Sight-Reading

Sight-reading

By Sam Munro ICMA DipMusT
What is sight-reading?
Sight-reading is a term that in my opinion needs clarification. Notation, whether standard or tablature is by its very nature a visual representation of sounds that tells the performer what sounds to play, where, how loud and for how long. It also tells the performer when moments of silence occur and how long they last too.
Thusmy definition of sight-reading is ability of a player on first sight of sheet music to recognise everything that is going on in the piece [rhythmically, melodically, harmonically and dynamically], understand it, then play it.
In Chapter VIII of his book ‘Common sense in music teaching’ William Lovelock describes the facility of good sight-reading as “quickness of physical reaction tovisual stimuli.” He goes on to say that “[written] Music goes in through the eyes and then out through the fingers”.
In her article Sight-reading skills – Who wants them? Who needs them? Kristy Meretta, professor of oboe at Eastern Michigan University suggests thinking of sight-reading as a “…game of mental anticipation.”
Benefits of learning to sight-read
“Good sight-reading skills help us to process keyinformation about a piece, quickly and efficiently, giving us an overview of the musical tasks that lay ahead.”
- Prof. Kristy Meretta
Certain skills in music also transcend into aspects of daily life. Sight-reading is no different. The techniques of quick-scanning and trouble spot recognition are analogous with advanced driving skills.
Sight-reading is also a fundamental skill for those whoare session players for the television and recording industry, where time is money and money is precious. If a player cannot read fluently, in many styles s/he will not be called back for subsequent engagements.
In the 1995 October issue of Libretto magazine. Suzannah Lawrence, the then marketing manager for the ABRSM puts forward the sound notion that:
“.. .Proficiency in sight-reading greatlyenhances the enjoyment of playing and making music, facilitating the rapid learning of pieces, and equipping the student with those techniques necessary for playing unprepared pieces, accompanying, singing, or playing in groups.” - Sight Unseen, Libretto Oct ‘95
The performer that is not skilled in sight-reading is unable to accommodate that crowd-pleasing part of many concerts of doing requestsfor the audience. Unless they have a vast enough repertoire of music under their belt that has been memorised or a confident ear for relative pitch with regard to melody and a solid foundation of chord vocabulary so as to extemporise an accompaniment.
How the eyes work
Our eyes work in the same manner as a camera. The eye takes a series of ’snap-shots’ of the world around us it is then up to ourbrains to edit these images into a cerebral ‘movie’ and fill in the gaps between the stills so that we can comfortably perceive motion as continuous and flowing.
When we read words our eye make brief horizontal movements or spasms that Paul Harris [author, composer, teacher and associated board examiner.] describes as ‘jerks’ known in biology as ‘saccades’ These are followed by longer periods offixation during which the actual perception of the text occurs. This sequence occurs several times a second and is done more or less unconsciously. It is interesting to note that unlike the ‘mental movie’ described earlier, when looking at a stationary object the eye does not have to ‘fill in the gaps’ so is free to absorb the details more thoroughly. Reading is simultaneously progressive andregressive, forward looking for words that are new or pronounced differently within the context of a phase and backtracking to reconfirm and consolidate.
When we read music our eyes do essentially the same task although as well as scanning horizontally the sight-reader’s eye scans vertically too. Reading music is rather like an electrician studying a circuit diagram or a builder reviewing an...