Stackapella Open the app

Unit 1 · Hold your own

A pattern that repeats

Sing a four-note pattern eight times through under a falling line, an ostinato that keeps itself going once you know it, then hold the last note. Free.

Sing this lesson

Free in the app: sing one lesson of each course with no account; a free account opens the course unit by unit.

More in Hold your own

A pattern that repeats

A pattern sung over and over is an ostinato. Once you know it, it keeps itself going.

Four notes. Do ti do la: a darker colour you'll meet properly in unit 2

Over and over. Eight times through

A line falls above it. Let it pass; keep your pattern

What you sing

  1. The pattern, at your own pace.
  2. The guide gives you do. After a bar, sing the pattern eight times under the line, then hold the last note.

Challenge: Hold the floor

Under a whole tune: a pattern first, then one long note.

Do and so. Two notes a bar, under the first half

Then hold do. A pedal from "merrily" to the end, with one breath

Listen up. Could you still hear the tune?

What you sing

  1. After a bar, sing do and so under the tune, then hold do to the end, with one quick breath.

Singing safely

Sing at an easy volume, in the middle of your range. Stop if anything tightens, scratches or hurts, and rest your voice.

Free tools by Stackapella

All of these are free, and so is every course.

Stackapella teaches you to sing harmony one part at a time, right in your browser.

Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up.
  • A guide sings your partHear your line over the others, slow it down, then take your turn.
  • Your notes light upEach note shows where you landed, and a hint when to go up or down.
  • Record every part yourselfStack your takes in time until you're the whole choir.
Start the beginner course Open the app How Stackapella works

More free tools

No account, no ads. Each one keeps working offline once you've opened it.

See all 17 tools