Sight Reading Real Time?

Hi,

I'm an early intermediate player. I'm curious how the sight reading experience varies from person to person. I can read but very slowly, so I have to practice right hand several times, then left, then together. When there are chords, etc, I have to read each note and play it, not being able to recognize most chords. I still have to use Every Good Boy Does Fine for treble clef to determine notes as I don't easily recognize them right off. Bass clef is easier for me.

Is it realistic for most people to achieve 'real time' ability to read music and play it off the sheet? I play for enjoyment but if I need to improve my reading skills to improve playing, I'll need to concentrate on that. Is there a 'grade system' to determine one's level of sight reading?

Thanks,

Yes, this comes with practice, like any other skill.

As a young man of 25 or so, I was privileged to witness Vincent Persichetti sight-reading through a few submissions. Music that would have taken me weeks to prepare was as reading a book to him.

It's true, though. Music, like any other language, is only mastered with use, constant use. While we may never reach Persichetti's level, we do get better with practice.

dwight theodore presser co

I can sight read real time, but I can't memorize worth a damn.

Personally, it's about as fun as getting my eyeballs sandpapered, biting on tinfoil, and getting a redhot metal stake rammed up my ass, but other than that, it's just fine.

Try sight reading at a much easier level than you currently play, and don't practice mistakes. A prof of mine said'If you make a mistake...even 1, you're playing too fast' Over time, I saw the wisdom in this and realized you have to go a ways back in difficulty, just to gauge progress in sight reading(go to the easiest playable and build on it)

cheers

Rick Hollett

Ditto. I've out sight-read my last 3 teachers and I had one friend, a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire who enviously pronounced me an idiot-savant sight-reader. I'd rather have his ability to take a sonata-length score to bed for reading and then play it back from memory

Yep, same here. I think learning to sight read is naturally a development of those who can't memorize without great effort. It was always a useful trick as a green college student when I had neglected my practice. However, I still find it frustrating that I can't memorize, especially when I'm trying to get my students to do it and they have no problem. GRRRRR!!!

Kindest regards,

If you've played through a piece several times, if you close your eyes, you can't see the image of the sheet music in your mind's eye?

I suppose you would list participation in this newsgroup in the same category. I must check your postings on rec.eyeballs.sandpapering and rec.ass.redhotmetalstake.therein

My sight-reading ability evolved out of playing a lot of different music in very different styles, and also from being ambitious about the music I attempted. Play the music straight through and try not to stop. Don't play it again that day, but play it the next day or next month according to interest and appetite.

A mathematics professor of mine said his sight-reading ability developed as a result of his father putting unfamiliar music in front of him, and then replacing it with another and another.

I happened to learn to read text at a very early age, so it's possible that my brain happened to retain a high visual input for rapid absorption of written material - seeing and comprehending in larger chunks. Children who are forced to read by building up from tiny chunks (letters, syllables or words) may have this trained out of them. I'm not a good text memoriser either.

My eye is naturally drawn to spelling errors on a page. My informal investigation of other people with the same ability indicates that they were early readers too.

I look at it this way, now. I 'know' thousands of pieces, I just need the music in front of me to play them.