 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2010-03-06 18:35
Any suggestions on learning to read ahead?
I realize that my abillity to play faster passages is severly limited by my inability to read ahead effectively. As a result, I panic, get behind, miss notes and come to a screeching halt. Clearly not an effective approach!
I read something in an old thread about covering up notes as you go along, but that requires another person. Any ideas on how to work on this skill alone?
Thanks,
Anne
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-03-07 05:49
There are several ways to become a better sight reader.
To start off don't use your clarinet. Pick up a piece of music which you have never played, something easy. Look at the first measure for about 1 or 2 seconds, then look away from the music and see if you can remember all of the notes and the rests. Then repeat this process over and over until you get pretty good at reading a measure at a time in just a second. This may take a bit of time to master. As you get better at this try doing this exercise at 1 second intervals or even faster. You can/should set your metronome to help you keep your eyes moving.
The next step is to get your eyes moving ahead of where you are playing. Try playing a measure and have your eyes look at the next measure. Keep practicing this very slowly so your brain and your fingers start working together.
When you do this type of practice remember not to look at each note, try to look at the whole measure, or at least 2 or 3 beats ahead, if there are a lot of notes.
This is actually how reading teachers teach their students how to read faster - speed reading. The trick is to focus at reading 3 to 10 words at a time. You don't have to study each word.
How this helps. You won't become a pro at this overnight. Allow yourself several months.
I'm sure other readers can also help you with different techniques.
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Author: grifffinity
Date: 2010-03-07 06:59
My belief is the more secure your basic technique, the easier it is for you to recognize patterns in the music. By practicing scales, thirds, arpeggios, (and other exercises a la Baermann III) in all the keys, you end up covering a majority of the patterns you would come across in most band music. The key is not to just memorize, but practice reading the exercises so you have a visual context for where your fingers are going.
Also, make sight reading a part of your practice regimen. The more you read, the more variations in patterns you will come across...and your brain will be quicker to recognize the pattern the next time you come across it.
There will always be passages that leave you finger-tied initially. The rules of sightreading in ensemble are not to panic, stop briefly and come in on the next beat or two...or even start on the next measure. You can stop your fingers, but don't lose your place visually in the music. Then go home and woodshed.
Post Edited (2010-03-07 06:59)
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-03-07 10:38
"griffinity's" ..."Method" above is the best inanutshell statement of how to play that I've read in a long time.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-03-07 12:25
Anne -
Sight reading is a mix of three related skills: "chunking," "restricting" and looking ahead.
CHUNKING
By this, I mean reading notes in groups rather than one at a time. You learn to do it by practicing scales and arpeggios. When you have them "in your fingers," you recognize a series of notes by their shape, instead of by reading them all. As an easy example, when I see an ascending C major scale, I recognize the smooth "staircase" shape and play the scale in a single gesture. For arpeggios, I recognize the "ladder" shape.
I also create "meta-chunks" on the fly. That is, I watch for repeated patterns, such as sequences. After I play the first group and recognize that I'm in a sequence, I know pretty much what to play next. This overlaps with the next process:
RESTRICTING
By this, I mean recognizing the harmony and knowing which notes will fit. Even if I don't quite see every note, or see a note shape that could be one thing or another, my fingers know what's right and what's not.
Once again, this comes from practicing scales and arpeggios, so that your fingers have the proper patterns already inside them.
When I do this ad-hoc, as in a sequence, I start playing the pattern, and while my fingers are doing it, I look ahead for changes in the pattern during the next repetition. I particularly look for accidentals, which indicate a modulation and therefore a change in the pattern.
This leads to the third skill:
LOOKING AHEAD
When I read in chunks and know the restrictions, I have some spare attention. That is, my fingers play a group of notes by themselves (or at least with control below the conscious level), and I can look ahead to recognize the next chunk or series of chunks. I almost never read one note at a time, Rather, I use the extra time to group the notes that are coming up.
LOTS OF PRACTICE
You learn the three skills in two ways. First, you spend your very best time -- say, the first 10 minutes of each practice session -- working very slowly on scales and arpeggios. It's about as much fun as eating light bulbs, but you have to do it to engrave the patterns in your muscle memory. Go dead slow. The important part is to learn to do it without mistakes. If you permit even one mistake, you’re engraving that mistake in your muscle memory -- exactly the opposite of what you want. So, your motto must be NEVER GO FASTER THAN PERFECT. The engraving process works just as well at slow tempo. Stop the moment your concentration wavers.
Second, do lots of sight reading. Chunking, restricting and looking ahead are meta-skills, which you have to practice almost as much as scales.
Go through sonatas, etudes -- whatever you have nearby. It doesn't matter how good the music is -- only that you get a chance to practice the skills and meta-skills. In fact, the more predictable the music is, the better it is for sight reading practice.
This not something you learn overnight, but if you keep at it, it works miracles. It's an essential step in reaching the next level in your playing.
Ken Shaw
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2010-03-08 23:29
Thank you for these suggestions. I've gone through Baermann III in my lessons, but really need to go back through it again (and again and again) to really get the scales and arpeggios under my fingers. I also have Smart
Music so I have an infinite supply of sight reading material, if not enough hours in the day to practice as much as I would like. I can tell that I am getting better, but it's a good thing I didn't realize how big a mountain I had started climbing when I started 3 years ago!
I guess I'll go practice a scale or two.
Cheers,
Anne
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Author: Woop Woop
Date: 2010-03-09 19:46
I've always found that being able to sing parts helps me a lot with playing them... not sure how helpful that is to everyone else though. I think its something to do with the fact that if you can sing it, you should know where the notes are in your brain and that works faster than either your eyes or your hands so you have the notes mentally prepared before you play them. Anyone else find that this occur or have any other theories?
Woop Woop
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