5 Steps to Mastering Sight-Reading

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10/10/2011

A reader recently asked:

At my college, to get into the lab bands you have to be a really great sight-reader. What are
some ways to become a great reader besides just saying read whatever you can. I am
decent at sight-reading, but I want to take it to that next level. How do I go about doing
this?

It goes without saying that sight-reading is an important skill to have as a musician. You
sight-read new pieces in your rehearsals, you need it when you sub for a big band, and
its a dreaded part of the audition process. It is by no means the most important skill to
have as a musician, but if you want to be a working musician, it is something that you
definitely need.

This is a great question, but its also one that often gets answered with the vague,
apathetic answers that you mentioned. Telling someone to just sight-read more, no
matter how well-intentioned, is not going to help them improve.

Sight-reading, like many other techniques that we develop as musicians, is a skill a skill
that can be learned and continually improved upon. Rather than putting yourself in a
room and trying to blindly improve your sight-reading chops by doing it over and over
again, look at the specific elements involved in this skill and work on developing them.

Its Sight-Reading
Somehow, weve all had this idea put into our heads that sight-reading is this completely
new skill that we must learn, separated from the other aspects of our musicianship. This
couldnt be further from the truth. The ability to sight-read stems from all of the aspects of

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your musicianship and thus, can be improved on a daily basis with a little attention to
detail.

When you take an honest look at it, sight-reading is simply your ability to read music. You
may be looking at this music for the first time or it may be something that you havent
practiced, but the bottom line is that youre reading music. If you want to improve at sight-
reading, you first need to examine the way that you read music.

There are specific elements that go into successfully reading music, and these elements
directly affect your ability to sight-read. Sight-reading is not some magical skill that will
just come to you one day because you attempt it every so often, its a skill that has finite
elements that can be learned in a short amount of time and applied with success.

Below Ive outlined five components of reading music that will greatly improve your ability
to sight-read. Each skill is dependent on the next and they all add up, so dont skip over
any of them. If you implement each of these factors every time you read a piece of music,
your sight-reading will infinitely improve.

I. Concentration
This may seem painfully obvious or even unimportant, but your mindset and
concentration as you look at a page of music is the single most important factor to your
success in reading that music. Without it you miss notes and accidentals, you screw up
rhythms, you find yourself disconnected from the time, and you lose your place in the
music. In fact, most mistakes we make in performing music can be attributed to a lack of
concentration.

So often we read music in performances and rehearsals with only half of our
concentration, and whats worse, we dont even realize it. We scan the audience for
people that we know, random thoughts pop into our heads, we think about what we are
going to play in our next solo, we review our day. Sometimes we just zone out altogether.

We are looking at the page, we see the notes, but our minds are not completely involved
and focused on the task at hand. This is a recipe for disaster. Step one on your journey
to becoming a sight-reading master? Put a stop to this mindless music reading.

Art has to do with the arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.~Saul

Bellow

Instead of going through the motions of reading music, play a little game
with yourself. Before you play a piece of music, mentally say to yourself:
Ok, Im going to nail every note and rhythm on this page, no mistakes.
Clear out any unwanted or distracted thoughts and aim for 100%
concentration on the music. As the tune is being counted off, focus on the time and the
notes and rhythms in the opening measures.

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Take this mindset with anything you read, whether its in big band rehearsal, a small
group performance, or an average day in the practice room. You will immediately find that
your reading improves, however, youll also find that extreme concentration is difficult to
sustain for long periods of time. You may start a piece totally focused, but after a minute
your mind begins to wander and little by little, youre back to day dreaming. Be aware of
this tendency and quickly pull back your concentration when it starts to fade.

By learning to control your concentration, youll ingrain the habit of becoming totally
focused any time you read music. The next time that you have to sight-read, you will find
that this skill is carried over and that things will be much easier.

II. Read bigger chunks of music

Go to any big band concert and youll immediately be able to pick out the great readers
and the players that are struggling. The strong readers look confident, relaxed, and totally
focused; even the most up-tempo tunes dont seem to phase them.

On the other hand, the poor readers look completely flustered. Their heads are buried in
the stand, they are furiously counting and subdividing every rhythm, and they tensely tap
every beat with their foot; in other words, theyre hanging on for dear life.

What do these strong readers have that the others do not? These players have figured
out how to look at and successfully read bigger chunks of music.

The area of reading music that is getting these other players into trouble, especially in up-
tempo tunes, is looking at and counting every single beat of music that they see. They
are thinking about every rhythm and processing every single beat of music. To become a
better sight-reader, you must do the complete opposite. You need to be looking at larger
pieces of the music and feeling bigger chunks of time.

Look at the music on the page as if you were going to read it in cut-time. Instead of
looking at each quarter note and subdividing every rhythm into eighth notes, visually
divide each measure in two parts and see where the downbeats fall. By doing this, you
will free up your mind so that it can focus on more musical things.

Lets illustrate this concept. Say you have this line in your music:

An inexperienced reader would count

every beat and look at each individual
note. However, a great reader would first
visually see where the major downbeats
fall (Beats 1 and 3 if youre in cut time -
shown below, or 2 and 4 if you prefer):

Next read the music as if it was in cut

time, looking at two beats at a time as
shown in the highlighted sections below:

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Or even an entire measure at a time:

You can clearly see how reading in this

fashion is much easier and relaxed than
counting every single beat. Aim for
visually interpreting music in this way. It will take some practice and experience,
but the payoff will be worth it.

III. Recognizing rhythms and patterns

There are only so many combinations of rhythms that youll encounter whether youre
playing big band music, sitting in the pit for a musical, or reading a new chart in your
combo. Becoming familiar with these common rhythms and recognizing them at a quick
glance will greatly enhance your ability to sight-read a piece of music.

Ideally, you dont want to be subdividing and counting out every rhythm when youre
performing, that is work that should be done in the practice room. On the stage and in
situations where you are sight-reading, view the music in a larger time frame as
mentioned previously and look for these familiar rhythms. In doing so, you wont have to
spend mental energy deciphering notes and rhythms that you already know.

Heres a great exercise to become familiar with many rhythms you may encounter: take a
sheet of manuscript paper and in four-four time, using half notes and quarter notes, write
out all the possible rhythms for one measure. Theres really not that many. Then do the
same thing with other durations, for instance, take quarter notes and eighth notes, and
write out all the various rhythms that can be assembled. Through this process youll gain
an understanding of the different rhythms and become familiar with how they look visually
on the page.

In addition to quickly identifying rhythms visually, learn to readily identify scale fragments
and arpeggios. For example, look at the scale fragment in this line:

You dont have to read each note to

realize youre playing a descending
scale, you just have to take a quick
glance. Being able to visually grasp that a
melodic line is simply comprised of a
scale or arpeggio fragment makes it much easier to process, and consequently, much
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easier to sight-read.

Watch out for tricky rhythms

Its not the familiar rhythms and patterns that we have to look out for, its the occasional
off-beat rhythms that throw us. Most of the time we get through a piece just fine, then we
see a rhythm like this one:

Suddenly our brain freezes, we lose track of the

beat, and get completely off. This happens
because were unable to visually line up where
the down beats are happening. The rhythm just
doesnt look right to our minds and our time goes out the window. The way to deal with
these difficult rhythms is to figure them out at a slow tempo and then commit them to
memory.

Be careful when reading rests

Oftentimes, we are so used to looking at notes that when we see rests, our brain turns
off. This is true for extended periods of rest or lines like the one below, where rests are
interspersed throughout a line:

To deal with a line like this, again find where the downbeats fall:

Next, isolate the places where there are rests that fall on a strong beat. These are tricky
places because we are feeling a beat, but arent playing anything. In these places, I
would vocalize or use a syllable for these rests so you are not guessing at the exact
placement of the notes. By vocalizing, I mean mentally saying a syllable during the rest.
For example, for the line above I would visualize the following:

On the first highlighted rest, I would use three syllables subdividing eighth notes to fill the
space of the rest (ba ba doo or anything with 3 syllables). And for the two other
downbeat rests, I would use a single syllable (uh).

Try to sing the rhythm of the example above. Sing the notes and in the place of those
three highlighted rests, insert a syllable that subdivides the rest. This technique will help
you to place every note exactly where it lies in the measure.

IV. Looking ahead

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It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.~Winston
Churchill

One of the main factors that contribute to our mistakes in sight-reading is the simple fact
that were not ready for the notes we see on the page they simply catch us off guard.
Our eyes come upon a measure that we must immediately play and our brain cant
process the information fast enough. Next, we have to stop and think for a half-second
about an accidental, a fingering, or a rhythm, and by then, its way too late.

To prevent this type of situation, you must get into the habit of continually looking ahead
at the notes and rhythms coming up. Dont get caught staring at the music that you just
played, be prepared for the notes coming up. To do this, keep your eyes a beat or two
ahead of the notes that youre playing.

This skill, like all of the above elements, requires and uses a combination of all the
previous ones. You must be totally focused on the task at hand and you need to see the
music on the page in larger groups of notes, not individual beats. As you play one
measure, your eyes are always scanning ahead so nothing will catch you off guard.

V. Continue through your mistakes

Its inevitable that youll make a mistake as youre sight-reading. We all aim for %100
accuracy, but eventually were going to miss a note its just a fact of life. That being
said, a small mistake is no reason for your sight-reading performance to completely fall
apart.

Even though we dont want to make any reading errors, some mistakes are definitely
worse than others. I once had a teacher that said, Ill accept a wrong or missed note, but
I wont accept a wrong rhythm. It was weird hearing him say that he would accept wrong
notes in sight-reading, but after awhile, I started to see what he meant. When it comes to
sight-reading, a missed note is unfortunate, but a wrong rhythm or faulty counting can
completely throw you off track.

As you sight-read a piece of music, there is a definite hierarchy for your attention. First,
keep the tempo of the piece firmly planted in your mind and body, this is the glue holding
everything together. Next, look at every rhythm that you come across and visually see
where the down beats are falling, the bigger chunks of time that youre able to process
the better. Finally, pay attention to every note, interval, and accidental.

However, the most important thing to remember, is that when you do make a mistake,
dont stop. A note may not come out, you may hesitate for a second on a rhythm, or you
might miss an accidental. Whatever it is, forget about it. Its gone. History. Just keep the
time going and pick-up where you left off.

This is tricky to do when you are reading something by yourself, as you would in an
audition process, but its much easier when you are reading with other performers, as you
would in a duet or ensemble. Try sight-reading with others to practice this concept
continuing through mistakes. When you play a wrong note or rhythm, you will immediately
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see that the time continues and that you must quickly get back on track.

Lets review
This may seem like a lot to think about every time you look at a piece of music, however,
these are small easily applied tricks that have a huge effect on your reading, so give it a
try and see what happens. Chances are that youre already doing some of these things,
and the key to improving may lie in making a small adjustment or incorporating just one of
these elements into your playing.

Go through this mental check-list every time you see a piece of music:

Get into the mindset of total concentration and tune out distractions
Before you begin, memorize the key signature and scan the page for trouble
spots
Look at the music in larger chunks of time (see the page like its in cut-time)
Recognize common rhythms and watch out for tricky rhythms
Visually identify scale fragments and arpeggios
Remember to keep counting through rests
Continually keep your eyes scanning ahead so youre always ready for the
next measure
Dont be phased by your mistakes, keep the time going and get back on track

If you make this mindset a habit, you will be able to confidently sight-read any piece of
music. Start by using these concepts in your rehearsals, performances, and even in the
practice room. Put your skills to the test and read a duet with a friend. Pick a random
page, count off the tempo, and aim to get all of the notes and rhythms. If you make a
mistake, keep going and get back where you can.

If youre reading is proficient today, youve already got the basic skills and the potential to
become a great sight-reader. Now you just need some fine tuning and practice. Take the
concepts above and use them anytime you are in a situation where youre reading music.

In a surprisingly short amount of time, you will find yourself sight-reading with ease and
gradually, youll build up the confidence to sight-read anything you encounter.

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