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Sight-reading
for Flute
Beginning
sightreading
Intermediate
sightreading
Advanced
sightreading sources
Beginning
sightreading
Take a book of
flute music that's easy as pie for you to play (your old
beginner books are fine, or easy etudes you did three
years ago, or anything at all that has big half-notes,
and easy key signatures) and do the following every day
for at least 10 minutes:
1. Scan over the easy music noting: key signature,
rhythms, tonguings and slurrings, dynamics and all other
musical markings.
2. Imagine what the piece may sound like if you put a
firm, steady pulse under it, and sing along silently in
your mind, in order to set the pulse to an easy one for
you.
3. Play the piece as convincingly perfectly as possible,
always looking ahead to the notes beyond the note you're
currently on. Make every dynamic immediately where it is
written and keep the pulse no matter what.
(skip over mistakes and keep going. Don't stop no matter
what.)
4. Play it over once more making all the corrections,
and/or playing it slightly faster.
5. Next day, choose a piece that's just 1 or 2 degrees
harder.
By the end of a year you'll be sightreading up to 5 #s
and 5bs, and you'll have the fastest music-reading eyes
in the west.
The key is to do it
everyday.
Cheers,
Jen
Intermediate
sightreading
Q: I have to sight read at my next
audition, and I get 30 seconds to study the few hardest
measures in the music. Does anyone else have a
strategy for dealing with this sort of obstacle?
_____________________________
A: when talking about required
sight-reading for audition purposes, as an
"obstacle" ;>) we have to ask ourselves
three things:
1. Why is sightreading a useful thing to learn?
2. What is the level that this ensemble sight reads
at? (Band level Three? Grade VIII Conservatory Flute?
Level 7 from the US Band Audtiions handout? etc. Find out
from the audition infomation people
and ask for typical level sample pages or previous
excerpts used.)
Knowing what level
of reading will help us direct you more precisely in how
to tackle the sight-reading prep.
You also want to
ask yourself:
3. What can I practice between now and the audition that
will put me at the required sight reading level for this
particular audition?
______________________
1. Why is sightreading useful?
Answering this question will tell you what you personally
need to work
on.
Sightreading is useful because it allows an ensemble to
spend their time on the fine points of music making
(interpretation and playing in tune and perfectly
together) instead of using precious rehearsal time while
the less-skilled members learn the rhythms, notes and
dynamics.
Learning by rote and by example takes too long---and each
player should be quick at interpreting the written
musical symbols on the page in front of them; even
reading it as fast as they read a sentence in english.
Therefore to excel, you need to have, (in order of
importance):
- Constant musical pulse (practice with metronome)
- Exacting rhythm (clap, tap or sing the rhythm of
sightreading
examples
with your teacher's help until you can do it on your
own.)
- Correctly chosen tempo ( Understanding of: Allegro,
Andante, Largo etc)
- The right notes with good tone.
- Correct articulation
- Correct dynamics (practiced so you can keep great tone
and tuning no matter what dynamic you have to play at.)
- A good sense of musical line (flowing forward musically
with; not choppy or with unexpected breathing, stumbling
or rhythmic "time-outs" or hiccups.)
- A good sense of phrasing (rising in intensity to the
peak of each phrase and finishing the phrase with
sensitivity)
If you develop each
of these qualities by adding 20 minutes or more a day of
sightreading to your daily practice, you'll soon be ready
to sightread more advanced music.
____________________
2. What is the level that this ensemble sight reads
at? (Band level
3? Grade 8 Conservatory flute? etc. Find out from the
auition
infomation people)
_________________________
If you can ascertain what level of sightreading is
expected, you might be able to get the past year's
sightreading so that you can find out whether the
sightreading is over your head, or well within your
grasp.
Usually, if an ensemble is at level "4" the
sightreading will be at a level "3". Or if the
flutes are all grade 8, then the sight reading will be at
the grade 6 level.
I don't know where you're from, but the those in charge
usually can furnish you with some idea of whether the
sightreading will only be 4/4 or 3/4 or 2/4 in meter;
whether there will be mixtures of sixteenths and eighths,
or smaller values, and whether there will be extreme
dynamics, or tempo changes etc.
Having this info. in advance means your teacher can help
you find several excerpts to work on that will be at a
similar level so you can work out stumbling block areas
in advance.
Call the info. number of the group that's holding the
audition and ask if they could describe the features of
the sightreading pieces that are typically chosen. They
may not be able to tell you, but on the other hand, some
groups have a file of pieces used in previous years and
have no problem offering to set a few aside for you to
pick up so you and your teacher can be more well informed
as to the group's expectations prior to the audition.
____________________
3. What can I practice between now and the audition that
will put me at the required sight reading level?
____________________
Finally:
Take old beginner books, easy pieces, easy duets and easy
studies that you have from when you were younger, and use
little bits of them as sighreading excercises. Here's the
method:
- Choose a chunk of music that's a few lines long, and
make sure it's very easy at first (simple, steady rhythms
in half-notes, quarters etc.) Set the metronome (not too
fast) and mentally go through the excerpt for PULSE.
Beat ONE should be heavier than any other number in your
mind.
ONE-2-3, ONE-2-3 etc.
- Mentally pre-hear the length of each rhythmic value in
your head as you read along. Keep the metronome going for
the rest of the exercises.
- Now start at the top of the excerpt again and verbally
articulate the rhythm: "Too tu tu TOOOOOOO"
etc. (or if you know how to clap or tap rhythms, do this
instead.)
- Next, play the
excerpt through, looking ahead by a note, so that you're
always seeing the NEXT note beyond the one you're
playing. - Play the excerpt through and widen your eye's
perception so that you see all dynamic markings. Add all
these dynamics. Go back and make a point of breathing
more deeply at the breathing points before those p
rases where you noticed that you ran out of breath.
Dynamics and breath control have to be guaged ahead of
time, so practice going back and correcting at this
stage.
Ask yourself: Did I look ahead, or did I just not make it
to the end of a phrase with good tone because I didn't
see it coming?
- Play the
excerpt through and check for all articulations
(tonguings and slurrings.)and areas of weak tone quality.
Circle the problems and make a mental note of them, and
then go back and fix each one systematically.
Many flutists play slurs when they should have tongued
and vis versa,
and don't even notice that they are doing it over and
over again line after line.
- Play the excerpt
through and put all the natural phrasing in (rise to
climax, fall to gentle endings, or rise gradually to
climax over many bars, and connect high-excitement level
phrases with a quick breath.) When you're satisfied with
the phrasing, turn the metronome off.
- Play the now almost completely corrected excerpt
through and check for the correct speed that you
"feel" would make it come to life.
Does it give a metronome speed?
Is it a march? Is it a walse? Is it a lament?
Is the music courageous? Depressed? What kind of
statement is the
music making?
See if you can choose a tempo that reflects that
sentiment perfectly.
__________________
In time, with steady practice, any intermediate musician
can become a fabulous sightreader, but it needs to be
practiced regulary, or even daily for music reading to
become as quick as word-reading.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes, or what problems
you run into. Jen :>)
=================================
Sarah writes:
> If your rhythm is solid and you are correctly
interpreting the style and dynamics and catching the
accidentals, it really won't matter too much if you flub
a fingering in the "hardest measure." To
sum it up, play the music, not just
> the notes! What do you think, Jen?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced
sightreading sources
> I'd love to
hear from some of the upper level players or teachers
among us about what *you* use to practice your own sight
reading,
___________________
If you want to develop a library of great sight reading
material at the intermediate to advanced levels, why not
try one or more of the following?:
____________________________
1. Ultimate Sheetmusic; Flute Solos, or Flute Methods,
Studies and Ensembles. see: www.cdsheetmusic.com
These two Cd-roms allow you to print out hundreds of
pieces of flute music including Bach Concert Studies,
Altes Studies, Hughes, Kohler and Andersen studies; tons
of great duets (including Mozart and a huge number of
Kuhlaus, but also Kohler, Quantz, Telemann etc), and on
the flute solos CD-rom, a wide range of solos from
Baroque to Romantic.
I tend to sightread the etudes, but having solos to
switch off to for sightreading is also fun.
____________________________
2. Orchestra Musician's Library CD-roms. Full Flute I,
II, and piccolo parts for orchestral works from Beethoven
and Brahms to Bruckner and Mahler.
These three CD-roms contains hundreds of major symphonic
works
Sightreading while playing along with CDs of profesional
orchestras is amazingly fun.
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______________________________
3. For Opera lovers, John Wion has published ten books of
opera excerpts. See link for details of which operas are
in which books and choose your favourites.
http://www.larrykrantz.com/wion001.htm#cont
I take the opera CDs out of the library, and sort out the
important bits for further study.
__________________________
4. Tape recorder duets: Using collections of standard
flute duets available from various publishers (a list of
good duets can be found at faverep.htm) and create live duets by sightreading
flute II into tape recorder using metronome, and then
sightreading part I overtop live during playback.
Fun duets: Blowin' a Storm by Mike Mower.
_____________________________
5. Sightreading for fun with playalong CD:
Celtic and Renaissance music for flute by Jessica
Walsh/Allan Alexander see: www.fluteandguitar.com
Music Minus One with CD: www.musicminusone.com
Recommended: Jeffrey Zook and Julius Backer recordings.
Also Vivaldi Concerti.
De Haske Playalong series: ex: "Moments of
Swing" for flute and CD. Dowani Playalongs: Ex:
Pergolesi Concerto G+ and other works.
___________________________
Hope these ideas get you started.
Jennifer Cluff
Principal Flute, Vancouver Island Symphony
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