Sight reading music

[chevy68chv]

It kind of requires another person, but my teacher will cover up the notes that I should be playing with a finger, forcing me to look at least two beats ahead. It seems to work for me.

[Roger Lewis]

it is important to have a good rhythmic sense, and to REALLY know your intervals. Sit at a piano and play all the intervals and SING them. Play them on your horn while reading them, so you learn to recognize what they are and how they sound and feel on the instrument. Learn to recognize them on the page, no matter how they are written. If you can't hear it in your head then you have not completely learned your intervals. In order to make the MUSIC happen you have to take your conscious mind off the intervals and let these become reflex through lots of practice. That’s when the MUSIC comes out.

All sight reading is, is to be able to play from the first note to the very next note in the exact tempo, rhythm, nuance and dynamic...then from that note to it's next note...etc. You just have to be able to do it very fast. I found that when I spent a week really immersing myself in the intervals that sight-reading became quite simple.

I also have my students take snare drum lessons. By doing this you don't have to think about embouchure, pitch or really even dynamics - but you DO have to focus on RHYTHM. Knowing your intervals will make sight-reading much simpler, even more so if you know your rhythms.

There is another trick to add to this, but would take 'way too long to explain here.


Just my $0.02

Roger

[TWScott283]

I remember what Pat Sheridan once told us at a masterclass: "make up your own exercises, and make them harder than anything you have to perform." Not a direct quote, but more or less.

If you can play piano (at any level), practice sight-reading on a keyboard. That way you are reading two different lines at once. Once you go back to the horn it'll be much easier. I can't tell you how much this has helped me.

I don't practice my sight-reading on the euphonium any more (aside from when I'm actually sight-reading in a rehearsal). I have found that getting out a simple piano book and forcing myself to get through the piece (no matter how bad it sounds) works WONDERS for my reading on the euph.

If you have no keyboard skill, you may try reading out of orchestral scores on your instrument. Just start on one page and sightread everything on it. Some things will be impossible, some will be very difficult - but you'll get a lot of practice this way - and become very familiar with your favorite orchestral blockbuster.

Finally, there is no substitution for having the sounds in your head - and knowing (even if it's not exact) where the notes should be. Ear training, as someone else pointed out, is essential.

Eventually you will see the patterns. There are, after all only 12 pitches and four/five commonly used notes values (whole, half, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32) - should be easy, right? lol JUST kidding.

Good luck.

[kegmcnabb]

I agree with all of the above but remember the best thing you can do to improve your sight reading is to do more sight reading. Make sure you set aside time everyday to sight read something. Set the metronome and go. If you make a mistake...DO NOT STOP TO FIX IT...just keep going...just as if it were a performance. When you finish you can go back and examine your trouble spots.

Regular daily practice at sight reading combined with rhythmic and interval studies (as mentioned above by Roger) will yield dramatic results in just a few weeks. I also agree with Roger that students of any instrument will benefit from snare drum studies.

[Mark]

... it is important ... to REALLY know your intervals.

Try this: http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html

... Learn to recognize them on the page, no matter how they are written.

Try this: http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id84_en.html

[MartyNeilan]

scales

scales

scales

[windshieldbug]

It kind of requires another person, but my teacher will cover up the notes that I should be playing with a finger, forcing me to look at least two beats ahead. It seems to work for me.

Exactly. Read ahead as you go, and know the intervals, both on your horn and in your head.

[iiipopes]

And play through everything you can get your hands on: sheet music, hymnals, orchestra excerpts, band music, etc. The more you play, the more you will be able to recognize patterns in the music, especially if you also study your music theory as well, so you can learn to start anticipating.

For example, when I was in high school my chorus director bought a bunch of old hymnals. Starting right after Christmas break, we would spend the first few minutes of rehearsal after warm up sight reading obscure hymns. By the time we got to contest that year, we could sight read so well that after the first time through the test piece (it had a repeat, second ending, etc.) the judge stopped us, told us we had our "I" rating, and asked us to finish through the repeat just for pleasure, as after we performed it, he finally knew what it was supposed to sound like!

Needless to say, if you ever consider doing anything professional, especially session gigs, sight reading is a must, because everyone's on the clock, so rehearsal is minimal, at best, and it usually has to go in the can in one take.

[DaTubaKid]

Odd that I read this thread immediately after I thought up this idea, but I'm going to toss it out and see what sort of response I get...

How many times have you wanted to practice your sight reading to only realize half-way through the piece, you've already played it (which explains why you were doing so well), or that you've already sight read all your method books and need to go buy a new one.

What if there was a computer program that had libraries chock-full of music (etude books, orchestral parts, band parts, etc), which had a built in randomizer that would aid you in your sight reading. It could keep track of what you've played and make sure you don't accidentally pick it again, and it could pick randomly more pieces to sight read.

Just an idea for a possible summer computer programming project for myself, but would any of you actual consider buying this program? I understand that it would require being able to practice at the computer, which I'm capable of doing . I think it could be a very useful program for practicing sight reading. Let me know what you think.

[Tubaguyjoe]

there is only one way to get better at sight-reading...and that is to Sight-Read! Although there are some certain stradegies that make it easier.

[GC]

Read.

Read.

Read some more.

Read hard stuff.

Know all of your scales and chord patterns (arpeggiated).

Keep reading.

[iiipopes]

It looks like we're all saying the same things, just from different perspectives.

[MaryAnn]

I saw this only once, so I'll repeat it:
When you are practicing sight reading, turn on the metronome and don't lose where you are, even if all you do is play the first note in each measure. When you are sight reading in a group, what they care about is whether you stay with them, not whether you miss a note or two. Always know where you are! When I've run into lousy sight readers, it's because they get stuck trying to get the notes right and then they lose the group.

Getting the notes right is important too, but not as important as staying with the group. For getting the notes and rhythm right, others have talked about how to do that: pattern recognition, both rhythmically and aurally, and practice, practice, practice. It can take two or three years of steady work to get to be an excellent sight reader. Don't give up when you haven't got it in two weeks.

MA

[XtremeEuph]

Oh no just reminded me! I have sight reading on my exam on monday EEEK

[LoyalTubist]

Master rhythm. Learn the fine art of subdivision. Know the difference between dotted eighth notes followed by sixteenths and the triplet figure quarter note and eighth note (though they sound pretty much the same when you swing them). Always use a metronome.

Borrow music from the library with songs you know and play them (you will have to learn how to read treble clef for this one). Always use a metronome. Never stop to figure something out. Keep on playing with the metronome.

Get some orchestral tuba parts and play along with recordings of the works.

I have more but those will do for now.