Ella: Sight Singing & Reading

I have been playing the flute for two years but still sometimes struggle with sight reading and playing in tune and with good tone right off the bat (I have to play a few notes to make sure my tone is right). I tried apps made for instruments and flutes specifically, but they all seem to not work or require pricey subscriptions to access any of the useful features. I can’t vouch for other instruments (like a sax or violin), but this app works great for the flute. It is helping me improve my sight reading and I set the range for what I am less comfortable playing so I get more practice with that. It is a really clean app design with a really good (and free) interface!

I am a professional choral singer and choir director, so I was excited to see an app that might help myself and my students brush up sight-singing skills. I think the game aspect of Ella works really well. Collecting stars is so much fun! I do have some issues from a musical standpoint, though. My main criticism is that the developers did not consider vocal differences or realistic sight-singing ranges when writing the exercises. Once you are past the initial easy levels, many of the exercises have ranges of an octave and a fifth. It is nice that the app allows you to sing in any octave, but that isn’t helpful when changing the octave still puts many of the pitches in an uncomfortable range. Because the app also penalizes even minimal vibrato, this can result in very unhealthy singing at extreme ranges. On one exercise, I had the option of singing an A5 straight-tone or grumbling out an E3! I can handle this as a professional, but would never recommend this app to my students. In order for sight-singing to be done healthily, the ranges must be smaller than regular performance ranges, with the majority of the pitches being in a comfortable range. I think the best way to improve the app, other than allowing for vibrato, would be to limit the vocal range of each exercise. It would also be nice if you could select your personal comfortable singing range, and the app could place each exercise in the correct octave for you. I hope the developers keep improving on this wonderful concept!

So far, this app rocks. I was out of practice for a long time on my sight singing, but this app is helping me get that skill back! It’s intuitive and the exercises are good. They’re not repetitive either so you don’t have to worry about memorizing the exercises if you use it a lot. I like that it records you and plays you back instantly, with the piano notes and your pitch on a line graph. Really keeps you honest. Right now I don’t have a voice teacher to give me feedback, so it’s essential that I be able to hear myself. This app can be useful for any level. I could see it helping a beginner who wants to learn to read music, an intermediate musician tuning their ear, or even an advanced musician who requires dynamic sight reading drills. It helps to be familiar with key signatures and their relative minors, or have a cheat sheet handy.