Dr. James Charles Woodward​

A Straightforward Approach to Sight Singing

Online Accompaniment Tracks:

Table of Contents:

Section 1:  Essential Rhythmic Skills
          Ch. 1:  Rhythm in Simple Time Signatures                             
          Ch. 2:  Rhythm in Compound Time Signatures             
          Ch. 3:  Accents, Ties, and Tempo                                  
          Ch. 4:  Other Common Time Signatures                             

Section 2:  Diatonic Melodies
          Ch. 5:  Solfege & Stepwise Motion from Do to So                 
          Ch. 6:  Stepwise Motion from Do to Do                        
          Ch. 7:  Leaps Among the Tonic Triad                                     
          Ch. 8:  Minor Solfege and Stepwise Motion                            
          Ch. 9:  Leaps Among the Minor Tonic Triad                          
          Ch. 10:  Leaping to the Tonic Triad                             
          Ch. 11:  Leaping to Tendency Tones                             
          Ch. 12:  Leaps Among Triads Other Than Tonic          
          Ch. 13:  Advanced Diatonic Melodies                                                          

Section 3:  Chromatic Melodies
          Ch. 14:  Stepwise Motion to and from Secondary Dominants 
          Ch. 15:  Secondary Dominants in a Minor Key            
          Ch. 16:  Leaps to and from Secondary Dominants                 
          Ch. 17:  Other Chromatic Notes                                              
          Ch. 18:  Tonicization and Modulating to Closely Related Keys
          Ch. 19:  Modulating to Distantly Related Keys             

Section 4:  Advanced Pitch and Rhythm
          Ch. 20:  Other Time Signatures                                              
          Ch. 21:  Multiple Modulations and Atonality                           
          Ch. 22:  Other Clefs                                                         
          Ch. 23:  Irregular Divisions of the Beat and Asymmetrical Meters
          Ch. 24:  Heavy Syncopation                                        

Textbook Adoptions:

Written with the instrumental music education major in mind, "A Straightforward Approach to Sight Singing" is the perfect text for students with very little (if any) singing background.  This Aural Skills Textbook of Jacksonville State University includes many duets and excerpts with accompaniment and features a wide range of styles and genres composed specifically to demonstrate the theoretical concept or musical skill to be learned.  The first three sections primarily use instrumentally familiar time signatures, key signatures, clefs, and a vocal range designed for untrained and secondary voices.  The fourth and final section focuses on advanced pitch and rhythm featuring multiple modulations, singing atonal melodies, alto and tenor clef, irregular divisions of the beat, and asymmetrical meters.

$25 plus $5 shipping

When the textbook is adopted, mp3s of all accompaniment tracks will be available to the instructors via Dropbox and Youtube.  Find the accompaniment to all solos and duets in the textbook via Youtube here (in progress):

We hope you will consider adopting "A Straightforward Approach to Sight Singing" for your Aural Skills classes and other courses.  Instructors, please contact Dr. Woodward to receive a PDF copy of the book.  To keep the book as affordable as possible to students, promotional copies are not sent through the mail.  An appropriate number of copies for instructors will be sent when the textbook is adopted at a program.