Get better at sight-reading with these tips

Last week we talked about why sight-reading is an important skill to have. This week I will let you in on the simplest, yet most effective techniques to up your sight-reading game.

Sight-read a little daily

Although sight-reading should be fairly easy at the beginner/intermediate levels, the majority of young players have a hard time due to lack of exposure. If your private teacher hasn’t been doing this with you ask them to incorporate it in your lessons.

Remember, if you don’t do it, you will not get good at it. 

To start reading every day you can use my 10 simple melodies, use your music books or a friends, dig through your band’s library and ask you teacher to borrow books. 

Stuff is out there, so go get it!

Rhythm is king

When practicing sight-reading focus on the rhythm first, notes later. This will seem weird at first but in the long run this is how you become a proficient reader. You know the notes, it’s the rhythms that get you. So, if you focus on the rhythms 100% of the time they will eventually become second nature, just like notes.

When you focus on rhythms you might find yourself missing more notes. That’s okay! Miss notes for now and focus on keeping the rhythm intact. If you practice this daily you can see results in as little as one sitting. You read that right. I have seen it time and again with my students. They struggle to sight-read, but once they shift their focus to rhythmic accuracy everything falls into place. 

Use a metronome

Although you won’t normally have access to a metronome in a sight-reading situation such as an audition, it is good to use for practicing.

The metronome acts as a constant reminder to keep your rhythm steady. Turn it on to an easy going tempo like 86bpm and make sure you wait for…

The 4-click count off

I can’t tell you how often I see students turn on a metronome to sight-read, only to completely ignore it from the get go. If this is you, get in the habit of listening to the click for a full 8 beats, then do a 4-click count off in your mind before you begin, as if someone was counting you off.

All together it should look like this:

*click* *click* *click* *click*

*click* *click* *click* *click* (put your trumpet up)

One, two, three, four (breath on 4)

Play on the downbeat of 1

Waiting in this manner lets the tempo “sink in” and sets you up for success.

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That wraps it up for the best sight-reading tips. If you missed last week’s post on why sight-reading is a great skill to have check it out to complete this post’s teachings. Get to work and let me know if these tips helped you!

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Let’s Face It, Developing Sight-Reading Skills Is Tough

This is how most people feel and consequently, they ignore working on the skill. Most beginner and intermediate players see it as an “extra” skill that can be cast aside since they don’t really need it right at this moment. Since they don’t need it for the performance, it is forgotten, like sight-reading is not important. They have the sheet music that they need to work on, so why bother?

If this sounds like you, I’m about to tell you why you should bother. Maybe it sounds like your students. Or maybe you’re an advanced player and you sight-read fairly well, but you want to be better. That’s good, we never stop learning!

You’re training to learn faster

Isn’t it just exhausting to get a new solo for, say, an audition and spend hours upon hours just trying to figure out notes and rhythms? What if notes and rhythms could be done in under an hour?

An excellent sight-reader will learn new solos much faster. They will be able to have notes, rhythms, dynamics and articulation down in less than a an hour.

If you can read it through and catch all the notes and rhythms quickly, then you can spend the rest of your time working on what really matters, musicality.

You NEED to develop this skill

A lot of young players dislike sight-reading, some are scared of it and others even hate it. But you have to start doing it daily, not just at concert band assessments.

You see, sight-reading is like knowing how to read words. Actually, it’s exactly the same. People who can’t read can still speak by listening to others and mimicking the sounds. This is what you as a musician might do in band. You get new music and overtime you learn how to play it simply by osmosis. This is NOT good. It’s like saying you’re a fluent Chinese speaker because you can say words. While you can absolutely get around by just speaking, what happens when you get lost and can’t read the street signs or your traffic ticket?

You will get a confidence boost

Feeling ready to read anything gives you that extra edge against your competition. You will be able to arrive at auditions, gigs or simply the first day of concert band at school or college, feeling good, relaxed and prepared.

Also, confidence is something that not only shows in your demeanor but also comes through your tone. It’s an all-in-one music vitamin.

You will have more fun

Naturally, practicing can sometimes get boring due its monotonous nature. We play the same or similar warm-ups and routine drills on a daily basis, and this repetitive pattern can wear our musicianship down over time.

The warm-up and routine are inevitable and must be done daily, but after that’s finished we have choices. However, these choices can be severely limited by your sight-reading skills. If you are not doing so great at sight-reading, then you will probably go to the same etude or solo you’ve been working on and play it again…

Kill that habit by instead pulling out a new book, opening it to any page and just reading. You can also try my simple melodies as your sight-reading exercises.

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Now that you know why developing this skill is so important, look out for the next blog to see how you can get better at sight-reading. Keep playing and have fun!

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“Can you explain what is concert pitch and major pitch please?”

I get this question at least once a week by YouTube and Instagram followers, which I find perfectly understandable. To a beginner trumpet player it can be confusing to hear “play B flat concert” and start the scale on C . Why don’t we start the scale on B flat like the tuba or trombone?

Concert Key

The piano is a good default instrument to explain concert key because almost everyone has access to one whether at home, school or church. To find C on a full piano look for a set of 2 black notes together, C will be the note directly to the left of the left black note. The piano has multiple Cs of course, the one right about in the middle will be middle C.

So, here is the thing to remember, when you play C on a piano, you will hear a C. Your brain is hearing a C, or Do in solfége. You might be thinking, well of course! However, this isn’t the case with all instruments. It works only with concert key instruments, like the tuba and flute for example. When they play a C, you hear a C. Keep that in mind for now. 

Instruments Not in Concert Key are “Transposing Instruments”

The most common trumpet is a B flat trumpet, which means when you play a C you will hear a Bb. Any note played on the trumpet sounds a whole step lower. That’s right! So, this means that if a trumpet player and a pianist want to play B flat concert scale together, the pianist will start on their B flat key, and the trumpet player will start on C, since C sounds a B flat. This is also true for the B flat clarinet and other B flat instruments.

The same rule applies to instruments in other keys, such as the alto saxophone, which is in E flat. When the sax plays a C, you hear an E flat. Any note played on the saxophone sounds 3 half steps higher (or a minor 3rd.) So, if the saxophonist wants to join the trumpet and piano player on a B flat concert scale, his first note will be…G! Because his G will sound a B flat. 

What About When They Say “B flat Major”? What Does That Mean?

The “major” part of the scale name tells us that the scale has a major quality. It means the scale will sound major, or “happy”, as opposed to a minor scale which sounds “sad.” A major scale also starts on the note specified by the scale name. So, a Bb flat major scale will being on B flat, a C major scale will begin on C…etc. The same rules apply when the scale is minor, so if you’re asked to play a C minor scale, your first note will still be C, though the rest of the scale will be different.

A Universal Language

Instruments in a band or orchestra speak different languages, some speak concert pitch, others speak B flat or Eb, so in order to have everyone understand what’s going on we use concert keys. When the director says “Let’s play B flat concert scale”, the trumpet players will know to start on C, the saxes will begin on G and the tubas on B flat. 

What Trumpet Players Should Know About Concert Pitch

As a trumpet player, keep in mind that when you play a B flat trumpet, all your notes sound a whole step lower. When you play an A, you’re hearing a G. When you play an F, you’re hearing an E flat. This is always true for B flat trumpet. Remember that there are trumpets in other keys as well, which means those trumpets will sound different notes. 

All the instruments that are not in concert pitch are called transposing instruments. If you’d like to learn about other types trumpets check out the trumpet page.

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