The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: chorusgirl
Date: 2010-02-22 16:12
Is there a particular method any of you use to teach your students to sight read? (particularly on the middle school level)
Thanks!
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Author: clarinetjoel
Date: 2010-02-22 18:15
Speaking as a student:
My teacher often just sets something that challenges me on my stand, gives me a few seconds, and I go. In the beginning of course he went through what I need to look for.
Obviously my knowledge is really limited, but that's how I've learned.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-02-22 22:55
Play duets with your students. You should have a collection of all levels and have them prepare one each week and sight read one each week as well. You could also have them play along with you that they are sight reading to encourage them not to stop and to look ahead. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: crsbryan
Date: 2010-02-25 13:35
I have a (saxophone) student who can't read very well, but has great breath breath support, decent embouchure, and a good ear. He impresses me because when we play together, if he gets lost, he ALWAYS jumps back in on the next phrase. A good habit to encourage. But back to the first question -
Each lesson we do some easy sight reading. I just open to a page in the book, pick an exercise, and have at. I ask him to identify the time signature, key signature, look for accidentals, clap or sing the rhythm, hum or sing the tune, then play. Pretty complex? Maybe. Make these automatic, and once some of the steps are mastered, they can be eliminated.
Audiation is the key. If you can look at the page, know what it's supposed to sound like, and apply the technique, you're all set.
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Author: William
Date: 2010-02-25 14:34
One thing that always helped my students was to isolate rhythmic examples from their lessons--band, sectional or private--analyize them thoroughly (labling, counting, clapping, vocalizing) and then put them back into the music's context for actual performance experiance. It's much like studying an elm tree and then learning how to identify it when found in the rest of the forest. A little practice doing this every session should help every student to better understand the music reading process.
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Author: hammer_sickle01
Date: 2010-02-25 17:14
I suppose this would be from a students experience...
One of my former instructors was currently going to school post-grad, so at the beginning of each lesson she would set down something from her "library" and have me play whatever part she picked out. It was sort of like a warm-up. She would give tips after each session and then I would improve on it the following week, and it just sort of went like that.
But most of the time we usually just played one of the many duets in Klose. I'm not sure of your students current level in middle school, but I would think the 50 progressive duets in the first part of the book are capable.
I also temporarily studied with someone else, and he focused on counting, clapping and vocalizing before beginning. It was sort of tedious at first, but eventually it helped a lot in the long run.
And although the time slot is probably short and the student may have other things to work on, I can't help but suggest emphasis on music theory. If your students experience was anything like mine up into entering high school, then getting to the basic fundamentals of how music "works" was never fully explained or just simply glossed over, and I often had to figure out things for myself. If I had known what I know now, I'm certain that things would have come a lot more naturally. And it just really fills in the gaps, if I ever come across a passage that I'm not particularly experienced in, when sight-reading.
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