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Four years of sight reading practice

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Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#11

Post by apercu »

chthonicdaemon wrote: post #4
sherdil2022 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very commendable but I never got the hang of reading score and playing. Even if I could manage some bars, it never stuck. I will definitely try again. However, meanwhile I am learning the basic skills - starting with chord progressions in different keys (and as a side effect learning different scales) - and I am able to enjoy learning and playing music without the stress and anxiety of sight reading. I have found a t…

I have found being able to sight read relatively easily to unlock a vast trove of music I'd like to be able to play which would have been harder to pick up purely by ear. It's definitely worth learning the things you're talking about. I found the surest way to get good at that kind of playing is to play with other people. The time dependence of having to keep up with everyone makes the feedback really tight. Playing…

For me it's less about melody and harmony than it is about rhythm, I often need to see or notate a syncopated rhythm in order to "get" it. Though that might just mean I haven't internalized a lot of syncopated rhythms.

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#12

Post by djtango »

chthonicdaemon wrote: post #2

I've been tracking my sight reading practice for four years using an iPad app, storing the results and plotting them. I am still seeing progress even after four years.

Sight reading never really ends - I tested a friend (professional virtuoso) when he was drunk at a noisy party and he sight read one of the Chopin song transcriptions by Liszt (I deliberately chose something a bit obscure).

Nothing quite as crushing as seeing people sight read things that would take you months/years to learn with the score... :)

Thanks for sharing your journey!

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#13

Post by lucas_codes »

I love data visualizations like these.

OP if you want to improve sight reading faster, I would recommend using non-random notes - context is very important when sight reading and if you get a professional pianist to sight read random notes they will be much, much slower.

Sight reading factory is one site I know that does this a bit better

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#14

Post by perlgeek »

Doesn't practicing with random notes become very boring?

I imagine it would be far more engaging (but also far more complicated) to tap into an archive of songs and present those randomly, either selected by or transposed into the key that you want to practice.

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#15

Post by criddell »

chthonicdaemon wrote: post #2

I've been tracking my sight reading practice for four years using an iPad app, storing the results and plotting them. I am still seeing progress even after four years.

The charts are neat. Are you using any insights gained from the data collection to guide your practice?

I'm not tracking my music practice (maybe I should) but I've been wearing a health tracker for years and have collected a ton of data. None of it seems very actionable because there have been no surprises.

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#16

Post by tianshuo »

perlgeek wrote: post #14

Doesn't practicing with random notes become very boring? I imagine it would be far more engaging (but also far more complicated) to tap into an archive of songs and present those randomly, either selected by or transposed into the key that you want to practice.

There is an app called Piano Maestro that makes it much more fun, a large pool of pop songs, and increasing difficulty. We use multiple apps at home with our Yamaha piano that has a Bluetooth midi connected to it, including Notequest, Notevision and recently Piano Maestro.

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#17

Post by internet_rand0 »

perlgeek wrote: post #14

Doesn't practicing with random notes become very boring? I imagine it would be far more engaging (but also far more complicated) to tap into an archive of songs and present those randomly, either selected by or transposed into the key that you want to practice.

[dead]

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#19

Post by alnwlsn »

perlgeek wrote: post #14

Doesn't practicing with random notes become very boring? I imagine it would be far more engaging (but also far more complicated) to tap into an archive of songs and present those randomly, either selected by or transposed into the key that you want to practice.

I feel like learning random notes would be the musical equivalent of the Chinese Room. You would be good at sight reading, but not be 'musical'.

A bit like when people tell you to learn Morse code, not to learn it letter by letter.

Re: Four years of sight reading practice

#20

Post by perlgeek »

alnwlsn wrote: post #19
perlgeek wrote: post #14

Doesn't practicing with random notes become very boring? I imagine it would be far more engaging (but also far more complicated) to tap into an archive of songs and present those randomly, either selected by or transposed into the key that you want to practice.

I feel like learning random notes would be the musical equivalent of the Chinese Room. You would be good at sight reading, but not be 'musical'. A bit like when people tell you to learn Morse code, not to learn it letter by letter.

> A bit like when people tell you to learn Morse code, not to learn it letter by letter.

Fun fact, during WW2 there were lots of encrypted transmissions over Morse code, and lots of folk (often women, in the UK at least) had the job to transcribe them. They would then be passed on to the cryptoanalytics specialists in Bletchley Park. I guess other countries had similar arrangements.

So they would sit 8h+ a day and transcribe what looked like garbage to them.

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