 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JonTheReeds
Date: 2015-07-08 14:36
Does anyone use software to help them improve their sight reading? If so, which packages?
I've been looking for something that will put up music on the screen and hide a bar before playing the music. This would encourage reading ahead and if the music plays as well then it's possible to keep up with the score
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The older I get, the better I was
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Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2015-07-08 20:34
Perhaps SmartMusic http://www.smartmusic.com/ would work for you. It doesn't have the bar-blocking feature but you can control the tempo of the music you see before you (and its piano accompaniment.
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2015-07-09 03:38
I use a Mac and have an OS that smartmusic says it supports, but when I tried ot open the file after downloading it, it says it doesn't recognize the dmg file extension. Drat! This sounds like a very fun website.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-07-09 21:29
I concur with David (and I also license Smartmusic). There's a small yearly license fee https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/ that gives you access to randomly composed music based upon user chosen level of difficult, key, tempo, and instrument. The site will play the sample back to you if you wish.
You can try it for free without signing up.
One of the advantages of Smartmusic though, provided you use it with a USB microphone (either of your own or one purchased from Smartmusic) is that the software will note (read: recall) mistakes you've made.
Post Edited (2015-07-09 21:39)
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2015-07-10 07:55
For me the advantage of SmartMusic is the sheer volume of music available to sight-read. In addition to the sight-reading exercises, band method books, and solo pieces there is a vast and ever-expanding trove of recently published band and orchestra music. Not all of it is great, but that is bound to be the case in any collection this big.
The error-detection function is still a little iffy. Sometimes it will show errors where there are none, and it only listens for where a note begins, so if you fail to sustain full value, or miss an articulation or dynamic it will not detect it. Having a fast computer improves the accuracy of assessment, but it's not a function that I've found good enough to be useful. You can have the software play whatever you are looking at though, and that is helpful.
There is a good selection of solo accompaniments available at all levels, from beginning through to the Nielsen Concerto, and that can be very useful in learning to play with accompaniment and in learning or memorizing a piece. I wish they would expand this section of their library at the same pace that they do the band literature, but that seems unlikely. The product is really geared towards the school band world, and most of the solo pieces come from honor band audition lists, which is a great place to start, but is limiting.
Overall, it's well worth $40/year, especially as a teacher. Just don't try to use it on an iPad. The iPad app is crap (at least for working with solo pieces), although they've promised it will be overhauled soon.
I've been meaning to check out Sightreading Factory. Thanks for the reminder!
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