Sight reading

[JeffLearman]

Back to the original question: learning to read.

 

I can't sight read, though I did surprise myself a number of years back when I put the music fo r"Bridge Over Troubled Water" before me, and knowing the basic harmony & timing already, seeing how the notes were clustered clued me into what the voicings were, and I damn near sight read my way through it! (Much to my amazement.) My experience with reading was 3 years playing alto sax in the high school marching band. That's the easiest possible part!

 

I find the hardest part of reading to be reading the timing. But, like anything, what it must take is lots and lots of practice. Furthermore, if you're already a musician and therefore can memorize music quickly, you need to keep practicing with different scores rather than redoing the same ones.

 

As mentioned above, start simply and work up. A hymnal is a great idea, since all the elements tend to be very simple in most hymns.

 

I used to say "Oh, I'll learn reading later, like when I'm 50 and have nothing better to do." Now that I'm 53, I realize what a dumb kid I was.

[Throbert]

OK, so you know the notes bass and treble clefs key sigs and chording. A good way to get you going is to have the sheet music aswell as the music. Play the music and follow along familiarizing yourself with whats going on so you can understand all of the notations. at first it will probably be a little blurry, but after awhile your sensitivity to whats on the sheet becomes acute. Then go to the board and try hashing it out, with and with out the music. do this with several pieces and continue until you can start turning down the volume to off and start reading with out the need for reference.

[Eric Iverson]

In my family, Dad (an amateur) liked to play when he got home from work (clarinet or violin, but he dabbled in many instruments). We'd see him playing from sheet music, and we'd see him playing by ear. So it never occurred to us that it was abnormal to do both!

 

I learned to read music as a kid from music lessons, and in school band, on trumpet. And started playing guitar at 15, and there was very little sheet music involved in rock music back then... if you were going to learn it, you either had to get someone to show you or figure it out by ear yourself.

 

I think it's GREAT that a 38 year old man would make an honest attempt to learn to read music... so many adults are afraid to take on a challenge like that!

[Garrafon]

Sight reading and playing by ear are, of course, complementary skills, each of which have their place. I don't think anyone is any less professional because they can only do one or the other. In the rock world, for example, having a working knowledge of both (and theory also) is most useful because, it seems, that many of the transcriptions are not dead on. So, you need to do some individual working using the ear and theory.

 

That being said, it is personally rewarding (for me anyway) to be able to sit down and take out the sheet music for some tune you like (but don't know how to play) and give it the ol' college try. If I could sight read better, it would be all the satisfying.

 

Props to the op for giving it a try. To answer the question thought - only doing more of it more often will make you better. There are no magical tricks. Just do it.

[Mike Davis]

Slow . . .

[Cygnus64]

There's a widely circulated rumor that Pavarotti could not read music. His former (disgruntled) manager even said so in a tell-all book. Pavarotti denied it, saying something like he doesn't read orchestral scores.

 

If true, (I'm guessing it's half-true) this was a monumental achievement to pull it off. Still, it does explain why his repertoire was so small: only Italian Operas from the classic and romantic periods. Never sang a note of any modern composer, never did any world premieres, no Wagner etc.

[Sven Golly]

You're making assumptions that one skill somehow cancels out another. Why would it? Transposing is one skill and reading is another. Woodwind players transpose all the time: Clarinet parts can be written in Bb, A, Eb. Horns can be written in pretty much any key the composer wants. They are doing this in music much harder than Summertime, think Bartok and Stravinsky.

 

Cygnus, I'm not sparring with you on this one, I'm countering the erroneous opinion that the term "professional" equates to "being able to sight read". I'm not, as you state, assuming one excludes the other; I know lots of folks who are amazing at both. I also know folks who are good at only one of the two. Do I consider them "unprofessional"? Hell no.

 

Frankly, with present company excepted, I know numerous gifted, classically trained pianists who are completely neutered without dots on a page in front of them. Do I consider them "unprofessional"? Hell no.

 

Do I consider the opinion that an inability to sight read music means they're not a professional musician to be myopic, elitist and naive? Hell yes.

 

 

[JpScoey]

So what system is better? How else can you convey the following info?

http://g.sheetmusicplus.com/Look-Inside/large/17686750_00-02.jpg

 

By putting a time sig. & suggested tempo???

[Cygnus64]

Do I consider the opinion that an inability to sight read music means they're not a professional musician to be myopic, elitist and naive? Hell yes.

 

 

Supposedly one of my all-time favorites, Sir Paul, cannot read music to any degree.

 

I do a gospel/symphony show every year where the bass player can't read a note of music. He's a badass. I really enjoy watching him and understanding his thought process, he can pick things up at an incredibly fast pace. Some of the charts have been complex, and by showtime, he's there.

[iLaw]

By putting a time sig. & suggested tempo???

The time signature appeared earlier (at this point in Rhapsody in Blue we're within a page or two of the end). And is "Grandioso (grandly, imposing, not too slow)" not suggestive enough on tempo?

 

Larry.

 

 

 

[Sven Golly]

Do I consider the opinion that an inability to sight read music means they're not a professional musician to be myopic, elitist and naive? Hell yes.

 

 

Supposedly one of my all-time favorites, Sir Paul, cannot read music to any degree.

 

I do a gospel/symphony show every year where the bass player can't read a note of music. He's a badass. I really enjoy watching him and understanding his thought process, he can pick things up at an incredibly fast pace. Some of the charts have been complex, and by showtime, he's there.

 

There ya go... now we're on the same page. :D

 

Frankly I am floored at a couple of cats that I know who can reharmonize, seemingly on the fly, and can make stuff sound just a little different, or so mind-numbingly altered that the original melody is just barely discernable... but always incredibly musical.

 

I hate those guys.

 

[JpScoey]

I gotta jump in here. Reading music has nothing to do with anything you're trying to say. It's reading. It's no different than reading the morning paper, it's exactly the same thing.

 

That is not to say the ability to read music scores is detrimental, but it's not the be-all-&-end-all.

 

Ever play a 2 hour show without any rehearsal whatsoever and not even knowing what's on the show?

 

Yes,I have,recently (3 hours in fact) - it was a case of "how does it go, what key is it in"? & 'nods-&-winks'.

 

But as I stated earlier, I think we're looking at this from different perspectives.

 

I'm not berating music-readers (I read music myself)- & would encourage people to learn if that's what they want to do.

 

The point is that it's not essential to read music to be a good (sometimes GREAT) musician - whether pro or not.

 

 

 

 

[JpScoey]

is "Grandioso (grandly, imposing, not too slow)" not suggestive enough on tempo?

 

Blimey, you must have good eyesight - even now I can't read that !

[iLaw]

... The point is that it's not essential to read music to be a good (sometimes GREAT) musician - whether pro or not.

That's true. In fact you don't even need to be able to see, as countless blind musicians have proven. In fact, you don't even need to be able to hear, as Evelyn Glennie mind-bogglingly proves at every performance.

 

But the fact remains that the inability to read (illiteracy) is a handicap. It can be overcome by most, and the better you are at reading, the wider will be your musical horizons.

 

Where the h*** is Dave Horne when we need him?

 

Larry.

 

[Jazz+]

I am an excellent sight reader, I have been reading since 1966. It's just like reading written English to me.

 

My sight reading tips are:

 

1) See the shapes of groups of notes, not just one note at a time. I see groupings of notes, just like when I read a word I don't fixate on one letter at a time. Knowing the notes harmonic relationships is very useful for me. Having chord symbols written above the measure makes it easier to scan the notes, chord symbols give me instant insight into the harmonic relations of the note groupings making the music more obvious.

 

2) Use your "peripheral" vision to always be looking slightly ahead to what is coming next. As I play the notes I am already looking at the next notes. Especially at the end of each staff line.

 

3) Do not look down at your hands, you can lose your place,. It's a bad habit that can hinder your ability and confidence in reading.

 

4) Memorize and understand the sound of the common rhythm patterns.

[Michelle ggurl]

My opinion is that I don't consider someone a 'professional musician' if they can't read straight off the page. There's a 'pro musician' and someone who plays in bands. You can stun me with your Jimmy Smith licks, your Hancock riffs, but if you can't play what somebody throws at you on a sheet I personally don't consider you professional. Is that a harsh opinion? Probably.

 

From what I hear, an entire musical family of some prominence in the Bay Area on the Latin/pop music scene plays by ear. I can guarantee you you've heard some of their work at some point. They sit it with other musicians as well has have their own bands. They must be pro because none of them has ever worked a day job that I know, and they seem to eat and have roofs over their heads ...

 

To be fair, maybe it's a lot easier to do this on percussion. Still,I agree with you to a certain point; when I call in a sub player, that person knows how to read, at least rudimentary rhythm charts that show the chords, the song's form, rhythmic and note-specific information on breaks or passages as needed, and information on groove and tempo. My charts aren't rocket science, but if someone can't read that, they're not going to work out so well most likely ... because the situation is usually that it's a 3-hr gig and we've never rehearsed together, or done one rehearsal going over specific breaks and transitions only. Seems drummmers like to take the charts and memorize, but that's their deal. They still put it together pretty quickly.

 

So in response to the OP specifically, I think you have a lot of good advice here on where to start with reading, and I will also emphasize that consistently practicing even if for 5 minutes a day is key. I no longer do that, so my ability to sightread varies immensely based on what I've been up to musically. If I haven't been reading much, my ability goes down. If I've been reading a lot (and like FrogMonkey, when I was teaching, that really seemed to keep the reading chops up), I'm a lot better. I've never been awesome at it, best I ever got was ability to sightread some of Bach's inventions. But that's not what I do in a gigging situation, haven't since I left school; what I can be pretty good at is reading down charts I've never seen, nailing breaks (or knowing when to lay out) in rock, jazz, and salsa contexts (and the last can have some complicated breaks). So you can start out getting a solid comfort with reading notes, then I would suggest finding material to read that is specific to the music you play, if you want to get up and going quickly with capability to be a reading sub player.

[Mike Davis]

I am an excellent sight reader, I have been reading since 1966. It's just like reading written English to me.

 

My sight reading tips are:

 

1) See the shapes of groups of notes, not just one note at a time. I see groupings of notes, just like when I read a word I don't fixate on one letter at a time. Knowing the notes harmonic relationships is very useful for me. Having chord symbols written above the measure makes it easier to scan the notes, chord symbols give me instant insight into the harmonic relations of the note groupings making the music more obvious.

 

2) Use your "peripheral" vision to always be looking slightly ahead to what is coming next. As I play the notes I am already looking at the next notes. Especially at the end of each staff line.

 

3) Do not look down at your hands, you can lose your place,. It's a bad habit that can hinder your ability and confidence in reading.

 

Great tips. #3 can be especially important if you're backing up shows with a two keyboard rig. Very often the music stand will be off to the side instead of directly in front of you.

[Threadslayer]

My advice is to start with something straightforward and intuitive like this: http://www.well.com/user/bryan/waltz.html

 

[Cygnus64]

The point is that it's not essential to read music to be a good (sometimes GREAT) musician - whether pro or not.

 

 

 

 

I agree, it's just extremely limiting. Sir Paul and Pavarotti and my bassist friend may not need it, but even they have been limited: Sir Paul wouldn't have to hire "ghostwriters" for his classical music stuff, Pavarotti could have actually sung a modern opera, and my bassist friend wouldn't have to take 3 weeks learning a show that he could learn in 3 hours if he could read notes.

[MonksDream]

Excellent advice so far! I think the single most important aspect of sight-reading is being able to read and understand rhythmic notation. In college I had a Rhythm Studies class where they broke down things like rhythmic notation, how to properly group beats in a bar and why, and what time signatures actually signify. I depend on that knowledge every time I read a chart. Note placement is important, of course, but it's rhythms that I find people struggle with the most. Get a rhythm studies book and use it. It will improve your reading immensely.

 

Practice reading all the time. It's the only way to get better at it. Like Geekgurl, if I don't use it I lose it. Take it slow. It's more important to interpret what you're reading correctly than it is to do it quickly. Speed will come in time. I recently joined a big band for the express purpose of improving my reading and it's helped immensely. I still struggle with big band charts sometimes (ever try putting an 8-page chart with repeats and codas on a piano?) but it's getting easier every day.

[Dave Ferris]

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[David Loving]

You talked to Bill Mays? He is one of my absolute favorite pianists, period. I have a lot of iTunes stuff with him and Marvin Stamm.

[RABid]

When I graduated high school I could site read pretty well, could easily transpose in my head while jumping between piano, trumpet and alto-sax, and had enough music theory to be equivalent to 2 semesters in college. ...

 

None of that helped me a bit when I joined my first cover band. They handed me some cassette tapes and said "learn these songs." I was lost. None of my formal training included learning by ear.

 

After a few years playing in cover bands my site reading was pitiful and I have never recovered.