 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ashley91489
Date: 2007-11-10 00:27
I hear a lot that you should just practice reading new music but with that, you don't really know if you are playing it correctly. I need something that will vastly help improve my sight reading, especially for auditions. I'm getting into music theory and I'm thinking that will help but does anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe something that you have had good experience w/ doing?
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Author: hans
Date: 2007-11-10 00:43
Ashley91489,
To make sure that you are reading correctly, you could use the music that comes in a set with an accompaniment CD. The CD has two tracks for every tune: one with a full band and one with the lead part left out. That way you can play along with a pro or play it by yourself.
Hal Leonard and Warner Bros. are two companies that offer them. MMO (music minus one) does too, and 40 years ago they were the only ones available, but they don't seem as popular now.
Regards,
Hans
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Author: 2E
Date: 2007-11-10 01:03
Make sure your technique is up to scratch. All major/minor scales, arpeggios, diminished and dominant sevenths are common. Once you can fluidly control your fingers then you dont have to worry about half the notes you're sightreading and concentrate on the dynamics and articulations (which is what the audition panel will be really listening for).
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-11-10 01:44
2E wrote:
> Once you can fluidly control your fingers then you dont have to
> worry about half the notes you're sightreading and concentrate
> on the dynamics and articulations (which is what the audition
> panel will be really listening for).
The most common downfall of those who audition, and the reason most people do not succeed is poor rhythm.
You can have perfect articulation, dynamics, phrasing, etc... but if your rhythm is not 100% rock solid, others who are stronger will be placed ahead of you.
Every time ...GBK
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Author: Dan1937
Date: 2007-11-10 12:27
As a former (now retired) band director, I agree wholeheartedly with GBK; rhythm is always the big downfall. A respected brass teacher I knew 40+ years ago used to give his prospective students a sheet of rhythms, telling them to contact him for lessons on the instrument when they could count and play the rhythms flawlessly. Sounds reasonable to me!
Dan
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Author: kilo
Date: 2007-11-10 12:40
I find that practicing with a metronome helps me a lot. I can set mine up to sound a distinct downbeat and if that downbeat doesn't fall on the first beat of a measure I'll go back and work on that passage until it comes out right.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2007-11-10 13:12
Get smartmusic.
Nothing else comes close to being as good as that program. It has many exercises for rhythm, scales, technique busters, and hundreds of band pieces to play along with while the music is scrolling and playing (groups like the Marine band to play along with).
Also it has a tremendous accompaniment (midi, but high quality midi) with Piano rep in it.
All that for only $25 a year if your band director has a subscription and you get the student code from him. Otherwise it's $9.95 a month.
Really great stuff.
Sort of a disclaimer: I'm a Clinician for them, though I haven't done any clinics ever for them - too busy to do it so I don't. My recommendation doesn't come with any monetary incentive at all, though as a teacher I would be devastated if the program ceased to exist.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2007-11-12 13:17
> you don't really know if you are playing it correctly
I know what you mean: you play a new piece for the first time... second time through, it's unaccountably in a different key ;-D
It's true, playing lots of new pieces helps. But how to approach them? Some suggestions:
- Look at least three times at the key signature and know how to play in that key. Sometimes a big pile of accidentals suggests a temporary change... see if you can work out where it's going before you get there.
- Rhythm: even if you can't hum the notes at pitch (I know I can't at sight!), it's always possible to work out the general shape and style of the piece. Start with tempo and time signature then go searching for other more subtle clues. How will the beat go? - try and work it out without a metronome.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2007-11-12 15:45
Ashley,
It would help us some if we knew at what stage you are as a player. High school, middle school, college?
I heartily agree with everyone who has emphasized rhythm. It is the essence of sightreading, and it's also the easiest facet for you to get the kind of help you want.
You can buy rhythm courses that come with CD's or that possibly even operate from your computer. Presuming that you keep your scales in good shape, this could take you far.
SmartMusic is also a good idea. I don't know how much stuff is available to work with it, but the concept is certainly on-target and its popularity says a lot.
It might not hurt to use a metronome in this process. A huge problem with sightreading in younger players is hesitation. Be absolutely fearless when you sightread--just select your tempo wisely.
Allen Cole
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2007-11-12 15:54
"SmartMusic is also a good idea. I don't know how much stuff is available
to work with it, but the concept is certainly on-target and its popularity
says a lot."
---------------------------------------
A ton of material. Then you can use the transpose function and get 12x that
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-11-13 15:37
A great tenor sax player advised me to "keep a knee-high stack of un-read music piled by your music stand --and sight read it as part of your regular practice regimen."
I try to do that, but am limited by the cost, so I download a lot of stuff from the internet to use for sight reading practice. It doesn't matter if its "good" music or not. If its bad, it never enters my repertoire.
I'm finding that sight reading doesn't make me a better player as much as becoming a better player makes me a better sight reader. My (slowly) improving facility with scales and arpeggios is most noticeable when I'm sight reading --fewer sticky places.
Bob Phillips
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-11-13 16:20
Here's a couple things I suggest. I like to think of myself as a pretty fair sight-reader. not perfect, but it's not something I dread and I feel comfortable sight-reading new things. These aren't "steps" that I take, just different things I do/keep in mind.
1) There are patterns in all sorts of music. Both, within one piece, and between different pieces (even between composers). That's the point of scales, arpeggios, broken scales, broken chords, etc. Because these are common patterns. Well, depending on the piece of music, you can almost guarantee certain patterns. For instance, in my line of work (army clarinet player) I play a lot of marches. I started to notice patterns between marches. Just a certain "lick" that at one point seemed dificult, but now it's so common it's second nature. For example, thumb C to altissimo D to C triplet. Happens really often. Not that it's much of a challenge, but you just pass it over since it's so automatic.
And within composers, the patterns are even easier to hear/play. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a song on the radio and said, "Man. That sounds like Weber." And it is. Well, if you sight read/practice a bunch of weber stuff, when you see a piece or excerpt of his, it'll be more natural and feel better under your fingers. To the point where you could probably guess where he's going with a certain lick and be able to anticipate the next phrase better.
2) You can take your music and turn it upside-down and try to sight-read that. A hell of a pain (try to figure out accidentals like that!), but it throws you for a loop and can be just a break from 'standard' stuff.
3) no one says you need to sight-read clarinet music. Look at flute music and stay in that altissimo for a while. Look at trumpet music for a nice "comfortable" range, but it'll work your tonguing like no other. Or for some REAL fun, look at string music (violins, cello transcriptions, etc.) I mean, technically, we're the 'violins' of the concert band, so why not prepare for it by reading violin music? I think (purely just from my flawed logical mind) that if you practice music that was intended for instruments more versatile or just "quicker" than yours, then your music should be a snap. So if you can tongue at brass instrument double tonguing speeds, you should have no trouble tonguing your own pieces. And if you can play the leaps and speed of a violin player, clarinet pieces should be less of a challenge.
4) Also, quite contrary to whatever everyone else always says, sometimes I find I sightread best by reading one note at a time. NOT looking ahead. Looking ahead works fine if you know your scales and can anticipate what's coming up, but when you don't have that solid foundation and you've built your meager clarinet playing 'skills' upon an acre of quicksand, it doesn't help to see a bunch of notes that seem to just be separated if you don't realize it's a broken dominant seventh arpeggio (don't even know if I'm saying that right). But when I take those notes and see them in triplets and just concentrate on note for note keeping in mind what tempo and dynamic level I'm at and/or going to, it comes out better than me trying to read ahead, forgetting what notes I'm supposed to be playing as I look at the next section. Not the way to play a gig, but for the first time reading through the piece, just to see what you're up against and what to work on (which of course the "note for note" part would be a part to work on), it'll help get you through it and keep up a little better.
5) Sight-read with a buddy. if you get lost at a spot and he/she continues on, you can follow and join back in. And vice-versa. Or sight-read duets with a buddy (so long as they are in the same key or you or the other person are REALLY good at sight-transposing). One thing a friend of mine and I used to do (he is a PHENOMINAL clarinet player - I expect to see him in one of the priemere military bands whenever he decides to audition) is we'd find a book of duets we hadn't played before and sight read a piece. And when we've read it two or three times, we'd switch first and second parts every set of staffs. And then we'd switch first and second parts every measure (and THAT gets pretty darned tough! Trying to see where you're going when you have to switch top and bottom every bar gets pretty silly, but it's a great time and when it flows correctly you look back and say, "Wow. Can't believe I got through that. Especially that part where we're supposed to trade off the running sixteenth notes in different octaves but I ENDED UP WITH THEM ALL CAUSE I STUPIDLY CHOSE FIRST PART FOR THE FIRST BAR INSTEAD OF SECOND!!!" . . . . uh . . . . well, you get the idea). Tried this with a few others who haven't been adventerous enough to continue after it going a little askew. but it sure is fun and entertaining and really makes things challenging trying to see where you're going (you HAVE to look ahead, and you have to look ahead correctly! Especially when going to the next set of staffs, or staves, whiever you prefer)
Just a few things that run through my warped mind while sight-reading or getting ready to sight-read.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-11-13 16:30
Oh yes. And if you mess up a spot, keep sight-reading. Even if you have to drop out a bar or two and join in later. The purpose of sight-reading is to read it through the first time Once you go back and read it through a second time, you are no longer sight-reading. You are now "rehearsing". So sight-reading, by definition, means it has to be the first time you've tried to read that piece. I'd try to go as far as possible through a sight-reading piece unless I trainwreck. If I flub, I flub. And that's where preparing for sightreading, knowing your scales, arpeggios and patterns that you have seen and rehearsed from previous sight-reading pieces will help to keep you FROM flubbing the next sight-reading.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: A Brady
Date: 2007-11-13 16:52
When I was in high school, I studied with Dr Eugene F. Gonzalez, a University of Michigan graduate who was then the clarinet professor at The University of West Florida; we would literally spend hours reading clarinet duets together, which was absolutely the finest sight reading experience of my life. I learned to keep going and to keep my place in the music even if sometimes my fingers or tongue were not cooperating.
If you can do this with a fine player/mentor, it is an invaluable sight reading/musical experience.
AB
AB
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-11-14 16:01
Alexi's point about recognizing patterns is boldly demonstrated in the Homages a ..., the book of etudes written in the style of old-timey composers. His Hommage a C.M. von Weber is a gass --the quintet + the Slyavne Theme and variations and the Grand Duo --all written tongue in cheek just like Carl M vW (along with Carl Bearmann) reincarnate --and the Hommage a M de Falla.
Bob Phillips
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2007-11-15 00:49
This may sound stupid, but check your eyes regularly. I thought I was a horrid sight reader until 2 years ago when I got glasses for the first time in my life. Instantly, my sight reading improved.
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Author: alpharettablue
Date: 2007-11-15 17:45
I am just a band parent, but I went to the smartmusic sight and it looks like a great tool.
For those of you who teach, how many of you use smartmusic? Do you use it in schools, in private lessons or both? What age groups, skill levels, benefit the most? They seemed to have limited repetoire for the more advanced levels.
It looks like a great idea, and I am thinking about talking to our band director about it.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2007-11-15 18:56
There is actually quite a bit of moderately advanced music on the program to play along with (full band), and a LOT of advanced music with piano only accompaniment.
I use the band accomps for sight reading skill work. All levels will benefit from it including elem and college (college would be the piano accomps, not the band rep as it's too easy for them).
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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