An Apple A Day - The Sight Reading Approach
The dreaded “sight-reading”. A phrase that strikes fear into the heart of band directors, auditioning students, and ensembles. But why do we dislike sight reading? What is it about playing something at sight that is so scary?
When I was a high school student, we had to sight read in our all state auditions. A ten (or so) measure etude was written specifically for the audition. If we got to our audition site early, we’d huddle around the audition room door when some other poor sap was in there hacking through the sight reading, hoping to get a general feel of the piece. Is it in the upper range? Does it sound rhythmically complex? Inevitably we’d enter the room no more prepared to sight read the piece than the first guy, and worse, we were probably more fearful of it than they were. Why were we so scared of sight reading?
One of the conclusions that I drew from my high school musical experiences was, we just didn’t do it enough. Sight reading wasn’t a part of our rehearsals. Sure, when we’d pass out a new piece of music we’d hack through it together, or worse we’d listen to a recording of it first, then attempt to read it. Time wasn’t spent on sight reading. We had too many “other” things to accomplish; like the F sharp in measure 97, that NO ONE could remember to play.
As a band director, I told myself I would make some things a priority. Like scales (or playing in ALL key signatures), and sight reading. And I started out really well. We played all major scales as a part of our warm-up, we had “Rhythms of the Day”, rhythm assessments, counting assessments. We were on it. But then I stopped. The performance pressure was too much. The English Folk Song Suite wasn’t going to teach itself. My focus began to shift from “what should my students be LEARNING” to the literature my students were playing. Now, don’t get me wrong. We learned a lot from the literature we played. A lot. However, I wasn’t asking enough out of my second or third part players. I wasn’t asking enough out of my second trombones who played a concert F 90% of the time in their music, while the first clarinets were playing 32nd note chromatic runs in three octaves. The rigor of music was not equal in my class among all my students, and I wasn’t doing anything to supplement that instruction.
Sight Reading EVERY Day
Sight reading doesn’t have to be band literature. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be. You don’t need to reinforce the fact that your second trombones will play 5-10 notes the whole time, and the “coolest” thing they’ll run across is an eighth rest on the beat. All students should be able to sight read melodic material. Not only are you reinforcing notes and rhythms, you are teaching phrasing, style, articulations and musical decision making. The middle school students I teach sight read every day. Usually 5-8 rhythmic etudes that I create that specifically target a note or rest duration that we are learning.
This is an example of a rhythm only sight reading the 7th graders are doing right now. Our focus has been the dotted quarter note.
When the students have completed 5-8 rhythm only etudes, we move to etudes with pitch, that still focus on the dotted quarter note. In the melodic etudes, we are focused on specific key centers; right now it’s concert E flat.
This takes time. For the first few weeks when this was being introduced, it took half the class period (43 minute classes). Now it takes 5 minutes, as a part of our warm-up routine.
It Can Be Done
My high school students do this too. They’re rhythmically more complex, in different meters, and not in concert E flat. They are slowing becoming accustomed to this task. It wasn’t easy, and I still hear groaning and complaining every time I turn on the projector. Sometimes it’s difficult to do the things we need to do. It’s like eating an apple every day, or parking at the far end of the lot. Both are better for us in the long run.
By Stephanie Williamson
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