Lesson 3 Integrated Sight-Reading Exercises — 4 Basics of Sight Reading ‘The ability toread music and to hear what you are reading can be practiced by sight-singing using numbers for the scale and/or chord functions of each note (or, for rhythms, sight-tapping). ‘Two essential things to work on are: ‘© Making internal judgements about what is written, Be able to visually identify all the written ‘musical elements in an example and know what they are telling you to do. Be patient and. thorough, making sure you understand every notational element. + Translating that information into an internally heard sosmnd without the prior nid ofan external sound. Aer studying the musical example, try to hear what you have read, silently, before you sing it. Aural selF reliance, and not imitation, is the value encouraged. ‘Two activities which support the development of these skills are also important: + Singing (or tapping) the sound that your car and eyelnave translated from the written page. Keep your focus on the musical substance of the example, as you sing and/or tap it. Do not become distracted by technical performance issues, Later, ou can apply the ea training you have done toyour own instrument, and you will notice a distinct improvement in the way you hear what you play. * Visually recognising the entire standard music notation vocabulary. Study a mild gradient of visual notational clements, such as adding a new key or a new type of rhythm every week Building on what you learn, expand your ability to quickly and accurately recognize all notational elements Finally, younced not beable tosight-read atextremely fisttempi, althoughawide range oftempi should be explored. In particular, notice the subtle tempi in between the slower, medium and faster tempi. To summarize, by initially focusing your energy on sight-reading and hearing relatively easy ‘maserial in an unaccompanied manner with unswerving trucnes to pitch and rhythm, you will be integrating your eye, brain, car and voice (or body) to function im an interconnected and synchronized manner. Your ability to sight-read more difficult material will grow with your practice. Sing and tap the following integrated exercises, as follows. Give yourself the starting pitch. *Count intemaly the starting tempo. Practice each part separately, and slowly, ignoring the indications for the tempo changes throughout the example. * Combine the parts, increasing speed only after you can play through the entire example ata slow, steady tempo. Observe the indications for the tempo changes throughout the example. ‘When practicing with the recording, ignore the written tempo indications. 24