TubeNet

.

Sight reading at the orchestra audition level may not be the best practice. Sure the committee could try to pull something hard and/or rarely played like Wozzeck, but there may be that one guy who just played it in an actual performance (ha ha) and can nail it far better than anyone else in the rounds. However, that one guy might not be as good at the other prepared stuff. How does that "sight reading" when it really isn't sight reading to everyone play into the decision making.

OT:

In high school, I had a band director that kept a minimum of 50 charts in our folders in concert band and 75 in jazz band. We sight read daily. When it came time for one of those contests, the chart in front of us for sight reading was in our regular folder. We had already played it. Is that an unfair advantage?

The value of sight-reading at high-school contests is that it forces band directors to expose their kids to sight-reading conditions often. That will, in turn, force them to expose their kids to music they haven't seen before for the sheer enjoyment of reading it down. Were I king for a day, I would decree that all high-school contests include a significant sight-reading component.

And that's even though I suck at sight-reading.

There are a few professional situations where perfect sight-reading is really important, and those are...

...just about all of them except symphony orchestras.

For example, the first-call movie musicians in LA are often playing manuscript printed out the night before, and the tape is rolling the first time they play it. What does a pro do if the band leader says to the audience, "I have a new piece that we would like to play for you" and passes music out to the band in front of the audience? The excerpts in military bands are not published, and a lot of that music is not recorded, and military bands often don't have much time to put it together. The tuba player in a Broadway show who was asked to sub for another guy or who is playing for a road show doesn't get the benefit of rehearsal, and just has to read the folder down with as little preparation as possible. These musicians might not achieve all the subtleties expected in an orchestral audition, but missing notes, rhythms, dynamics, articulations, or the conductor's direction isn't in that category.

I always had to make up for my poor sight-reading by extra work beforehand. Even as an amateur, it often got in the way of the situation at hand.

Rick "yes, taking this off-topic" Denney

I got blindsided on a sublist audition for a major orchestra a couple years ago. Spent a few months focusing on virtually nothing but my list of excerpts. After running the excerpts down (OK, but not truly great) the proctor said, "they told you there would be sightreading, right?" Well, no, they didn't. I was between F's and only had my big CC, which I was still getting adjusted to its high register quirks and alternate fingerings. The piece they threw in front of me was a page out of trombone jazz exercise book. All upper and above the staff, swing 8ths. Although I have an extensive background in bigband playing on bass trombone and even did jazz improv on tuba for one course in college, I hadn't done anything that wasn't "square" for the last year or two and had most recently been living in ExcerptLand. I just completely choked on it. I don't even think I started on the right partial and everything went downhill from there. Their justification was that they do a lot of pops concerts and they want someone who is a good reader - and they were absolutely right. I was not even remotely prepared physically or mentally to sightread, play jazz/swing, or play high register that day and I got burned for it big time.

MORAL OF THIS STORY:
Be Prepared For Anything. ANYTHING.

Learned my lesson the hard way, but at least I learned it.

.

With the way orchestral playing (at least in my freelancing experience) is going here in Canada, I'm finding that sightreading is becoming more and more important. In fact, I feel that I've been called (and called back) for my sightreading more than any other trait in my playing. I'm not the best tubist in the area - I admit it. However, when push comes to shove, my ability to sit down and play a concert with minimal rehearsal has really helped me.

It's scarey how many concerts you might attend (at least here in Canada) that have only had one rehearsal. If there's a change in the programme and the music is waiting for you on the stand at that single rehearsal, you'd better be comfortable with sightreading (and sightreading musically).

All you new and young super-talented tubists reading this. If you're going to audition against me and those already looking for a gig, do us a favour and DON'T practice sightreading. We really need the work!