For music teachers, suggestions for teaching sight-reading and sight-singing, including suggested materials needed and music knowledge required as background for good sightreading.
Objectives
1. To facilitate accurate sight-reading skills
through the use of learned procedures which are to become habits ofmind.
2. To develop the discipline to apply these
skills under performance pressure.
3. To construct an inner frame of reference on
which to build more and more sophisticated skills as the studentdevelops.
4. To confirm and solidify these skills until
they become integral to the inner thinking and translated intoautomatic action in performance, audition and other stressful
circumstances.
Lesson procedures:
A. skills
Sight-reading skills may
be developed by mastering eight content areas and using onespecific physical skill. Each content area should be covered
carefully and thoroughly with the "eyes ahead" physical skillutilized in each content area. That is, the eight parameters of
quick and accurate sight-reading should be taught in the context ofusing the physical skill.
Content areas
- a. Key structure
- b. Meter
- c. Form
- d. Tempo
- e. Phrase shape
- f. Dynamics
- f. Articulation
- g. Style
Physical Technique: When confronted with a new piece prior to a
sight-reading effort, either during a rehearsal or an audition, thescanning, or "eyes ahead" technique is necessary after an initial
brief analysis period when key, tempo, and other primary foci areconsidered.
B. psychological considerations
- Inner awareness. See video "Inner Game of
Music."
- Inner hearing.
- Confidence building through daily
practice.
- Audition rehearsals.
- Positive self-talk.
- What if the worse thing you can image would
happen? So what?! (From Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, "What ifall your catastrophic expectations came true?")
Iv. materials needed
- Circle of 5ths
chart
- Rhythmic sampling
- Form diagrams
- Tempo (conducting practice)
- Shape in music diagrams
- Dynamic chart
- Articulation chart
- Historical periods chart
- Video Inner Game of Music
- Video "The Orchestra" (Dudley Moore)
V. materials to content area table
- Key structure: Circle of 5ths chart. Basic theory: scale and interval recognition, chord
structure, cadences, major/minor tonality, modes, keys areas andmodulation.
- Meter: Rhythmic sampling.
- Form: Form diagrams; listening and score
recognition.
- Tempo: Conducting practice; batons and
metronomes.
- Phrase Shape: Shape in music diagrams.
- Dynamics: Dynamics chart; score
recognition.
- Articulation: Articulations chart; computer
graphics to creative articulation marks.
- Style: Historical periods chart; readings
from Grout assigned in library references area; listening.
Vi. instructional strategies
- Approach each new piece in terms of meter,
key structure, form, historical setting, biographical insight, orkey data relevant to the work. [Academic focus]
- Call attention to and study commonalities
between pieces with conducting patterns, rhythmic patterns, formanalyses, dynamic shapes, or compositional techniques. [Academic
focus]
- Reinforce theoretical learnings through
repetition of key concepts within the context of similarly designedharmonic schemes. Use of computer programs designed for ear
training and theory practice, as well as dbases, notation programsand CD ROMS. [Technological focus]
- Reinforce students' notion of their ability
to hear, analyze, reproduce, and enjoy music of different periodsand styles. [Humanistic focus]
- Develop character, sensitivity, patience
and interpersonal skills through group cooperation. (E.g., theability to both lead and follow, to assert one's own ideas as well
as respond to the needs of the group, etc.) [Humanisticfocus]
- Promote and inspire an interest in research
by instigating "scavenger hunts" for musicological data. Use ofcommon research tools such as Grove's, Harvard's, Baker's and
biographic research strategies. [Academic focus]
Vii. concurrent objectives
- To heighten awareness of human history
through the pathway of music history.
- To make students aware of harmonic
relationships, within the framework of traditional harmonicpractice.
- To impart a good general, working knowledge
of music history and theory.
- To facilitate an understanding of
sight-singing and sight-reading by means of an intellectual frame ofreference.
- To enhance multicultural, multiethnic and
multilingual sensibilities.
- To enlighten students' world view and the
possibilities within that spectra by means of current technologicaldevelopments.
Viii. evaluation: pretest and post test strategies
A
Music pretest should be given at the beginning of
the students' career. Students should be told that itis for evaluation only, that they should just answer as many
questions as they can and that after evaluation by the respectiveteacher, the test will be returned to the student with the
instruction that an identical, though resorted test, will bereadministered at the end of the coursework. In this way, the
students will be enlightened with respect to the material whichthey are to learn through the coursework.
Post tests are a more serious affair, as the
students will be expected to pass with a certain number of answerscorrect. Second post tests can be given, however, if tutorials are
needed. Generally this is not the case.
While the pre- and post tests cover a much
wider content area than the specific one addressed in these notes,the wider context can be seen to facilitate the sight reading goals
sketched earlier.
