According to the current understanding of the curriculum at the Neapolitan conservatories, students were taught composition primarily through partimento-playing and through written studies in counterpoint. However, singing instruction was equally fundamental as keyboard playing. In this essay I highlight the importance of sung canoni (or canon solfeggi) in the lessons of Nicola Sala (1713-1801), at the Conservatorio della Pietà de Turchini. With such improvised canons, students were systematically prepared for composing written counterpoint, including the final stretto of the fugue, in which canon technique was applied.