[telecaster90]

Not sure if this is the right section for this thread, but I'll go for it.

What's a good way to approach sightreading a tune? I have an audition as you might have picked up on from that thread about ii-V's I posted about a week ago and sightreading is part of it. What's a good way to sightread through changes and through a melody? I can read music and read chords on a lead sheet.

Also, for those of you who majored in music in college, what's the sightreading like? Is it more reading changes or reading a melody?

Thanks for the help

[bostjan]

I didn't get far in my music studies, but where I went to school, we had to sightread melodies more than chord changes. I'd imagine every school is different, though.

As far as what to do to get up on your reading, I'd say that the most sure-fire way is just by reading a lot of music. Try to challenge yourself as you work up. Some things can be really easy to play, yet curiously difficult to read through. Other things are difficult to read and play.

If the chord symbols are not on the score, I usually have trouble sight-reading them unless they are chords I am very familiar with or if I know the piece. I'd imagine you have no way of really knowing what they will throw at you, but if you have some crazy jazz chords, they should give you symbols to help out.

If you are doing classical, chances are that you will not get chord symbols, but you can be sure that the chords won't be too busy. Usually just get in touch with the key of the song and know what chord changes to expect.

Did they tell you anything further about your audition?

[telecaster90]

I don't think it's classical. All I know for the audition is that sightreading will be part of it. I don't know anything besides that.

I think I might shoot the dude at the school who's email address I have an email askin about this.

Thanks for the help, some rep comin your way

[stubhead]

The reply "just read a bunch of music" is pretty much on the mark - you'll get good at it by doing it, not by thinking about doing it....

Having said that, most of the training manuals on reading encourage something called "saccadic eye motion", which translates to reading the whole page. You have to be playing one thing while you're reading the next thing. Stuff like the Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin by Bach are good for initial practice because the music sticks to logical progressions of chord tones and scales - you tend to guess right about each next note, which is encouraging. There are a lot of fake books available with songs you have already heard, and this also helps initially.

I can sightread single lines way better than chords, for the sole reason that that's what I've worked on. I'm still pretty stuck in diatonic music, though; there are some "modern" violin concertos from the 19th century on by Sibelius, Prokofiev & others that are just page after page of accidentals, I'm totally lost. The schemes they used to come up with melodies resulted in key changes almost every measure sometimes, a lot of modern jazz is like this too.

[josh821]

I think it's intimidating when you think about doing it but once you get into it and start figuring things out it seems to come pretty naturally. I just started reading on guitar like a month ago. I was very good at sight reading when I was younger from playing trumpet but with that you don't have to play chords or worry about what position to play each note in. I think that's why I waited so long to learn on guitar.

I think the just do it idea is the most obvious. I've gotten in the habit of translating notation into tab while I'm at work too which helps. Actually, before I started trying to sight read on guitar I spent a couple weeks using this fretboard trainer which has helped tremendously.

While we're talking about notation, I have a question that someone out there may know the answer to. What on earth do all these CVIII and other roman numeral markings on the top of this piece mean??

[The Dark Wolf]

Sight Reading