 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarygurl
Date: 2005-07-17 05:25
Any suggestions: I'm an advanced clarinet player (graduate school) but reading music is VERY difficult to me. I've been working on it with my private instructor--but I'm curious--what methods/ideas have you used to learn to sight-read faster and with greater acuracy? My assumption that reading has been difficult for me because I was a late start player--and I learned to play by ear...any thoughts/suggestions?
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Author: Robyn
Date: 2005-07-17 06:27
You could try playing a lot of scales and arpeggios both with and without music. With music, so you recognize them quickly on sight, and without music so you get the patterns ingrained in your fingers. This will help you recognize patterns in the music you are playing so you don't have to read every individual note. I think that's the key to better sight reading...the ability to read ahead and see a passage as a set of patterns instead of a random series of notes.
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Author: Snowy
Date: 2005-07-17 06:51
Clarygurl,
Log onto http://www.sibeliusmusic.com and download the Scorch plugin for your browser.
Then look at some scores - there are thousands there- and "play" them on your computer. Yourt reading and counting will improve at a rate of knots you would not believe.
From one who knows.
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Author: William
Date: 2005-07-17 15:01
Most of us can't "reed" as well as we would like, but have become very adept at reading--which presents much less of a hassel than reeding. The only thing that helps with becoming better at reading music is simply doing a lot of it. The better you become at analysing rhythmic figures and have mastered note fingerings (so you don't have to think, "hmmm, how do I finger THAT"), the more success you will have at actually "reading", rather than laborishly "figuring it out".
A couple of hints: 1) memorize all of your scales and arpeggios so you can recognize groups of notes rather than having to read every single note; and, 2) learn to read ahead of what you are actually playing. Ex., if you are playing measure one, you should be looking at measure two. As you play a group of notes, be looking ahead at the next figure(s) coming up. Just learn to look ahead a little bit in your music so there are fewer "surprizes" to encounter.
But, bottom line, it's like the old joke, *how do you get to Carniegie Hall* The answer, PRACTICE MAN, PRACTICE!! Experiance is definately the best teacher.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-07-17 16:53
One of the local ancients advises to keep a pile of stuff around to sight read. I've been trying to do that; and it helps.
Also, the group sight reading suggestion works; our quintet does that an hour or so a week. We pick pieces for further work from these exercises.
The suggestion to play past the sticky parts is excellent --and helps dramatically when working with an ensemble. I promised my trio that I'd quit replaying things that don't flow off the horn (and things I'd like another crack at for expression); but find that THAT IS VERY HARD TO DO. I've been "coming back" from years away from the clarinet; and have spent the last couple of years replaying the passages that I can't cut.
Snowy's Great suggestion to use Sebelius/Scorch looks good. It looks like Mozilla Firefox won't work with the Scorch plug-in, but the scores can be opened in Internet Exploder.
And, there's some real moderne stuff on the Sebelius site --the kinda stuff for that can only be "read," because no one would want to hear it.
Bob Phillips
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Author: 3dogmom
Date: 2005-07-17 17:41
Just a question, is it notes names (and fingerings) you can't identify quickly, or is it rhythms and rhythmic patterns? Can you distinguish between the two issues? The remedy could vary depending on the exact nature of the problem. I agree with everyone else about the repetition, though.
Sue Tansey
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Author: Tyler
Date: 2005-07-18 17:51
1) Play piano (reading piano music, not playing by ear)
2) Arpeggios and scales, as suggested above
3) Join a community band that plays lots of marches with little rehearsal
4) Learn/Review/Practice music theory.
If you do all four of these, then your sight-reading will improve immensely.
-Tyler
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Author: diz
Date: 2005-07-18 22:11
All good advice above ... on top of this I might suggest you start a collection of study scores for the core orchestral works (you can even borrow them from your city library if it's got a good music collection). Listen to your CDs and read along ... get your brain used to processing information quickly.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-07-18 23:22
Diz's advice is excellent.
To expand - pick up a few miniature scores of symphonies, concertos, etc...
it really doesn't matter.
While the CD is playing, follow along with one part only (flute, oboe, 2nd violin, etc...) , through out the entire piece.
Pay careful attention, especially in the slow movements which are often sub-divided and rhythms can be complex..
This is an excellent way to learn and visualize old and new rhythmic figures...GBK
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