Sight Reading

[sakuramimato]

Can it be learned or is it acquired through extensive
practice? What are your opinions?

[MvAuMsPrInCeSs06]

[quote] ---------------- On 1/18/2004 3:52:00 PM Can it
be learned or is it acquired through extensive practice? What are your opinions?
---------------- [/quote] I think it is acquired through extensive
practice...Once you start practicing alot, it will come naturally

[AG950Flute]

sight reading is acquired through extensive practice, but
there are some helpful hints that will hopefully make it a little easier. the
best way is to find a new piece that you've never played and play it. when
you're first starting to sight read it should be slightly be your level. one,
you'll be more likely to play it, which will be encouraging and make you want
to keep trying it. when you're sight reading make sure that you keep your eyes
moving ahead and try not to stop. put a metrenome on so you keep a steady tempo,
and you don't have to play it up to tempo. as you start developing as a sight
reader you can slowly start trying to play pieces at your level. hope that
helps! best of luck!

[krzymunkey]

it does get better.. i used to not like flute, and i
hardly practiced, so my sightreading was bad. but now, im getting more serious
so my sightreading has improved a lot! [;)]

[FluteDiddy]

Sight reading gets easy as you get real good technically.
Sure practicing sight reading helps. But if you know your instrument and basic
music theory sight reading aint no thang

[tubbycub]

Sightreading is definitely much easier than playing by
ear...at least for me as I am struggling very hard to play without scores.

[ick27]

Some research has been done regarding sight reading, and
it has been found that better sight reading is correlated with practicing
sightreading more and knowing more repertoire. It make sense that knowing more
repertoire make sight reading easier since you'll be familiar with common music
patterns that appear in lots of music. Regarding how to practice sight reading,
there are a few important things that I think most musicians would agree on. 1.
Try not to make mistakes. Do this by playing quite slowly, so that you don't
miss notes. 2. When you make mistakes, keep going. Don't stop and play the spot
over again, keep looking ahead and only worry about the music coming up. I am
not a very good sight reader myself, but I've gotten better by working on
etudes slowly and even with some rubato to really get the notes. The goal of
sight reading is really to read the notes (and the rest of the music)
accurately. As Julius Baker used to say, "if you never make a mistake, you'll
never make a mistake." So I guess the answer to your question is both--sight
reading is learned through extensive practice. -Bradford

[tubbycub]

Precisely, try to expose yourself to as many sheet music
as you can. You can try to join a few bands if you can manage your time well.

[vice]

I have a different perspective on this. My greatest
talent when it comes to the flute, and music in general, is technical playing
and sight reading. I don't practice sight reading (in fact i dont practice very
much at all :/ ) but I am still able to read relatively difficult pieces nearly
perfectly on my first try. Of course it gets tough once there are more than 4
sharps/flats. That's not to say sight reading can't be learned and improved; I
know I could be better at it if i practiced it more. If it doesn't come
naturally to you, the only way to improve at it is to spend time on it.

[minsmusic]

Great question! "Can it be learned or is it acquired
through extensive practice? What are your opinions?" My opinion: yes and yes. AS
a teacher I emphasise sight reading right from the very first lesson. I teach it
by 'rote'. Three notes at a time. (N.B. I'm a piano, keyboard, singing
teacher who's teaching herself the flute, so I'll adapt the way I go about
things for the flute [:)] ) Try to incorporate the three learning methods 1.
Visual - sight 2. Aural - listening 3. Kinesthetic - doing. The best way of
'learning' to identify notes very quickly is with a buddy. But if you want to
do it by yourself you can too! First choose three notes. For the flute perhaps C
in the space. On manuscript paper write C D E. If you're with a buddy, aks them
to say the letters, and as quick as you can, write them down in the order they
say. Use whole notes(semibreves) This is one way to include the 3 methods above.
After you've filled a whole line with these notes, take your flute and play
them. Next, still using just those three notes, write yourself a few melodies
using different time signatures. Make sure you vary the value of the notes.
Before you try to play them with your flute, say their names OUT LOUD. Then,
clap or tap the rhythm of the piece. NOW you're ready to play your melodies.
Once you've mastered those three notes, add TWO more. Repeat the whole process.
Yes, this takes a lot of time and effort to begin with, but it's a fantastic
way to really sink into your brain what you want it to remember. You'll find if
you incorporate this into your practise time, and do it EVERY DAY, your brain
will start to see in 'patterns' which connects with your muscles - (face,
lips, tongue, arms, fingers, etc) which believe it or not can develop 'muscle
memory'. (HAve you ever noticed that you don't even have to think about a
piece you really love and have played a million times?) Another way of
practising to 'learn' sight reading is to take a piece of difficult sheet
music. Say to yourself,(mentally I mean) I'm going to find all the C's as
quickly as possible, and then go for it! Repeat this with other notes. What the
others above have said is very good advice too. This is where the 'or is it
acquired through extensive practise' bit comes in. Get yourself some really
easy pieces. I mean so easy it's embarrassing. The most important thing about
this music is that YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED THEM BEFORE SO YOU DON'T KNOW HOW THEY
GO. Say the notes aloud. Clap the rhythm, and then as the others have said, go
slowly, trying not to make mistakes. Don't repeat the song. Move onto the next
one. Don't repeat that one either, move on etc. You'll get to the point where
you won't need to say the notes aloud, nor clap the rhythm. When this happens,
it's time to move onto pieces a little harder. To begin with your sight reading
skills may not equal your performance ability. But if you 'teach' your brain
what's expected of it, and then do some 'extensive' practise, you'll be like
our friend Vice who finds sight reading very easy. Give it a go. In about a
week, let me know how it works out for you. [;)]

[DrMalone]

Although I don't consider myself an excellent sight
reader, I'm probably a good one. Frankly, I'm much better on the flute than I
am on the piano, although I can "get by" on the piano as well. Most of what
I've read on sightreading suggests that it can be developed in one of two ways:
1) You have an innate gift (I don't); or 2) You master the fundamentals of your
instrument so that when you encounter these in a piece of music, you're able to
respond appropriately. In "mastering the fundamentals," I mean you know your
scales, your key signatures, your time signatures, dynamics, metronome markings
and any other terms or insights that would suggest what you should do with the
music. Years ago when I was working with phenomenal accompanists, I would notice
that they would read a piece of music through (almost like 'speed reading' the
piece) to notice the character and direction of the piece. They would notice any
key changes, tempo changes, or other "surprises" that needed to be considered.
Then they would plow into the music. Basically, that is how I now sightread on
the flute. I also enjoy sightreading duets, which I would recommend, since it
forces you to stay with the tempo, to give attention to dynamics and intonation,
and to making music with another individual. There are several great books of
easy-medium-advanced duets that would be useful for skill-building. Have fun.

[PiccChick]

hello-i guess i sight read pretty well-u have to practice
a lot and have to play a lot of music(different peices w/ different rythems)and
it actually comes naturall 4 me. before i started being taught by
my(awesome)director, i played(taught myself) several songs inside the method
book. Good Luck-[;)]

[Cleartone]

Everyone has posted great responses to your question
Sakuramimato. Like most, when I sight-read I take a good look at the piece first
before I play it and then play it at a slower than performance speed. Usually I
think to myself, slow down and relax before the piece starts and during rests.
And of course sight-read as much as can. You can even get to the point of liking
it a lot. but this covers what everone else has told you, so I thought I just
offer another method for interests sake. Take a recording of a piece, let's say
like a Galway recording, have the sheet music and sit in your most comfortable
chair and follow along with Galway, reading what he is playing. You of course
can do this with a lot of other music,just not flute music. Even if you know the
piece relatively well you can learn a bit by doing this. It improves your
reading skills, it improves your phrasing skills. Listen for when they take a
breath. And so on and so forth. there are always a few surprises when doing
this. I especially like to read along with quartets. It's fun!!! Reading scores
to symphonies is helpful in understanding the era of music the composer is from,
clueing you in on how to play concertos and sonatas by composers of the same
period.

[PiccChick]

cleartone-ive tried doing that for a evaluation-listen to
a recording-it dosnt work for me-i played what it was on the recording and
played the totally wrong thing!!i'd be careful when u do that its tricky.[;)]

[Cleartone]

Piccchik, I don't quite understand your response, what
do you mean you listened and then played the absolutely the wrong thing and for
what evaluation? Do you mean you listened to something and sight read it wrong?
Is that what you mean? Or did you copy a recordings' interpretation of a piece
which turned out to be different then what was on the sheet music? Could you
please explain, so I can understand what you mean??