Scared of sight reading? feel the creeping fear of doom whenever you're called upon to do it
despite the fact that your a solid reader?
your not alone! it is said the frank zappa composed the black page because he'd heard of session musicians fear that one day they may be confronted with the unplayably difficult
'black page'
So what do you do about it? Well ive found that simply reading a lot during my practice sessions
and applying that reading in different ways didn't help me get rid of 'the fear' for two reasons first
of all i would usually read from one of my favorite books which a also use to teach,This meant that there was an unconcious level of familarity that has as much to do with the page layout as the content of the music. If you constanly read from computer
printed notation then suddenly reading somthing hand written or simply written in a different musical font can be enough to bring on an attack of the fear.
Secondly when im practising in the warm solitary inviroment of the studio i feel absolutly no pressure, no one is counting on me to cue them and i dont have anyone to impress if get it wrong there are no conseqences beyond my own frustration and dissapointment.
So went about simulating the sight reading experience in my practice in two steps.
1, i started to buy and store one or two books usually a snare drum book and a drumset chart book as well as a few random and usually very old individual charts from shows or bigbands away from the rest of my drum material and NEVER look at it without it being part of my practice shedule, once id used a page i wouldnt use it again for months.
2, I began always using a click or drum machine while sight reading at least set to a medium tempo and stopped allowing myself to correct my reading mistakes to simulate the feeling of pressure and to improve my ability to get back on top of chart if i made a mistake. this made every sight reading session in essence a performance for one (me) which gradually raised my confidence as i made fewer and fewer mistakes and at the very least covered them better.
Give it a go.... im sure it will work (it did for me) also try to remember that when you are asked to sight read generally no one is
out to get you, their not trying to trip you up, they just want good well played music as much as you do. so there's really no need for a attack of......... THE FEAR
despite the fact that your a solid reader?
your not alone! it is said the frank zappa composed the black page because he'd heard of session musicians fear that one day they may be confronted with the unplayably difficult
'black page'
So what do you do about it? Well ive found that simply reading a lot during my practice sessions
and applying that reading in different ways didn't help me get rid of 'the fear' for two reasons first
of all i would usually read from one of my favorite books which a also use to teach,This meant that there was an unconcious level of familarity that has as much to do with the page layout as the content of the music. If you constanly read from computer
printed notation then suddenly reading somthing hand written or simply written in a different musical font can be enough to bring on an attack of the fear.
Secondly when im practising in the warm solitary inviroment of the studio i feel absolutly no pressure, no one is counting on me to cue them and i dont have anyone to impress if get it wrong there are no conseqences beyond my own frustration and dissapointment.
So went about simulating the sight reading experience in my practice in two steps.
1, i started to buy and store one or two books usually a snare drum book and a drumset chart book as well as a few random and usually very old individual charts from shows or bigbands away from the rest of my drum material and NEVER look at it without it being part of my practice shedule, once id used a page i wouldnt use it again for months.
2, I began always using a click or drum machine while sight reading at least set to a medium tempo and stopped allowing myself to correct my reading mistakes to simulate the feeling of pressure and to improve my ability to get back on top of chart if i made a mistake. this made every sight reading session in essence a performance for one (me) which gradually raised my confidence as i made fewer and fewer mistakes and at the very least covered them better.
Give it a go.... im sure it will work (it did for me) also try to remember that when you are asked to sight read generally no one is
out to get you, their not trying to trip you up, they just want good well played music as much as you do. so there's really no need for a attack of......... THE FEAR
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