November-December
Learn how to read music here.
Click on the coming Sundays to download sheet music and sound files of the sung Proper of the Mass. (Click here for the 1962 Traditional Calendar) The sound files are unaccompanied (a-cappella) to replicate as closely as possible the conditions of individual practice at home. Three versions:
- Roman Gradual, in Latin (the universal and official music of each Mass)
- Two English translations: a very simple one, and another closer to the Latin, original language of the Roman rite.
Sunday, December 21, 2025 FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT violet
Thursday, December 25, 2025 THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD (Christmas) white
Sunday, December 28, 2025 THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH white
Continue reading →Reading music – Week 5 – End of the introduction sessions.
Thank you for all who came this past Monday for this conclusion to our 5 introductory lessons. These five sessions focused on the elementary theory of reading chant, the development of a home practice discipline and providing assistance to that home practice by reviewing exercises in our sessions.
Continue reading →Reading Music – WEEK 4 exercises – Summer 2025
Below are 10 exercises building up on last two weeks’ sixteen (see this link and that link) and the information from two weeks ago (click for link). In the first week, the DO was on LINE 4. Last week, the DO is on line 3. Now, we have a FA clef on line 3. As indicated last week:
Continue reading →Reading Music – WEEK 3 exercises – Summer 2025
Below are eight (8) exercises building up on last week’s eight (see link) and the information from two weeks ago (click for link). Last week, the DO was on LINE 4. This week, the DO is on line 3. As indicated last week:
Continue reading →Reading Music – Exercise to do at home – Week 2
Below are the WEEK 2 exercises. If you missed WEEK 1, click here to catch up.
Continue reading →Reading chant, Summer 2025 workshop
The choir at St Peter and St Paul (SSPP) church in Wilmington, CA had on Monday the first chant-reading workshop. We will have two more on July 21st and 28th, before a break, and will resume on August 18th. These workshops are independent of the repertoire sung by the SSPP choir, so if singers in the Long Beach-San Pedro area are wanting to learn to read chant, please join us!
Continue reading →July-August
Learn how to read music here.
Click on the coming Sundays to download sheet music and sound files of the sung Proper of the Mass. (Click here for the 1962 Traditional Calendar) The sound files are unaccompanied (a-cappella) to replicate as closely as possible the conditions of individual practice at home. Three versions:
- Roman Gradual, in Latin (the universal and official music of each Mass)
- Two English translations: a very simple one, and another closer to the Latin, original language of the Roman rite.
Sunday, September 7, 2025 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME green
Sunday, September 14, 2025 THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS red
Continue reading →New “sing with the pope!” Youtube channel.
Pope Leo XIV seems to want to seriously implement the work of Vatican II in the singing of the liturgy. Get rid of the pianos and microphones which separate “those who know” from “those who don’t”. If the pope can lead 100,000 to sing a-cappella, you can sing too! These videos will show you what to sing, and how to sing it:
Be not afraid!
“He who sings prays twice” said St Augustine. Pope Leo XIV is showing us how it is done.
NOTE: If no piano accompaniment is needed in front of 100,000 people on St Peter, why would it be needed for cantors singing in front of a few dozens of parishioners…?
Continue reading →CHANT is ELEMENTARY MUSIC LITERACY (5/5)
The defining technology of the Western musical tradition, staff notation, started as an aid to singers to chant the Catholic liturgy. Yet most church choirs now learn music through a cueing system, rote, but not through the music literacy the Church invented.
Continue reading →
Long Beach Chant 