Improving sight reading

Tutin

Tutin

Pioneer Member
Hi all,

For the past month I've been working on my sight reading. I've been reading every bit of music I can get my hands on and trying to improve. As usual progress is slow, but so it should be, I mean sight reading isn't the easiest task. By this I do mean playing what I'm reading, by the way. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to practice stuff like this. I can read really well, but playing along I still find hard at higher tempos, so aside from constant practice could anyone give me any advice?

Thanks a lot guys, hope everyone's well.

Tuts.
 
The faster you get, the more important it becomes to be able to read ahead. Realistic Rock, Syncopation, Master Studies, Advanced Techniques, Riley's "Bop" books, Reading Text in 4/4 etc. are all great practice material for this. Go slowly and try to memorise the next measure while playing the previous one. You learn to sight read by sight reading...
 
Wavelength

Re: Improving sight reading

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The faster you get, the more important it becomes to be able to read ahead. Realistic Rock, Syncopation, Master Studies, Advanced Techniques, Riley's "Bop" books, Reading Text in 4/4 etc. are all great practice material for this. Go slowly and try to memorise the next measure while playing the previous one. You learn to sight read by sight reading...
Click to expand...


This is the BEST advice for what your inquiring about. The first time you look at a piece of music is the ONLY time your actually sight reading. After that your learning to play what you've seen. So my advice is to put yourself into positions where you play something for the first time and then the parts that you struggle with there are what you need to work on. This will tell you how good your getting at sight reading.

Its a GREAT thing your trying to learn here btw.
 
Wavelength said:
The faster you get, the more important it becomes to be able to read ahead. Realistic Rock, Syncopation, Master Studies, Advanced Techniques, Riley's "Bop" books, Reading Text in 4/4 etc. are all great practice material for this. Go slowly and try to memorise the next measure while playing the previous one. You learn to sight read by sight reading...
Click to expand...

This is good advice. I will add that it is important to start reading in longer and longer chunks. If you're trying to read one quarter note at a time at a hot tempo, you're going to have trouble keeping up. Much like if you tried to read quickly one letter or one word at a time. Speed reading of words is based on learning to take in entire sentences at a time. Start practicing trying to take in more and more information with each scan. Eventually, you'll take in entire bars at one glance and can shift to the next bar.

I also recommend learning to sight sing. Take a piece of unfamiliar music and SING the rhythms in front of you. Give each note it's correct length (i.e. quarter notes last a whole beat, not just the attack).
 
Thanks everyone. I recently bought Johnny Rabbs guide to jungle & Drum n' bass, and there are about 200 pages of breakbeats which is really helping me, cause I can just keep playing to a metronome and just link the exercises together, one by one or random order. All the beat displacement is really interesting and keeping me on my toes haha. I'm also using the rockschool grade 8 book, Advanced Techniques and anything else I can get my hands on.

Thanks again for the sound advice guys.
 
A great way to learn how to sight read is to improve your ability to read rhythms. If you can't properly read rhythms with ease. You will have twice the trouble when you try to learn how to sight read. Try buying new books.
 
Read without playing your drums too, and try make the connection from what you see and how it supposed to sound.
 
WYdrummer09 said:
A great way to learn how to sight read is to improve your ability to read rhythms. If you can't properly read rhythms with ease. You will have twice the trouble when you try to learn how to sight read. Try buying new books.
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I'm pretty good at reading. I write out drum tracks in manuscript notation all the time. Just having trouble playing along to what I see. Thanks though, I've just bought some new books coincidentally!

T
 
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