minor 7 chords and Dominant 7s.
• Learn how to “improv” harmony using these basics.
• Pentatonic scale – especially useful for riffing.

Resources

If you are convinced that singers need music theory but don’t have a teacher, you can teach yourself. The resources below can be used individually or in combination with each other. If you’re already singing, you might discover that you know more than you thought!

Books

• The Full Voice Series by Nikki Loney & Mim Adams – While this was written for kids, these books work well for adults too. I have used this series for years with students of all ages. The books present music theory for singers in an easy-to-access kind of way. While I wouldn’t recommend for them for a kid to work through on their own, older teens and adults could get a lot out of the books without the help of a teacher.

• Alfred’s Music’s Essentials of Music Series – Before I discovered The Full Voice series, I used this one. Unlike The Full Voice, it comes with do-it-yourself ear-training exercises. The downside of this series is that it’s not specifically written for singers as The Full Voice is. It’s a solid book, but it doesn’t do a deep dive into some of the skills that singers specifically require.

Online Resources

While these sites stand on their own, I usually use them as supplements to the learning my students and I do in lessons. If you don’t have the budget to buy workbooks, though, these sites contain tons of information. Like the Alfred’s book above, these sites do not focus on the skills that singers need, but they’re still excellent resources.

• MusicTheory.net – The website features a series of lessons that walks you through the basics of music theory. Under Exercises, you’ll find activities to practice what you learned. It includes ear-training exercises. All the content on their website is free. They also sell music theory apps for iPhones and iPads.
• Teoria – I have recommended Teoria for years. Not only does this site contain the basics, it delves into more advanced topics. It covers everything from the basics up to college level theory.
• Toned Ear – Toned Ear focuses on ear-training exercises only. It assumes you know the theory behind the exercises. That said, this site complements any of the above resources, especially the books.

Go forth and learn!

While not every singer needs music theory, I would argue that most singers could benefit from it – especially if they’re singing in a group setting. Not all professional singers read music well, but depending on where and what they are singing, not knowing at least the basics might hold them back in their career.

If you’re starting from scratch or if you need help taking your singing to the next level, I can help! Book a free Discovery Call with me today.