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• Get Some Bebop Into Your Playing #1

• How To Improve Your Sight Reading

My sightreading was bad (and how I fixed it)

Sightreading is tough.

You're interpreting a page of arcane symbols and instructions, performing all sorts of dexterious feats on your instrument and simultaneously listening to (and adjusting) what it sounds like - all to play great music. If you're in a band of any sort, you'll have parts that require you to fit in with the rest of the group. If you're a soloist and have 16 bars to fill, knowing where the music is heading is handy. So what's the problem - I can just read the dots as I go, right ?

Unlike reading a book, where you can read at your own speed, sightreading is made more difficult because you have to keep your place in relation to a steady pulse. Slowing down and then catching up isn't usually an option. So what can you do to improve ?

Divide the problem into three parts
Pitch - Rhythm - Fingerwork **

1. Pitch
Do you know the notes? Have you checked the key signature? Which accidentals apply in this bar? (Handy tip here - accidentals written in a bar only apply to that bar and only to the octave they're written in.)

You need to understand all of the lines, squiggles and directions on the page. Mike Sheppard's book 'How to Read Music' will help you tremendously with this and is useable by all musicians at any level of playing.

2. Rhythm
Can you tap out the rhythm by itself?  Don't worry about the Pitch now, just the durations of the sound and the spaces. There are whole approaches around devoted to improving reading rhythms, including the Kodaly Method. Jazz players (especially vocalists) have developed syllables which represent the rhythms and if you know the tune "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing", you'll know the "doo-wah doo-wah" bit. That's an example in music. For excellent practise of these syllables, try Bob Stoloff's Scat! Vocal Improv Techniques or Michele Weir's Vocal Improvisation text.

If you need help working on specific rhythms then the 'Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms' by Gary Hess is good. If you already know 2 - or 4-bar rhythms by sight then it's time to develop phrasing. Lennie Niehaus' 'Developing Jazz Concepts' is excellent.

3. Fingerwork
Can you say or think the notes whilst looking at the music and playing your instrument? Ignore the rhythm for now and concentrate on making the connection between what you're seeing, the Pitch, and your Fingers. This is a great exercise to do.

** All of these should be done for no more than 5 minutes at a time

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What the experts say
According to the academics (1), skilful sightreaders do similar things when reading music. They :

• don't fix on every note with their eyes
• scan ahead of the music they're playing
• can store up to 8 notes in memory, compared to 3 or 4 notes by an average reader
• rescan the music already played, to confirm their position in the music and in time
• often play in a band that runs new material on a regular basis

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What this means - specific techniques that can improve your sightreading
1. Look ahead and practise memorising a few notes (at first) ahead of where you are playing
2. Use new music that you have never seen - good sources include interval studies and classical etudes
3. Try to 'chunk' music together - did you notice in the stave at the top of the page, Bars 1 & 3 (and 2 & 4) are the same?
4. Look for patterns - did you spot the music starting on an A then descending to the F on beat 1 of each bar?

New music 'Pre-Flight Check'
1. Check key signature, tempos, range of notes, tricky rhythms
2. Check expression marks, performance directions (eg repeat signs, DC al Coda)

... if only everything was as easy to read.

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The author wrote this after several years of squinting at cellotaped, barely legible Jimmy Lally charts as a tenor saxophonist in various big bands. He strongly recommends the techniques above and advocates using pro level notation software, getting regular eyechecks, joining a band, and "using that memory buffer" to keep your sightreading skills sharp.
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Quoted sources:

(1) Bunnag Udtaisuk, Dneya (May 2005) A Theoretical Model of Piano Sightplaying Components. Retrieved December 4th, 2008 from http://edt.missouri.edu/Winter2005/Dissertation/UdtaisukD-070705-D1115/research.pdf

Other useful Resources online:

Average Sightreading Video

Rhythm Trainer

PracticeSpot Sightreading Chef