Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-02-16 15:30
Hey, group, good advice!
Chipper, pay extra attention to Brenda's advice. I, too, promise you'll get better. Chris's caution to read ahead is also good.
Personally, I find it almost as hard to play, say, the first note of every beat as it is to "just read the music."
I'm finding that, as Brenda says, that I'm getting better over the last few months of working on my scales and arpeggios. I can read new pieces in the key signatures I've been through in my practice sessions. Those "finger busters" show up in the practices, and my teacher spends enough time with me to be certain that I have the most useful sequence of fingerings through the pinky keys and the altissimo.
It will take time to get noticeably better at sight reading. What I think is helpful is to pick a key signature and work through a collection of exercises in that key signature. That means working on the Major scales/arpeggios and then repeating the exercise in the relative minor.
Here's what I'm doing. I've got the Baermann 3. It goes through the key signatures adding one flat and then one sharp at a time. The exercises for each key consist of scales, interrupted scales, scales in thirds (!) and two arpeggio studies. Take time to write out the pinky sequences and the altissimo alternative fingerings that make the most sense (and are in tune on your set-up). Play everything slow enough to avoid mistakes. Do one key at a time. For reinforcement, get the Kroepsch daily studies. The Kroepsch spends like 2-pages on fingerbusters in short, nasty work outs. Each exercise is like 2-measures played over and over and over and over followed my a one-measure flourish. Work through two or three exercises at a time until you've got them. Again starting slowly enough to avoid errors. These things require you to start with your pencil --marking the fingerings.
Finally, I've been advised to keep a pile of unplayed music by my practice music stand and to pick up a chart and read it every so often --just for drill. I buy a lot of stuff on eBay. Much is pure crap --but it provides a sight reading challenge; and occasionally I come up with a keeper. You're in heaven with all of the "free" charts coming your way every week. Its a process, not an accomplishment.
Bob Phillips
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The Clarinet BBoard
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