I have an all-parish band audition tomorrow and was wondering some basic steps to take to sight read music. Can you outline some steps?
2007-11-30 14:28:41 · 5 answers · asked by Steve 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
Practice sightreading by making sightreading part of your daily practice. Knowing things like scales/key signatures, arpeggios/intervals, music terminology, approximate rhythm tempos, basic music history of the composer/time period (if given), meter changes, and overall form of hte piece will greatly help in the long run.
So the short list of things to look at is this:
1. Composer/Title/Genre (if given)
2. Tempo and Meter
3. Key signature
4. Dynamics
5. Overall articulation
6. Key signature/Meter changes...definitely don't want to miss those
7. Form (repeating sections, etc)
8. Tricky spots..focus on those and find what they have in common, so that they are easier to breakdown/finger through
My experience has been with sightreading for auditions is that you are usually given approximately 2 minutes to look through the piece before playing it. Take FULL advantage of the time you have. Yes, you may not get everything, but the main key is to see how well you play "on the spot." I'd also highly recommend practising "looking ahead" a bar or two at a time (or even several notes if the measures are long) as you're sightreading, so that you're not totally caught off guard with each individual note, rhythm, etc.
Good luck!
2007-11-30 16:49:29 · answer #1 · answered by jfluterpicc_98 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Do you know all the notes on both staffs ? If you don't then get some flash cards. Learn both clefs off by heart ; you can do this anywhere....the bus or train. Do you know all the notes on the piano keyboard ? If you don't then spend time practising scales without any music in front of you. Just say the notes as you play them until you are familiar with the whole keyboard. Learn to recognise common chords so that they become familiar to you. Make up your own flash cards to do this. Break up sight reading into three separate steps as above, rather than trying to learn everything at once if you are a beginner..
2016-05-27 01:30:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just takes LOTS of practice! Of every practice session do a little sight reading at the end. When I have a new piece I look at the basic stuff like time signiture, key signiture, any key changes or unusal pitch changes, etc just to get a sense. Then if I have time I play the difficult passages silently with my fingers! When Im playing I loook two or three bars ahead to see what is ahead. Good luck with your audition
2007-11-30 15:42:56 · answer #3 · answered by bcooper_au 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Usually I first look at the key signature(s)/time signature(s), rhythms, notes, etc and make sure I basically understand all of it. Then playing it in sections (like, 1-17 or something like that) usually helps. And playing it slowly at first and as you go on get closer and closer to the actual tempo. That's what we do in my band class usually. Good luck tomorrow.
2007-11-30 14:39:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
just look at the key signature, finger the notes, and hum the rhythm to yourself. lol im lead trumpet for my highschool, and i suck at sight reading :P
2007-11-30 16:30:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋