Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Franz Xaver Süßmayr (arr.) Requiem (Süßmayr version)

I was somewhat surprised to find these so-called practice recordings. And I ask myself the question: Is this kind of thing effective? Doesn't something like this only promote the tiresome "re-singing mentality", where the choir singers sing after a "lead singer"? If someone is unable to work through a work that is still unknown to them on their own, they don't need such recordings, they need ear training and solfége. Has the rich industrialised country of Germany, the land of Goethe and Schiller, Bach, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, given up on counteracting musical anaphylaxis with a thorough education?

As "practice recordings" I would rather expect recordings where the own voice is completely missing! So that the person practising not only sings along, but has to sing himself. Of course, such recordings are more difficult to make, it is not enough to play the voice on the piano to a finished recording. A good example of this would be the Digital Academy courses from Voces8. They offer exactly that, the complete recording, where the voice to be practised is missing. Of course, this assumes that you have a certain level of aural motor skills and can make the connections between the music and the sound yourself. But this is essential for making music anyway. Just like reading text. Just imagine someone wants to put on an amateur theatre production and none of the actors can read or write. They all have to learn their lines by heart from audio recordings. Unimaginable, isn't it?

In my opinion, a proper rehearsal recording should include the following elements:
- preparatory exercises for difficult passages, mnemonic bridges to hit an initial note, rhythm exercises.
- a tempo adapted to the level of difficulty
- Singing complex passages (not with piano!)
- only for difficult passages, a recording where your own voice is emphasised (as a singing voice, not with piano)
- a final recording where your own voice is missing. The aim of the exercise is to be able to sing your own voice with this recording.

Is it all too much, too expensive, nobody pays for it? Maybe. Then it's no longer the land of Bach, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.