Count singing
Choral rehearsal technique performed by replacing lyrics with note positions within a measure / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Count singing is a choral rehearsal technique that involves singing the correct pitches, but replacing the lyrics with each note's position within a measure. In 4
4 time, this would mean a sequence of quarter notes would be sung as "one two three four" rather than their actual lyrics. Count singing was developed and used extensively by Robert Shaw,[1] and much of its current popularity can be traced back to Shaw through directors who worked with him.[2]
The claimed advantage of count singing is that it simultaneously teaches both pitches and rhythms. In contrast, singing pitches with nonsense syllables removes the difficulty of lyrics but does not aid in learning either pitches or rhythms; solfege and shape note singing emphasize pitches but do not aid in learning rhythms; and counting the rhythm in a spoken form completely ignores the pitches. On the other hand, it can take more mental effort to count sing, particularly for singers who have little experience with it, and the effort of remembering the correct syllables to count with can be a distraction from reading the music or singing it correctly.