I don’t get it (Reading)

[INTJ]

I came back 17 years ago, after 20+ years of not playing so I really started at zero. I stumbled around initially and about 10 years ago I made a concerted effort to improve all aspects of my playing. Today I am here:

Tone - Full with a big core
Intonation - I typically play very well in tune
Endurance - Decent, 1.5 to 2 hours
Range - Solid to G/A above High C, have performed Double Cs a few times
Technique - Moderate, could be faster and cleaner
Style - My lead style is mediocre but I am starting to unlock that
Reading - Somewhere between poor and fair

I do not know how to improve my reading. The old “read through a lot of stuff” doesn’t work for me. Why? Because when I am making mistakes with rhythm, I don’t catch that when reading through something. Yes, if I sit with an instructor he will catch that, but that misses the main issue which is recognizing rhythms and playing them correctly on my own.

I did recently get Rich Willey’s Bebop jazz book, and when I download the play along tracks that might help. I have been also working out of a Basie lead book and that seems to help some. However, I am nowhere near where I should be given how long I have been focusing on reading.

My success in range came from never straining but playing a lot of high notes—and that only took 20-30 minutes of my typical 2 hour practice time. I have successfully worked up some challenging tunes by starting slow and making sure I could play the lick correctly 5 times in a row before increasing speed. I would take my time and not play tired. I would also practice counting rests and by the time we’d play the tune I pretty much had it memorized.

I don’t know how to approach reading in a similar way. This was well
illustrated over the last couple days when I blew my opportunity to play with a band in the area where I recently moved. I was asked to cover lead which meant learning 21 of the 23 songs in the set in about a week. There was nothing that was terribly difficult, level 3 and 4 stuff like Blue Skies, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Orange Colored Sky, Corner Pocket, All of Me, etc. I stumbled through the entire set and do not expect to be asked to sub for them again.

For as long as it’s been since I have come back to trumpet I should have been able to read all those tunes down. Now I can play every tune in their book well IF I have a chance to work them up, but there are High School kids who can read all that down and nail it.

So I need to have a new strategy in reading. Any ideas?
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[cheiden]

Not sure it's right for you but most of my progress was made in playing with casual big bands that mostly just read. This includes a community college that has a huge library of wicked hard tunes.

Beyond that. I've played a bit of piano. I'm no pro and but I've worked my up to being able to just sit down and read reasonably a wide range of material. Maybe not up to tempo, but I can play most of it. I always start slow and work my up until it's hard to hold tempo then work on my look-ahead skill until I can push the tempo a bit higher.

Ultimately, it's a life-long commitment and I doubt there's a shortcut. Find opportunities to read and take them. Though it's hard, accept that you will be humbled for a good while.
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[CJceltics33]

Sight reading factory...it’s a neat website

[Andy Del]

Sight reading is a skill which uses many other skills and requires some very definite knowledge and application.

The most common fault with young players' reading is a lack of pulse. No pulse, no coating, then the rhythm is going to be wrong.

Another is a lack of willingness toward on rhythm. There are some tricky rhythms which need one to work on the rhythm, not the pitches. tonguing a passage on one pitch can do wonders for getting a rhythm in a piece correct. So an clapping. So can counting to a recording, or better yet, conducting. (Do you know how hard it is for a kid to conduct the 3/4 sections of the Blue Danube? They find it impossible to go 1,2,3 over and over...) Most of the problems here still go back to not counting.

Another thing to work on is counting...

You may get my drift!

cheers

Andy
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so many horns, so few good notes...

[jadickson]

Try transcribing or composing music. It will force you to "figure out" rhythms. Compose using a computer program that will play the music back to you, so you can hear if you wrote the rhythms down correctly. Software options for free or cheap:

Noteflight website

Finale Notepad software
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[mcstock]

See Peter Bond's comments in this thread.

https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71402&highlight=reading

Matt
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[Robert P]

[wohlrab]

[INTJ]

Thanks for all the replies.

The metronome is always on when I practice reading. I am thinking play alongs is going to be my best solution. That way I can hear what I am seeing. I don’t even have to play along, I can sing along and get 90% of the benefit. In fact, if I sing along use the “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8” method—as was discussed in one of the links posted here—I can work on more than just rythm.

I also need to focus on pattern proficiency. I need to recognize them more quickly. I think I now have a new plan......
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Flip Oakes Flugel

Harrelson 5mm MP

[mcnairg]

I will also recommend the Sightreading Factory website. The computer generates new music in six degrees of difficulty in all keys. It's available for all devices. You can read new music every day, all day. You can play along with the score, which is really helpful. It has a built in metronome, and you can vary the speed of what you play. Like everything else about trumpet, sight reading only improves with practice and this is the easiest and most efficient means I've come across. I try to practice at least 100 measures of new music every day and I've definitely gotten better. I'm reading pretty well at level five after about six weeks.

[tim_wolf]

[kehaulani]

There are two aspects I didn't see mentioned and they may answer your need to find concepts that apply across the board. There's nothin wrong with the "just do it" process but it doesn't use basic concepts. (Implied but not obvious.)

Find rhythic units that are most common and that you will find most often.
There are two sources that I found initially helpful. Lennie Niehaus's Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Jazz Conception etudes. They are for sax but if I understand your level from the posts, you've got the chops. The good thing is that they are basically etude studies in that they use similiar rhythmic licks repeatedly in etude method.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lennie+niehaus+jazz+conception+for+saxophone&sprefix=lennie+%2Cstripbooks%2C206&crid=10BRDIBJTFJF8

There are also jazz, funk and rock patterns that are in Bob Mintzner's etude books.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bob+minzer+jazz+eyudes&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Abob+minzer+jazz+eyudes

Look at transcriptions and find patterns that are oft repeated and use these fragments also as patterns for practice.

Another concept deals with melody. Learn your scales. If I see a run from C to C, and with an Ab,Bb, Db, Eb in it, I don't play/think C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab etc, I see a scalurar run from C to C in Ab. In other words, seeing one thing (a scalural run in Ab) instead of eight things (individual notes).
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[cbtj51]

[Billy B]

Those dots on the page represent sounds. Sing them-play them-sing them-play them. Repeat.
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