RHSbigbluemarchingband

alright i took into notice today the fact that i SUCK at sight reading. can somebody who doesnt suck give me some advice on sight reading properly

Schwab

You really have to just do it. And if you don't keep up with it, it goes quickly, I found this out when I sat in on a big band rehearsal recently!

__________________
Dylan Schwab
Stage 1 New York

simonstl

Sight reading was the one thing I was really good at (and seem to still have).

It sounds weird, but it also just takes practice. Practice playing stuff you haven't seen before, or stuff you haven't played in a while. Start with simple etudes, lighter than you normally play, and work your way up into heavier-duty stuff. Accept that you're probably not going to get everything perfect - it's a different kind of practice. (Rhythm and pacing were my weakpoints, but then they always were.)

I think I got good at sight reading because I hated repetition, never wanting to play the same piece over and over. When I was practicing myself, I'd always wander around, playing stuff that seemed fun. I did practice specific pieces because I had to, but mixing it up made it all easier.

Someone doubtless has a more structured approach, but as long as you can find a pile of fun and not too wildly difficult pieces you want to play but haven't yet, you'll probably be fine.

__________________
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com
Bach TR300 / 5C
"Maestro" valve trombone

s.coomer

Start by playing some of the simple tunes in the Arban book, then progress from there. Their are plenty of things in the Arban for you to sight read. Just do them. You only learn to sight read by doing it.

oldlips48

I agree with s.coomer. Arban is packed full, you can just pick a page and jump in. I suggest taking a look at the section on syncopation on starting on page 23.

If you type, you know how you start out typing each letter, then the pattern for a word, and eventually you string the patterns for the words together and you get pretty good? I find sight reading to be similar to that. You start out looking at each note, then you begin to recognize simple patterns (like the syncopation) then you begin to recognize longer phrase patterns.

Steve

__________________
I gotta get me one of those cool slogans.....

Rushtucky

Yes, sight reading can be combersome. However, it is a deficiency that you will have to overcome. There are two books that I get for my students that have problems in this area:

1) Develop Sight Reading, Vol. 1 & 2 for Treble Clef Instruments by Gaston Dufresne
GREAT BOOK!

2) One Hundred and One - Famous Trumpet Solos to Build Your Technique by
Matt Kingston. GREAT BOOK WITH CD TO LISTEN AND PLAY WITH

Also as mentioned above, Arbans...you just can not beat the "Bible". There is a set of CDs: Hunt Plays Arban that has all of the studies and you can hear what you play.

Also...Practice...Practice...Practice

__________________
"Rushtucky"
Indianapolis, Indiana
__________________

Bach Instrumentalist
__________________

"It is not necessary to understand music;
it is only necessary that one enjoy it"
Leopold Stanislaw Stokowski

rhosch

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, you really need to know your scales like the back of your hand. And not just scales, but arpeggios as well.

So I'd suggest a two-fold approach:

1) do a lot of sight reading. pick up a book, read through it start to finish (not necessarily in one setting), and go to another. don't worry about going back to perfect passages.

2) in the books mentioned above (and others), pay particular attention to scale studies. on these, don't just go through them once for the sight-reading aspect, but practice them repeatedly, daily, until you are "air-fingering" them as you walk around the mall.

__________________
FrankenStrad - 43 reversed lead, 37 valves, 72 raw brass bell
OtherStrad - 37, was silver now raw brass
1917 Holton "Chicago" Bb
Yammy Flugel
Kanstul picc

Bachstul

Patience, time, experience.

Pakatak

As bad as most of you are probably going to think this is, playing easy songs on either Rock Band or Guitar Hero and working on just playing a bunch of stuff so you never get used to how a certain song goes helped my sight reading a bit. The parts usually feel a little bit awkward with the music, making you play what's on the TV/page rather than what you hear (another essential to sightreading an arrangement of a song you know!). You also can't rush very much, thanks to pre-recorded music that doesn't change tempo (oh man, time-keeping exercises too?).
Given, it's nowhere as helpful as grabbing your Arban's and playing, which gives both the benefit of actual sight reading and playing your horn, but you can incorporate sight reading practice into your time spent with friends! I found that the guys that just rock at sight reading at my school are the ones who are ridiculous Rock Band players... one could hope that it's just a lot of coincidences. Just some practical advice from one high schooler to another.

__________________
Trumpet
Yamaha YTR 6335HS
Mouthpieces
B&S 5C
Wedge 5DC w/ Wedge M Backbore

Bloomin Untidy Musician

I was told by my teachers to always read at least one bar ahead of what you are playing. Apparently very good sightreaders can read up to 8 bars ahead of what they are playing. Can anyone on this forum do 8 bars?