The practice of singing with two syllables involves choosing syllables according to where the minor thirds occur. In the major scale, 8, 5, 4, 2 and 1 are top notes of minor thirds, and 6, 3, 2, and the 7 and 6 below are the corresponding bottom notes of the minor thirds. Tuning is helped by employing melodies with falling minor thirds, especially initially emphasizing the minor third 5-3 when employing the major scale. The melodies or phrases, whether taught by rote or by note reading, would be sung with two syllables to help distinguish the minor thirds where they occur. The bottom notes of the minor thirds should, I think, be sung with a more 'closed' or 'tight' syllable or vowel than the top notes. Thus 8-6-5-3-1 could be sung as "ah-oo-ah-oo-ah". As I have tried to explain, many of the songs I have composed deliberately make all the top notes of minor thirds white notes and the bottom notes of minor thirds black notes, so that this helps to make note reading easy and rapid to teach after initial rote singing has been employed.
Children need to hear songs with basic pitch structures, sung in tune. I do think that their sometimes hearing the syllables from early childhood would be helpful to their developing tuning sense as well. That is my theory and passion for getting musical education products out on the market- lullabies, musical stories, and nursery rhymes to be heard from infancy through preschool which employ the two syllable system. These are just sitting at home on my computer and will die with me, I fear. Yes, I really think my "little songs" could change the world...
For singing both major and minor scales in tune later, young children need to hear and later sing melodies which employ minor thirds surrounded by major seconds first of all, especially, phrases like "C-A-G-A" ,which is an embellishment of the simplest melodic cadence, most instinctive, perhaps, the falling minor third. This is the 'primitive modal' pitch structure which our 'tonal' music in recent centuries overshadowed somewhat, and caused the singing ear to suffer decline slightly, perhaps, even as the listening ear became more sophisticated, and as society specialized out of amateur music making into musicians and listeners. We know that amateur music making in the family, even if rather a crude sort, like singing a bit out of tune in family worship, unaccompanied, just to help teach the children about Jesus, etc.- we know that such activities help born aptitude for music in very young children, whatever it may be, to be more fully actualized as real usable aptitude for music later in childhood and adulthood.
In the following explanation, the notes in parentheses are sung with the 'tuning vowel.' The tuning vowel is the tighter or more closed vowel in whatever two syllables you may choose, ah(oo), da(doo), ah(ee), da-(dee), hai(lo), da-(doh), etc.... The tuning vowel is used for the more 'sensitive' pitches, the bottom notes of the minor thirds.
From top to bottom, here are some examples of pitch structures in "Teaching Your Child" (see Preschooler Link): C-(A)-G-(E), and adding the D's on both sides: (D)-C-(A)-G-(E)-D. For tuning the major scale later, which is particularly problematic, they need to hear songs with the descending minor third 5-(3) sung against a low bass drone sounding the 1. In "Rhymes", my kindergarten book and CD, and "Stand, Middle, Sit", my first grade book and CD, this minor third as C-(A), is accompanied with a low F in the bass, so that the melody the children hear and sing are notes of the overtone series of the bass. Surely this helps tuning, especially since the 5 is the most resonant note of the overtones series. This falling structure may be embellished or prolonged- as in the instinctive "Ring Around the Rosie" motif, 5-5-(3)-(6)-5--(3). It may seem an odd place to start- 5-(3), but not a mention of 1. Hmmm. What is going on here? "Hot Cross Buns" is also a children's nursery rhyme, like "Ring Around the Rosie", but "Hot Cross Buns" employs (3)-2-1. Why am I saying to emphasize the "Ring Around the Rosie" pitch set more that the "Hot Cross Buns" pitch structure? Well, because (3)-2-1 is that part of the pentatonic scale which is hardest to sing in tune- the place where two major seconds are in a row. The other parts of the pentatonic scale are easier to sing in tune because of the minor thirds. The minor third is the interval most helpful in getting children to match pitch, and adults too, for that matter. When the minor thirds are linked by single major seconds, they are consistent as a pitch building structure, a kind of pitch map, greatly helpful to the developing singing ear. Notice that in this descending pentatonic structure, (D)-C-(A)-G-(E)-D, major seconds alternate with minor thirds, and the minor thirds sets are a fourth apart. The fourth is the 'rational' builder of melodic pitch structure. The fourth, it should be noted, is part of the instinctive "Ring Around the Rosie" motif. But what about the (3)-2-1? Instinctively we feel that it is important, simple, basic. It is, most certainly, but in a different way than the 5-(3), (6)5-(3), 8-(6)-5-(3) structures which exclude the double major second. In Schenkerian analysis, the falling (3)-2-1 melodic motion with I-V-I in the bass is the 'fundamental structure' of the melodic-harmonic motion of music past 1650 or so, embellished or "prolonged" in various ways by the great composers. I like to point out that this structure is 'listening ear'-concert-oriented more than 'singing ear'-oriented. In the major mode, the double major second (3)-2-1 is awkward to sing in tune, having no melodic "handle" of minor thirds. The 'singing ear' needs the 'intuitive' minor third 'handle' whereas the 'listening ear' listens for and delights in the (3)-2-1 because of it's 'rational' relationship to the bass I-V-I, derived from the lower part of the overtone series. To get the 'intuitive' singing ear to catch up to the sort of 'rational' music that the listening ear is attracted to with the major mode, the 5-(3) over the bass drone I must be heard and assimilated until the (3) is more independent of the 5.
The 5-(3)-1 falling motion of the major triad, then, derived from this natural falling motion of the minor third 5-(3), and further settling to 1, is preparatory for later embellishments, such as Schenker's (3)-2-1, perhaps first introduced with the minor third 'handle' as 5-(3)-2-1.
5-(3)-1 in major should be heard by children often, not so much 5-4-(3)-2-1 which is rather awkward for the singing ear just getting started, though indeed the listening ear may delight in it. There are many people who delight in pitch-complex or pitch-rational 'Classical' music, having been exposed to it from childhood. This music was created more for listening in the concert hall than for amateur singing. It 'dramatizes' and prolongs the tension of Schenker's 'Fundamental structure', the (3)-2-1. Sometimes the emotional tension or rational impertinence of the prolonged (3)-2-1 is less appropriate for religious music than the more placid and static tonal structure of earlier music, I would say. Renaissance music's use of the major mode seems more static, perhaps more coming out of the 5-(3)-1 structure more than the (3)-2-1 which Schencker pointed out as being the undergirding of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods of "classical" music. At any rate, these concert-going folks want to sing 'good' music in the church choir, but cannot sing it in tune, so it ends up being not very 'good'.
5-(3)-1 is the essential embryo of more complicated major mode melodies. Why do adults in our culture sing the major scale out of tune? Could it be that they did not hear and sing enough nursery rhymes and folk songs employing 5-(3)-1 , or (6)5-(3)-1, expressing and embellishing the essential cadential 5-(3), 5-1, and 5-(3)1 structure, as children? Essentially, these notes are the tuning centers, around which other notes are to be related later. I have noticed that choirs sing descending scales out of tune, going flat all the way down. They do not even sing the 5 in tune- "8-(7)-(6)-5.... and 5 is already flat. The 5 is the 'strong tuning note', which of all notes should have been planted strongly in the memory from childhood! It is called the "dominant" (Latin "domino" or "lord") for a reason, because it dominates the melody typically. It is better then, for an opening warm-up descending scale to begin with 5: "5-8-(7)-(6)-5-4-(3)-(2)-1", though I would start even with something more basic. The principle of beginning the major scale with the 5 for children, then, is also true with adults, when warming up the tonal sense of the choir through a kind of rapid review of basic tonal principles. I was told that the old bel canto solfege exercises always started with the 5, 'sol'.
When warming up a choir, I start with the basic notes- "5-(3)-1-(3)-5", "5-(3)-5-(6)-5", and "5-(3)-5-(3)-1", sung "Ah oh ah oh ah", perhaps- "tuning up" the tonal sense of the choir as well as "warming up" their voices. Then I expand to include the upper tonic: "5-8-5-(3)-1" sung "Ah-ah-ah-oh-ah". Then I add other notes, adding the "treacherous" 4 last, progressing to the descending scale, instead of beginning the warm-up with it as choir directors often do. It is essential that tuning be insisted on at the very beginning of rehearsal, if possible, otherwise, the whole rehearsal will be frustrated with intonation problems.
Using the two syllable approach in warm-ups helps to tune the more delicate notes around the more strong 'structural' ones, and helps the mind get a sense of the interval structure of the scale. The "structural" notes are those of the scale which are the top note of a minor third within the scale; they are sung with an open vowel, such as "Ah"- 8, 5, 4, 2, 1, and the lower 5. Bass lines love these structural notes and their strong relationship to the basic 1-5-1. The most stable structural notes are 8, 5, and 1, corresponding to the lower part of the overtone series, and therefore the most tunable, it would seem. The notes a minor third below the structural notes are more unstable, basically, and are sung with a tighter vowel, such as "oh", "oo", or "ee". Thus an example warm-up might be: "5ah 8ah (7)oh (6)oh 5ah (3)oh 1ah". An advanced one might be: "5ah (3)oh 4ah (3)oh 2ah (lower7)oh 1ah".
I heard an inner city child practicing the first step in this learning process instinctively with his younger brother, who was singing after him repeatedly, trying to match pitch (unsuccessfully): "5ah (3)oh 5ah". He was using these very two syllables with the minor third instinctively. The falling and returning minor third is the first step in matching pitch, and is a good place even for adults to begin a rehearsal. Thus, I might say to the choir: "Repeat after me: "5ah (3)oh 5ah" (they repeat), then "8ah (6)oh 8ah" (they repeat), and then, "5ah (3)oh 8ah (6)oh 5ah (3)oh 2ah (lower7)oh 1ah" . . .they repeat, then while they sustain the last note I play the dominant of the new key and sing 5 to the words- "up a half step!" and they repeat the phrase in the new key.
Creating a Musical Culture: Simple Music is best.
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