So, I got this question today about S-Cubed on TpT...

When I first started sharing my work online, I had no idea what I was doing. 

I just wanted to share the work and get it out there because I thought it would help some teachers.  

I wanted to create something I wish I had when I started teaching this age group.

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Back then...

People would ask honest, open questions about sight singing or about how to handle a classroom management situation in the middle school choral situation or how to build their choral programs...I would answer. 

Sometimes, I would even answer a question that I'd seen on social media and then post an answer as if they'd asked me personally.

...all on my little blog...probably 12 people saw it...but that's ok with me.  

I'd post things on my blog with no photos...nothing but information I'd gleaned from teaching this age group for the last 432 years.   :-)     ...mostly because I didn't know how!

It's gay camp...I can't resist.  

On August 3, 2021...hopefully toward the end of the pandemic (???), I decided it was time to get back to my roots and do it again...

....because this happened today...

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The question-

I've been reviewing a lot of your freebies! My solfege is NOT as strong as my ability to use scale degrees (numbers) and I'm wondering if this is something that is easily adaptable to using scale numbers (1, 2, 3) instead of solfege or if there is a lot of written material that would need to be revised. Totally understand that solfege & Curwen are utilized by choirs; but I'm vocal and instrumental and my Music Theory background really emphasized numbers. Willing to use a hand signal (the American Sign Language handsigns for the numbers) instead of Curwen. What do you think? Would using numbers instead of solfege & Curwen create a lot of extra work? Or is it more or less just a straightforward switch? Thank you for taking the time to respond to questions!

Here is my answer-

Thank you so much for your interest!

Let me just tell you a little bit about why I created this the way that I did…

When I entered music school as a freshman, I had no sight singing ability at all.  In college when I needed to do well in my sight singing  course, I knew that I couldn’t sight sing, so I played them on the piano and put them on recording so that I could just listen to them over and over and over.   Then, when I was in the test, I usually was able to recognize the motion and the skips and rhythms of the examples, and I was able to sing it.  

Voila…while I watched my Freshman peers drop out of music school because they couldn’t sight sing either, I got an "A” in sight singing simply because I figure out a way to get an A. 

But I couldn’t sight sing. 

When I created this program, I aimed all of my energies at making sure that what happened to me did not happen to other students.

  

How is it possible that I… a person privileged enough to have had piano lessons as a child… Could graduate high school and enter his freshman year in a music school and not be able to sight sing? 

I had never used solfege in my entire public school K-12 education before it was introduced to me at my university.

I had not even used numbers.  

I had never used and did not even know about the hand signs.   

I did not use the hand signs until I took a Kodaly course at NYU in 1996 because my husband and I happened to move nearby for a few years.  At the time, I was 34 years old.  

I had been teaching since 1989 at that point.

So I incorporated them very slowly through a game… (lesson 1-forbidden pattern).   …Mainly so that I could get used to using the hand signs with repetition with my daily classes because I was so uncomfortable using them.  

And then one step at a time I developed each of the processes that you’ll find an S-Cubed.  

They are designed to take you and your students step-by-step… 

And the results are really worth the patience and the effort.  

The results are profound.   

Once I figured it out with my own students, I heard and saw the results and the empowerment they felt by they abilities, and it was amazing.  

Every time I hear from teachers who are just learning about this program for the first time, I say to them…If you purchase it, just take it one lesson at a time. When you have purchased it, you have purchased something that, if you stay committed to, will change your teaching and change how your students respond to you…

And it will stick with your students forever. 

They will not enter music school… If they choose to do so… Unable to sight sing.  

If they choose to sing with a Community Chorus, they will have an enormous number of tools to help them take the music off the page without the help of the piano.  

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So… Yes… That’s my answer… Numbers can work for sure, but I don't know of any program that anyone has created that takes one step by step through the process… That's was I aimed to do with S-Cubed.  

This program is not designed for numbers…

I have laid it all out step-by-step and all you have to do is to trust it, and take it one step at a time. 

It's not new.  I've been using it since 1996.  I started sharing it in 2013 here on TpT because I couldn't get any publishers to take a look after trying for 3 years.  

It's had hundreds and hundreds of reviews on TpT, and I've shared emails here.  http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/p/reviews-of-s-cubed.html

From 2009 until 2012, I tried to get the major publishers to accept this program, and my calls went unanswered.

It's happened the way that it should happen, and I'm grateful.

The path that I found is documented all on the web for years now, and it can work for anyone who commits to 10 minutes per day 3-5 days per week.  

If you have any other questions, email me-

inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com

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This is my truth.

Hoping it helps you, your fellow teachers and your district.

Best,