Sight Reading

piccolo1991 · Post by **piccolo1991** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:13 am

Basically...what is your good sightreading advice to students??? I usually teach privately, but I am doing a group class at a high school teaching students the all-state piece, all-state scales, and sight reading. The idea is to help prepare students for the audition who are not in lessons and to give them chair placements based on a mock audition. So, since I only have 5 days...and 10-12 per class...I am tring to put together a packet to help with things like sightreading, fingerings and scales.

Any input helps! Thanks!

Sara

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:54 am

The best was to learn to sightread is to practice it. I have books that I drill my students from once a month. On top of that, we cover a lot of music theory including a lot of rhythm stuff. Over all, students who take private lessons tend to be better sight readers because they cover more material in a shorter amount of time. I teach several group classes (beginner to advanced) as well and find that some of the students are not as strong because they lean on the stronger players on the group, so I make them do sight reading drills on their own.

Since you only have a few days, I think the best thing to do is put some pieces in front of them, have the students play individually, and go over what they did, correcting anything that was incorrect.

john101 · Post by **john101** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:20 am

You might want to simulate the audition experience as much as possible so there are no surprises. In our state the the judges are usually sitting with their backs to the student (this freaks some kids out). And often times they will use hand written script for the sightreading test (this also throws some kid off). lastly teach them not to allow the judges to rush them when doing the sightreading test. Tell them to take their time and look over the piece for a moment before playing it.

John

fluttiegurl · Post by **fluttiegurl** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:00 pm

Good points. Here, the sight reading is timed, so being rushed is part of the audition. They have one minute before they have to begin playing. If your state has timed auditions, be sure to make that a part of the practice.