Sing and Play at the Piano L1

This book contains 59 pieces for voice and piano organised and proposed according to criteria developed over many years of teaching. They have proven to be reliable music material for a training course where the main objective is the development of a profound coordination by means of singing in tune while playing a second part at the piano. The melodies to be sung are composed on various melodic sets which are gradually introduced and systematically presented. The piano parts, to be contextually played while singing, present different grades of complexity, thus favoring a gradual approach to an increasing coordination, which this kind of practice requires.

The melodies to be sung have been composed on specific systems of tonal functions, forming various pseudo-pentatonic sets. Every new melodic set is divided into two sections: melodies written combining sol-fa syllables with a rhythmic line without the use of the stave, and melodies on the stave.

All melodies in this book can be sung using the solmisation system known as tonic sol-fa: the sol-fa syllables represent the degrees of the diatonic scale for the tonal model where the doh syllable represents the tonic of the major scale regardless of the key in which it lays. The syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si (ti) are abbreviated in: d r m f s l t.

At this level all pieces are notated without a key signature: accidentals, therefore, will appear at the moment, 'in itinere'. This method is adopted to accustom students to using absolute sounds belonging to a specific key, making them clear every time they are needed. At the same time, by using the sol-fa system, the student will adopt a unique syllable combined to a specific tonal melodic function, regardless of which key it is in.