Long time player learning to read question(s)

[dreamadream99]

1. You have to practice sightreading. Just like you practice anything else. You have to do it frequently.
2. Do not slow down at difficult parts. The aim is play as if you are playing with a band, and you must stay on tempo with them.
3. Do not stop if you make a mistake. Again, as if you are playing with a band. There is no stopping and starting over. If you make a mistake, you keep going, in tempo. If you get lost, regroup, skip a few beats if necessary, find your place and continue, in tempo.
4. Read ahead. This is the most important and overlooked aspect. During rests and long notes you are looking ahead, sorting out the next few beats. Good sightreaders are consistently a measure or more ahead in their mind. If you don’t see the note on beat one till beat one, you are already too late.

This is what you do while you are sightreading, but what about before you do? Fact is, rarely is anyone called upon to open a folder and immediately start playing. You have anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to prepare. So what can you do in that time? Use your eyes, your brain and your fingers to scan the music quickly for...

1. First measure: clef, time signature, key signature, tempo marking.
2. Directional indicators: repeats, first and second endings, D.C., D.S., coda.
3. Time, key, or tempo changes
4. Section markings like double bars, and rehearsal marks.
5. Read above and below the line for slurs, ties, articulations, dynamics, and tempo and style text.
6. Trouble spots. This is how you avoid pitfalls later. Quickly scan the notes and rhythms for anything that looks difficult. Take this opportunity to count and finger through it with no sound.

This is all the practice you’re going to get. Use it wisely and efficiently.

 

[AFRO]

I am a bit of a procrastinator in regard to 'keeping up' on my sight/reading skill(s).

I have taken on a gig with a blues cover band; I find myself wanting to do more, yet I do not want to over step my "blues groove" as simple as it is... the 12 bar blues variety needs to be tight..no room for flashy -yet- heh (I digress)...

anyhow the guitarist in my band let me know about a weekly Jam session that I sat in on last Wed. played well enough that the MC took my details and asked be back.

So of course I am pretty stoked that my couch-concerts have translated into keeping the sword/ax edge sharp enough to hang at the jam as well as hold it down in the blues gig.


all this to say: I have been reading back through my Jazz and Walking bass books as a means to get a feel for the next time I jam and also to get my reading cred back on track.. so the tips in this thread have been a valuable strategy guide for my procrastination problem. I have been running scales and doing dexterity exercises daily since I joined the band a few weeks back and will start to dedicate some weekly time to reading this time around too.

so cheers on a good thread and great replies.