THE PASSAGE from Willi Apel's book on Gregorian Chant given yesterday was right, the primary value of the musical recitation of Psalms, Canticles such as the Magnificat or Nunc Dimittis, passages from the Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Epistles isn't the music, it's the words. You could write your own psalm or canticle or paraphrase of scripture, you get to decide what you're going to do at home on your own.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't any musical value to it. When the rhythm of the text is the focus you can learn a lot about the rhythm of it, which in musical terms means lengths of notes, different lengths of notes and pauses of different length. To an extent also the varying loudness of softness of what is sung . Just learning how to sustain a tone on pitch has musical value. Added to that is the clarity and naturalness of pronunciation of the consonants as well as the vowels. But those can't be separated from the meaning of the words in the context of the text.
You can learn a lot from recto tono chanting, it will be a lot more subtle than chanting with elaborate melodies, which have their own lessons to teach. But those subtle lessons are some of the most important if meaning in music is what you're after.
If you have an instrument you can play, checking the pitch with it can help a lot. If you have a keyboard or guitar (make sure it's in tune) accompanying yourself with it with a single chord or note can help a lot. This is your practice, you get to decide how you're going to do it.
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