[78-L] Early studio singers - question

[Mark Bardenwerper]

On 12/10/2011 12:21, Michael Biel wrote:
> In many cases they were recording brand new songs, so they were not yet
> familiar with many of them to record from memory.  But I think the real
> basis of the question was if could they read music or did they learn the
> melody by rote and sing the words from a lyric sheet.  Perhaps Jim Walsh
> knew -- did he write about this about some of his friends?  I have seen
> some photos of acoustic recording studios that had a wire with clips
> crossing the studio by the horn.  The sheets could be clipped to it
> instead of using a music stand or holding the music which might rub
> against the horn accidentally.
>
You can be fairly certain that most of them had some training in another 
instrument. Piano would be a common one, especially early on. So to pick 
out a melody would have been a simple task. Another form of training 
which is often forgotten now is solfege.

Solfege was a formalize method of learning vocal music utilizing 
syllabic symbols. For instance, the diatonic scale is do-re-me etc.

-- 
Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. #:?)
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