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Flute ArticlesHow to Practice Sight-ReadingA very important part of playing any instrument is to master sight-reading. Musicianswithout sight-reading skills are hampered in all they do. Approaching every new work is a hassle. Picking upa piece of pop music is a chore and learning it is equivalent to learning a piece of the standard repertoire.Many entertaining options, such as playing improvised duets with other players or playing requests f orf amily members and f riends, are not easily accessible.

That's why all students need to learn to sight-read. As soon as a student discovers it 's easier to begin anew piece, he gains appreciation f or the importance of good sight-reading. Now, it is true that there aremany f ine musicians out there who are not good sight-readers. However, these people need to do a lotmore woodshedding to get ready f or rehearsals, whereas good sight-reading abilit ies can save you agreat deal of t ime.

But there's more to that. It is a common myth that, apart f rom convenience, sight-reading of f ers no realartistic value to a perf ormer. However, a great advantage to a good sight-reader is that the rhythms, thephrases, etc. are all quickly apparent, and this ability to see the big picture can actually be very benef icialto musical interpretation.

Last but not least, let us point out that in a lot of auditions you're actually given a piece to sight-read, andyour f inal grade is based on how well you can do that.

What Sight-reading is (and what it is not)Sight-reading can very simply be def ined as the ability to play unf amiliar music f rom scores. It is veryimportant to understand that the ability to sight-read is not something a player enjoys f rom birth. There'sreally nothing magical about it. It is a skill like any other, and virtually anyone can learn how to do it.

What sight-reading practice does is speed up the message f rom the page through the brain to the f ingers.In a way it is a mechanical skill, not unlike touch-typing which, although less complicated, equally involvesgetting the message f rom the written page to your brain to your f ingers.

Although physical agility is required to some extent, sight-reading is primarily a mental activity. An advancedphysical f acility on an instrument does not guarantee the ability to sight-read. In f act, students who canlearn to play dif f icult literature of ten cannot sight-read music beyond the most elementary level.

Of course, a litt le theory is also a necessary background f or ef f ective sight-reading. It is theref ore veryimportant that you get f amiliar with musical notation and that you memorize how the most common rhythmicunits should sound. This is simply accomplished by paying caref ul attention to how they sound in piecesyou have already studied.

How to Prepare for Sight-readingA correct practice routine can help you be more successf ul at sight-reading. Unf ortunately, many studentsadopt a routine that is actually detrimental to the development of this important skill.

The f irst thing that can seriously ruin your work is bad tempo. You should practice your etudes and solospatiently, choosing tempos within your reading capability. If you practice at too f ast a tempo, you willreinf orce bad reading habits and learn pitches and rhythms incorrectly.

Studies have shown that the overall sight-reading ability is closely linked to the capacity to read rhythms,

and that the greatest number of errors occurs in the category of rhythm. Theref ore, you should make anexercise out of every rhythmically dif f icult passage you encounter. Bef ore playing the passage, clap or singthe rhythm while tapping the beat with your f oot until you can easily execute the passage. Try to memorizeevery new rhythmic unit, so that when it will come up again you will know how to handle it.

Learning to play your scales by memory is another very important element that can greatly improve yoursight-reading. Litt le by litt le, you should start out with some major scales, then include minor scales(natural, harmonic and melodic f orms) as well, without f orgetting chromatic scales. You don't need to studythe more complex scales at f irst; instead, f ocus on scales that have just a f ew sharps or f lats in their keysignatures, and strive to learn these perf ectly. The next step consists in playing the same scales in thirdsand arpeggios; probably the best source f or this kind of exercise is Taf f anel and Gaubert's book (the tit leis in French, but English instructions are included!). As you may already have noticed, scales and arpeggiosmake up much of music, so if you know them in advance everything will just sound better.

It is also important to know the def init ions to the most common musical terms that you may f ind on ascore. Theref ore, every time you encounter a direction that you don't know you should look it up on amusic glossary.

Finally, and this applies to everything you do, never lose concentration. Good sight-readers are alwayssight-reading, even music which is well rehearsed and of ten perf ormed, because sight-reading every timehelps even old warhorses remain f resh.

Of course, the tips outlined above are not enough by themselves: to become a good sight-reader you needto do some actual sight-reading. For this reason, you should devote a small part of your daily practiceroutine to sight-reading pieces you have never seen bef ore. This is best done at the end of each practicesession, and should not take more than a f ew minutes a day.

In f act, when sight-reading it is best to keep going on to new, unf amiliar material, rather than replaying ascore to perf ect it. In any case, replaying the same piece more than two times can no longer be consideredsight-reading.

Fortunately enough, on f lutetunes.com you can f ind something new every day.

What to Do Before Sight-readingUnless you are obliged to, you should not just plunge into reading an unf amiliar score. On the contrary,don't be af raid to take some time to look at the music. If you are sight-reading f or an audition, take asmuch time as the judges allow. Spy out the lie of the land, and make sure that everything is within yourcapabilit ies to perf orm. There are many things that you should check bef ore you perf orm. You won't alwayshave the time to check them all out, but you should really try to get the most inf ormation you can about thepiece bef ore you start playing it.

Here are the most important elements you should look f or, listed in order of priority.

1. Key signature. How many sharps or f lats are there?2. Time signature. This lets you know how many beats there are per measure, and what note value

takes the beat. The most common time signature is 4/4, which means there are f our beats in ameasure, and the quarter note takes the beat. You can f ind more inf ormation about t ime signatureson our metronome page. Even bef ore you start playing, you should already be hearing the meter inyour head.

3. Tempo. How f ast should you play? This is usually expressed by one or two words in standardItalian, or in terms of beats per minute (BPM). Feel f ree to play the piece more slowly if you think thatthe marked tempo indication wouldn't allow good sight-reading. On the other hand, never play f asterthan the given tempo, even if you f eel that you can do it. Speed is not the important thing!

4. Overall Structure. Examine the piece and make a mental map of where its dif f erent sections start,so that when you get to a repeat bar you know exactly where you have to go. The same applies f orother indications like Da Capo (D.C.) and Dal Segno (D.S.). Also look out f or changes in key signature,time signature, and tempo.

5. Repeating patterns. Look out f or repeated rhythmic patterns, repeated measures and evenrepeated lines. Most music has some. Of ten you may also be able to relate dif f icult passages to theoverall musical context, by f inding out f or example that a given complex passage is actually anembellishment of an earlier theme that has already appeared in a simpler f orm.

6. Complex-looking rhythms. Look ahead in search of rhythmical units that you are not sure how toplay. Try to decompose them by expressing them in terms of simpler rhythms. This is usuallyaccomplished by splitt ing some notes into shorter t ied notes, or by temporarily tying some notes toget a more global idea of what's going on, so that you can keep a steady pulse. Ideally, you shouldbe able to hear each rhythm in your head bef ore playing it.

7. Melodic patterns. Look out f or scales, arpeggios and melodic sequences you are already f amiliarwith.

8. Accidentals. Many students are put of f when they run into uncommon notes such as E# or Cb.Don't let them catch you unprepared. Also watch out f or those accidentals whose ef f ect applies tomultiple notes within the same measure.

9. Phrasing. Try to spot phrase endings, and make a basic plan of where to breathe. When you see adif f icult run coming up, make sure that you have enough breath to make it through that run.

10. Style. If you know who composed the piece, or what t ime period the music was written, you can getmany important clues to interpretation. For instance, the time period can af f ect how trills and otherornamentations are to be perf ormed, as well as how articulation is to be interpreted. Also, a piecewritten by Mozart should generally be played more vivaciously than a piece written by, say, Dvok.Always try to sense the mood of the piece you are about to perf orm.

You may want to f eel at home in the key bef ore beginning. Theref ore, if you still have time, play the scaleof the key, and perhaps improvise a short melody as a preparation.

Sight-reading TipsWhen you f eel ready, reading may commence. You should choose a tempo that is comf ortable f or readingthe music; a tempo at which even the most dif f icult passage can be played with some accuracy. We reallycannot stress this enough. Remember, you are not perf orming, you are sight-reading. Play as slowly as youneed to incorporate every detail printed on the page. Your main goal should be accuracy, not speed.

1. Keep a steady tempo. Make sure that you are always counting, even when you have a rest. Youmust know where you are in the piece at any given time. While you can't expect to play with 100%pitch accuracy, tempo and rhythm should be maintained at any cost. Notes can be sacrif iced, t imecannot. While practicing, students of ten woodshed the notes f irst and then strive f or correctrhythm. This can prove very harmf ul in the long run, because rhythmic accuracy should always takeprecedence over pitch. At f irst you may want to use a metronome to help you keep pace, but beaware that you shouldn't become dependent on it. Finally, keep in mind that while it is important toplay on beat, you shouldn't be af raid to put a litt le heart into what you are playing.

3. Read ahead. There is no reason to stare at the notes you are already playing. Instead, you shouldbe constantly looking ahead of what is being played. Try to memorize the music in small blocks,playing each block while looking at the next. Please observe that you can't read ahead if you aretrying to play too f ast.

4. Breathing. Many students make errors while sight-reading just because they run out of air in themiddle of a phrase. Since you cannot plan breathing in advance, you must learn to spot phraseendings while playing them f or the f irst t ime, and to breathe without breaking the musical continuity.

5. Stay concentrated. Keep your eyes on notation at any time. Never look away f rom the page. Keepyour head and body still.

6. Play musically. Phrasing, dynamics, intonation, tone quality, and musical expression must never bef orgotten. In f act, your sight-reading ability will most of ten be judged by how well you capture themusical aspects of a piece despite pitch or rhythm errors you might make.

7. Relax! Tense muscles make the music harder to play, so try to keep your f ingers, hands, arms andbody as relaxed as possible.

We know, all these tips may seem too hard to deal with at f irst. But don't get discouraged. As the celebratedf lutist Marcel Moyse said, It is a question of time, patience and intelligent work!

Flute ArticlesHow to Practice Sight-ReadingWhat Sight-reading is (and what it is not)How to Prepare for Sight-readingWhat to Do Before Sight-readingSight-reading Tips