Tips for Effective Sight-Reading
by
Kim J. Teal
Kim Teal
Copyright 1996 by Kim J. Teal
May not be reproduced in any form without prior consent. All rights reserved.


Sight-reading is an essential element of musical life. It is also an acquired skill that you can learn to do very well. Learning to play your scales by memory can be half the battle. Major scales, minor scales (natural, harmonic and melodic forms), chromatic scales, scales in thirds and arpeggios all make up much of music, so if you know them in advance, you'll be better prepared to handle any sight-reading that comes your way. It is also important to know the definitions of musical terms as they are also big clues to interpretation. Knowing who the composer is and what time period the music was written in can be another important clue to interpretation, so try to learn music history, some of the main composers and styles of the different time periods. This is important because when a piece of music was written can affect how you perform grace notes, mordents and other ornamentation. When sight-reading, you should look for certain things before playing. They are, according to priority:

          1.Key signature
          2.Time signature or meter
          3.Tempo
          4. Style
          5. Overall Structure
                    a. sections with repeats or endings.
                    b. D.S.'s or D.C.'s
                    c. changes in key, meter, tempo, style
                    d. temporary tempo changes such as rallentando, a tempo.
           6. Stylistic markings
                    a. accent, staccato, legato, etc.
                    b. articulation patterns ( slur 2 , tongue 2, etc.)
                    c. dynamic
                    d. ornamentation
            7. Rhythmic patterns
            8. Scale Patterns
            9. Accidentals

It's also important to train your eyes to read ahead of what your're playing in order to give yourself more time to mentally process the visual and react to it physically. Practice sight-reading often.  After looking for the above priorities, play straight through the piece  without stopping, and try to maintain a steady tempo throughout. Don't forget when you sight-read to also maintain good tone quality, intonation, rhythm, vibrato,  and dynamics. Make sure you play musically! Some good sources for sight-reading that  include short pieces are: 60 Rambles for Flute by L. Lester & K. Terry, 2nd Book of Practical Studies by R. Guenther, Mel Bay's Flute Handbook by McCaskill & Gilliam, Mel Bay's The Flutists' Companion by McCaskill & Gilliam, Rubank Supplementary Studies for Flute or Piccolo by R. M. Endresson, Rubank Advanced Method , Vol.1 & 2 by H. Voxman.

Good luck and Happy Fluting!!!




Questions?
Email me at:
kjt at glis.net
(in your email program insert the @ sign where it says "at",
 without spaces, and put "Flute Quest" in the subject line.)

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