The Siren's Spellbook

The Siren’s Spellbook is an interval training and scale study book for vocalists and songwriters. It is the perfect companion for learning scales, solfège, curwen hand signs, sight reading and the characters and moods of the Classical Modes, using a timeless Kodály inspired approach. Although there are advantages to learning to transpose the major and minor parent scales into any of the 12 standard keys – for example, to suit the range of accompanying instrumentalists or vocalists – in terms of variety, focussing technical work entirely on key transpositions of the major and minor scales can become boring very quickly. Major scales all express a very similar mood or colour which we should know well; a grand, resolved and stable sound. Minor scales on the other hand express a more melancholic and serious tone. But what about all of the other parent scales and modes? The purpose of The Siren’s Spellbook is to provide the vocalist with a comprehensive, alternative collection of scales, which rather than being organised by key signature are instead arranged according to their modal rotations and the general mood, character, quality or by the emotion which they evoke.