Sight Reading

[etownfwd]

Short of buying a method devoted only to sight reading, is there a good way to become more proficient in the art of sight reading?
-efwd

[Derek Reaban]

If you consider the fundamentals of sight reading to be rhythmic identification, intervals, and strong internal pulse, then I would highly recommend reading the comments in the post that I started called My Rhythmic Epiphany.

Work on Solfege and rhythmic exercises from the Robert Starer book away from the horn. This will feed your subconscious giving you the necessary ingredients to drawn on when you are actually sight reading. Slow, steady practice away from the horn in internalizing pulse, immediate identification of rhythms and intervals will transfer quickly to your reading ability. Spend 5 minutes on rhythms and 5 minutes on Solfege each day and your won’t burn yourself out. You want to make this a positive habit that you will continue after the Summer.

Find lots of material to sight read, and devote 10-15 minutes to this 3 times a week. Again, you want to make it fun. Too much, and you might get frustrated (i.e. I told myself I was going to read new music 2 hours a day and I haven’t even started yet and it's 10 PM).

Hope this helps!
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Peter Bond]

I agree with Derek's post.
Some additional thoughts:
It can be helpful to realize that reading printed music, creating sounds on the trumpet, making music, and being a good ensemble member are all separate (though sometimes overlapping) skills, and few people are equally good at all of them.
Many famous musicians were notoriously poor readers or couldn't read music at all.
We all know players who can read very well, but can't play the trumpet to save their lives.
We all have heard players who wear out the instrument technically, but don't make a note of real music.
There are also fantastic player/musicians that cannot (or will not) play WITH a group.
Think of these skills as links in a chain which will help you become a more skilled player. Listening, of course, is the "link" having to do with with sound concept, stylistic interpretation and taste. As such it influences everything.

Reading music can be broken down further; when you look at the little black spots on the staff you are interpreting abstract symbols representing rhythms and pitches (intervals) and turning them ito sound (and hopefully music). Sight singing (or whistling) is the way to go; removing any technical problems or hang-ups associated with your instrument (temporarily anyway). Practice singing or whistling at a keyboard to check yourself for pitch accuracy. Sing the rhythm first on a single pitch (use a metronome). Then slowly go over the pitches. Put rhythm and pitch together at a slow tempo. THEN play. If you can hear the pitches and rhythms in your head w/o singing, so much the better. Many brass players find this kind of practice a pain in the neck, but a little daily practice pays off big time. It also really saves the chops.
There are a finite number of rhythm patterns and intervals which make up 99.5% of the music you will ever see. All complex things can be broken down into simpler parts and then reassembled. The more you see, the more they will repeat, and better you will get.

If you can hear music before you try to play it, you have a tremendous head start in the sometimes risky business of playing a brass instrument. Playing duets is another way of improving - although with duets you have to combine most of the elements outlined above.
I hope this helps somebody,
Peter Bond

[marktrumpet]

Transcribing, especially writing down the rhythms, helps my sightreading. The whole process forces me to concentrate and listen very carefully.

[etownfwd]

Just curious, is sight reading a function of being able to read more rhythms or is the ability to read more rhythms a function of sight reading? Kinda like which came first, the chicken or the Egg...
Thank you for some good posts!
-efwd

[trumpetmike]

I have found that the best way of improving my students' sight-reading ability is to get them playing in groups.

The more groups they play in, the more accustomed they become to just playing what appears in front of them, keeping up with the rest of the group - they get no real choice in the matter - keep up or be left behind, and none of them ever want to be left behind!

The people I know who are good sight-readers are good through necessity. I have lost count of the number of times I have been booked for a gig with minimal, or no, rehearsal time. I had a classic with a local brass band (Championship section - to give an idea of the standard) - I got a call at 5.30pm, for a gig at 7.30pm, no rehearsal! I got there to find that the whole of the front row were deps - we were deciding who was playing which solo as it came up! The programme was a true joy for sight-reading - Pineapple Poll, Year of the Dragon, Bugler's Holiday (yeah, we all knew this one!) and a whole bunch of other stuff that it would have been nice to see beforehand.
Depping for musical productions is another very common way of finding out whether someone can sight-read.

The more sight-reading you do, the better you will become. I have got a great pile of study books that I don't use for regular practising - I just use them for sight-reading. Open any of the books at any page - play it! No stopping, full concentration. Treat the play-through as a performance - if you notice a slip, let it pass, keep on going. Analyse mistakes afterwards. See if you can work out why it was that you made a mistake (rhythm misinterpretation, misreading of notes, mispitching etc), then go through the piece again - aim to eliminate the mistakes you made the first time.
If you repeat this exercise regularly (not on the same piece!), I have found that you start seeing rhythms and intervals more clearly the first time through any new piece.

[hose]

I am a very good site reader when I remember to focus a measure or so ahead of where the actual sound is taking place. This is a habit that needs to be developed. When I start looking at the actual note or measure being played, my site reading mires down in slugishness. For me , it's simialr to reading words. Reading one word at a time equals slow, labored reading.

[_PhilPicc]

Hi Mike,

For us on the other side of the pond, what is depping?

Thanks,
Phil
_________________
Philip Satterthwaite

We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again."
- Sir Thomas Beecham to a musician during a rehearsal

[trumpetmike]

depping - deputising, standing in for someone else, often at very short notice. Subbing.

[PC]

Very valid replies so far!

I agree strongly with Hose, that sight reading is reading before anything else. You do not want to be reading individual notes like a machine. You must be able to identify musical "words" as they fly by, complete with dynamics, harmony sense and where the phrase is going.

Practise identifying rhythmic patterns, scale patterns and other common occurrences such as cadences, leading tones etc. This removes a lot of the guesswork. If you are playing in a big band and know from what era the chart is, you already have your brain switched on the right style and know what kind of rhythms and patterns to expect. The same applies if it is an early baroque piece, you know what type of major/minor scale pattern would likely occur, and have the typical accidentals already programmed in.

What I am trying to say is that by sound musical knowledge you can even fake yourself through almost any sight reading session, unless it is a big solo thing which will demand your utmost concentration. As the other posters also stressed, a strong link between all the skills you need is the ability to both listen and hear, both the music happening around you and the written part, not yet played.

As an example, we were given in my orchestra a hand written part for a Norwegian piece (obviously transposed by someone for Bb trp). It had flats in the key signature, but had a running upwards minor melodic scale in the 1st trp part (or the one with raised 6th and leading tone), but no accidental on the 6th. Well, hearing the context and knowing the scales well enough made me notice the error just before the concert (I still checked with the conductor that there was no extravagant effect intended where suddenly only the 1st trumpet should play a harmonic minor scale - you never know with Norwewgian composers!).

Cheers,
Pierre