Effective Strategies for Sight Reading Music

Strategies for Sight Reading, the complete series. This is a single video version of my series on sight reading, with a few edits and updates. The first section is an exploration of a number of concepts related to reading music that I hope you find interesting, enjoyable, and convincing. The other three sections cover a number of different ideas, tips, and strategies that generally increase in complexity, but I'd argue that most of these tips apply to basically everyone, no matter your level of experience. And here's the complete list if you want an overview. Feel free to jump around if you like or watch the whole thing and go on a journey. Time codes are in the description and timeline if you want to jump around to see any particular tip. And this series was sponsored by the Sight Reading Factory, so I'll be referring to them and their features several times throughout the video. I highly recommend them and be sure to use my code at checkout to save 10% off your first year, but all of these tips will apply to you whether you decide to sign up for their service or not. With that, let's get started. Sight reading. What it is. Why it's a useful skill. and the only real way to get better at it. Sight reading is the act of reading and performing a piece of written music without having prepared it ahead of time. And it may be one of the most feared topics in music, certainly commonly among beginners, but even some very accomplished musicians are repelled by the idea of sight reading. Some people treat sight reading like a superpower that some lucky few musicians are bestowed with, a power unattainable by mere mortals. But really, it's just a skill that you can learn, practice, and develop over time with a bit of effort and routine. And it's a really useful skill, because at a fundamental level, the better you can read, the less you have to practice. It makes sense, doesn't it? If you can't read at all, you have to learn by ear, or have someone teach you note by note, phrase by phrase. And that's fine, but that can take a while if it's a long or complicated piece. And you'll probably experience a lot of trial and error along the way, which may not be the most efficient way to learn something. But if you can read a bit, then the trial and error part becomes optional, because the information you need to perform the music is right in front of you. You just have to learn to interpret it. And it potentially can make the process much shorter. And if you happen to have pretty good reading skills, and the music is within your comfort level for complexity, you just read the music. Of course, there are many great musicians who don't read music at all. And exploring the value of learning by ear versus reading music is something I'd definitely like to explore another time. Though, spoiler, they're both super important and useful, often support each other, and insisting that one is inherently better or inferior is just gatekeeping. But I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that most people who read traditional musical notation would like to read better, faster, and more accurately. So this video is a collection of tips and techniques from basic to advanced to help you learn how to sight read better. But for now we have to talk about some of the fundamental truths about sight reading, such as the fact that learning to read music is not that different from learning to read written language. At first, when you're trying to read, the process is very slow. You start with the alphabet and you sang that song every day for years when you were little. And then you learned to read some simple words, which turned into simple sentences. Some words were difficult and you had to sound out each syllable, but you practiced and got better at reading over time until it just wasn't a big deal. When you were younger, you were reading picture books with a few hundred words. And reading a book with dozens of chapters and hundreds of pages seemed like an impossible task. But eventually it just doesn't seem like a big deal. You just read it. Music is the same. You learn the basics and start with very simple pieces and notation, then move on to more complex music with more details and more advanced musical vocabulary. It takes a while and it takes effort, but when you practice reading, you get better at reading. Along the way, there will be challenges, because music is like any other language in the fact that it evolved over time and has many features that are simple, logical, and consistent, but it's also riddled with special cases and exceptions. Like in English, the rule of I before E except after C. except for all the times that it doesn't, which is so, so many times. And in music, how a quarter note gets one beat, except for all the times it doesn't, which happens kind of a lot. English also has homonyms, words that sound the same but are spelled differently, or words that are spelled the same but mean different things. And if you mix them up, it can be very confusing. Music also has things that sound the same, but are written differently because they perform different functions and work differently depending on the context. And there are also notations that look similar at first glance but are actually very different. But even English punctuation has similar challenges. You just got used to it. Consider the comma. It can be used for a pause, contractions, another kind of pause, for quotes, quotes within quotes, or whatever is happening with proper nouns in fantasy novels. All these things were a bit tricky at first, but you got used to them over time through exposure and practice. And to anyone who is annoyed by any of these rules and might be tempted to try to fix the system, I'll just say that a lot of these weird rules actually make things simpler in the long run, and fixing the system just tends to create far more complications than it eliminates. For instance, if you decide that C-flat is a dumb note just because it's the same as B, then you'll have to explain and remember a whole bunch of new complicated exceptions in music rather than just letting C-flat exist. Similarly, if you were trying to fix English pronunciation to make it fully phonetic, you'd have to deal with, just to start, the fact that most vowels have a whole bunch of different sounds. So you'll either have to introduce accents to show different sounds, or you'd have to decide that vowels only make one sound, which is going to cause lots of problems. Because if all A's sound like they do in cake, then Snack Shack would sound like Snake Shake. And when your friends suggest that for dinner, you won't know if you're getting a burger and fries or a really weird protein drink. Over time, you get used to these weird inconsistencies. In fact, with practice, reading becomes not only effortless, but involuntary. You probably can't even look at text without reading it. Go ahead and try. It's almost impossible. Your brain just automatically reads it, whether you want to or not. The reason reading is so easy is that we practice reading all the time. It's just such an efficient way to transmit information that it's just everywhere and you get great at reading. If you're going to give a speech, you might practice and prepare. But that's probably more to do with the performance itself, making sure that you have good cadence, flow, and pacing, rather than any real concerns about reading the words. And actually, actors and public speakers have their own version of sight reading. They call it cold reading. They practice this because they don't want to just say the words correctly. they want to learn to emote and even find the best words and phrases to emphasize from a cold read. The goal is to learn to anticipate the cadence of a text and make a convincing performance even though they've never read this passage before. And that's what we want. We want to read music effortlessly and even with the ability to add emotion and expression in the moment the very first time. So if you want to get good at sight reading, you have to practice sight reading. It's so obvious that I think people actually forget it sometimes. But if you want to get good at reading music that you've never read before, you have to practice reading music that you've never read before. The truth is, many people don't make this a priority. They practice repertoire and technique, but rarely sight reading, and it remains an underdeveloped skill. Of course, it's important to choose material that's of appropriate difficulty. You wouldn't start a toddler off with Shakespeare, but it's a pretty common assignment for teenagers. To pick music that's good for sight reading, think about what your personal sight reading comfort zone is as far as keys, notes, range, and rhythms. and try to find new music to sight read that's right in that pocket. It should be what you personally consider to be of medium difficulty and will require you to focus and be mentally engaged. You probably shouldn't bother spending much time on music that's too easy because you won't be challenged and you'll get bored. And while it can be good to push yourself to the limit of your abilities, going too far beyond them with really difficult music isn't really sight reading. Sight reading is all about reading and playing now. Maybe not absolutely perfectly, but with as much flow and forward motion as you can manage. So do it. Do it often. Do it every time you practice. Make it a habit. But the big question is, how do you find music that's at the right level and plentiful enough so you always have new, fresh music to sight-read? There are a few places. You can find etude books online, at your local music store, or maybe even your local library. You can trade books with friends or borrow from a teacher. And hymnals, method books, and jazz fake books will also have large amounts of repertoire to explore. But also there are software tools just for this purpose. And one of the best, most ridiculously useful tools is the sight reading factory. I used the site to practice sight reading long before I even had a YouTube channel and I still use it because it's really pretty great. This site creates new music to practice sight reading for any instrument, even choirs, bands, and orchestras in harmony or in unison, instantly, infinitely, at the push of a button. There are several levels of difficulty suitable for every level of musician and tons of ways to customize beyond that. Lower levels have simpler rhythms, smaller range, and smaller leaps between notes. As you progress, you'll see more complex material. If you're not sure what level you're at, try a few and see what feels right. Once you're signed up, you can create as many exercises as you like. It's not like buying a book and then realizing the material is too easy or too hard. With the Sight Reading Factory, it's easy to find your personal sight reading comfort zone and begin to push beyond it. If you want the metronome on, it's here, and feel free to adjust the speed. If you want to hear the starting note before you begin, use this button. There's also playback if you want to hear the exercise before you try it or listen back and see how you did, or even play along with it. If you want longer or shorter exercises, you can do that too. And you can turn on several different kinds of annotations if you find that helpful. If you want to focus on just one time signature or a selection of a few, or go full random, you can do that. If you want to work on one key or a few, or just the major keys or just the minor keys, or challenge yourself with all of them, you can do that as well. You can also get really granular if you want to go to custom mode. This will allow you to choose what types of rhythms and rests are included. You can also include articulations, dynamics, syncopations, what specific range you want, and what maximum leaps you want. At first, you'll probably just read slowly. Work through the exercises at your own pace, and teach yourself to get used to reading new music on a regular basis. That's called Free Play Mode. But Challenge Mode is much more like sight reading in the real world. You have some time to study the music, and then it just starts playing and you have to keep up. And if you make an error, you just have to recover and continue. It can be difficult at first, but it's an amazing exercise. And if you're a teacher, there are a number of features like classes, assignments, and even live practice mode. that will create separate transposed parts for each student and push them directly to their personal devices live. So you can practice sight reading together as a class. And you can do this in unison or in harmony. If you want to get better at sight reading, you have to practice sight reading. And one of the best places to get new music to do that is the sight reading factory. If you want to give them a try, be sure to use my discount code for 10% off your first year. As the series progresses, we'll get into increasingly advanced concepts. But part two is mostly about the basics. The value of which should not be underestimated, because if you want to be a good reader, developing these basic skills is really not optional. The first thing to tackle in learning to sight read is making sure you've got a strong grasp of note naming and fingerings on your instrument. It doesn't matter if you're reading music that's basic, intermediate, or advanced. The rules for knowing what note you have to play are the same, and actually pretty simple. If you need a quick review, here are the basic rules of note naming. Feel free to pause and screenshot if you want to keep this as a reference. But if you're new to reading music or have struggled with note naming, I did two full videos on the subject, both linked in the description, and you should definitely start there. If you understand these rules, you should be able to name any note in any piece of music, whether it's on the staff or placed a million ledger lines away. It might be a bit tedious at first, but it's not exactly complicated. The rules are the same. The Sight Reading Factory actually has a feature to turn on annotations for note naming. Just click on Settings, add note names, and load a new exercise. Many people find this helpful when learning to read sheet music. It can act as a fail-safe to make sure that you're playing the right notes. Or some people like to pencil in all the letter names for each note when they get a new piece of music. Though while this can be a great exercise to practice note naming, I really recommend teaching yourself to read notes without added letter names. For one, it's a whole extra step you have to go through when you get a new piece of music, rather than just learning to read the notes, which is the whole point. You're also likely to miss a lot of other details like rhythm and expression. Because you're focusing on reading penciled-in note names, all the other information seems to just fade away. And if you accidentally mislabel a note, you might never realize it because you're not actually reading the notes. And even if you do put the right letter names in, it doesn't even tell you which octave to play in, or if a note goes up or down. So actually reading the notes really matters. Just like learning to read language, note naming can be slow at first, but you'll get better with practice and probably not even think about it after a while. It just becomes natural and automatic. Of course, after you've figured out note naming, you've got to know how to actually play those notes on your instrument. Many people find it useful to keep a reference handy. That could be a labeled piano keyboard, a fretboard diagram, or a fingering chart. You've probably got one in your method book, but you can also find them online for free. Eventually you'll memorize all your notes and fingerings, but until you do, keep these references close by while you're practicing. Tip number three is understand the fundamentals of reading and counting rhythms. In my experience, new musicians are often known to say, I'm not good at sight reading. I need to hear the piece first so I know how it goes, then I can play it. Now, if you're a vocalist, this might be a fair thing to say. But for an instrumentalist, not so much. Because in my experience, they're not talking about trouble reading the notes, they're talking about trouble reading the rhythm. Most people don't put up too much of a fuss about learning to read notes. But for some reason, rhythm is usually a much bigger struggle. And people are often very hesitant to work on learning to read and count rhythms. But it's crucial to being able to read music at all, let alone sight read. I did three separate videos as a deep dive on rhythms that you might want to take a look at if you're new to this or have struggled with these topics in the past. But let's take a quick look at the basics, including a system of rhythmic notation and a method of counting that can make it much easier to read and understand rhythms, so you can figure them out on your own without having to hear them first. We always count notes for the beat that they fall on in the bar. A bar of quarter notes isn't 1-1-1-1, it's 1-2-3-4. And if a note is longer than a beat, like half notes or whole notes, we tie the numbers together. For rests, the rules are the same, but sometimes we put parentheses around the affected beats. If you're subdividing the beat into eighth notes, we count 1-and, 2-and, 3-and, 4-and, and use a plus sign for the ands. And if you're subdividing into sixteenth notes, it's a bit weird, but many people count them as 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, and so on. All of these rhythms and rests can be put together in basically any combination. It can get a bit complicated, and I know a few of you are getting a bit overwhelmed, but please, don't panic. Learning to count rhythms takes practice, but if you're working on music that's appropriate to your level, it should be challenging, not overwhelming. If you're on level 1 of reading, work towards level 2. And don't worry too much about what's on level 42. When you get there, you'll be ready to start. That being said, when you see a rhythm like this, start by figuring out the counting. You might say 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, and 2, e, and, da, 3, and 4, which is not in time, but it is the correct counting. Then work towards keeping a consistent pulse and fitting the rhythms between the beats. Something like 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, and 2, e, and, da, 3, and 4. After a couple of tries you'll probably have it figured out. This kind of notation and counting can be really useful for dotted or syncopated rhythms, which many people find challenging. For one, if you know where the beats fall, it helps you to know whether to place the notes on or off the beat. So if I'm counting dotted quarters out loud, I usually say the second beat sort of under my breath, something like one, two, and three, four, and one, two, and three, four. For syncopated rhythms, after you figure out the counting, you might not even say every downbeat and just focus on when the notes actually start on the upbeats. For example, 1 and, and 3 and 4, 1. 2 and, and 4, 1 and, and 3, 4. Again, this can be tricky at first, but I promise it gets better with a bit of practice. You can learn to sound out rhythms just like you sound out unfamiliar words. One great way to practice reading rhythms is the Rhythm Only feature on the Sight Reading Factory. Start with the lower levels to build your confidence and then work your way up to the higher levels. And feel free to turn on the metronome, adjust the tempo, or turn on playback if you want to hear the rhythm or clap or play along with it. Struggles with rhythm reading are a huge detriment to being able to read, so make rhythm practice and understanding a priority. Next up is tip number four. Just remember A, B, C. Always be counting. This is different from the ability to count and interpret rhythms themselves. In this case, always be counting means to be able to feel and lock into the pulse of the music, knowing where the downbeat of each bar is, and being able to count along in tempo. Your internal metronome should always be active when playing or listening to music. It may be nearly subconscious, as if there's a track playing with the volume all the way down. But you also need to be able to turn the volume up and actively count in your inner monologue while playing or resting. Without this ability, you may find yourself getting lost or making errors on really easy material. For example, almost anyone with basic knowledge of music notation can look at this passage and tell you all the note names and explain all the rhythms and the rests. But I find even good musicians sometimes struggle with relatively simple music because they aren't counting. They might start off okay, but then turn these half notes into quarters, hold this note for, you know, a while, get lost in the rest, and come back in just whenever they think sounds right, and then have no idea how to manage this tie, all because they haven't been counting. Some people are very resistant to this concept. They don't want to count. They just don't think they need to. They just like to listen and play what feels right. And there's no doubt, there's a time to turn off your brain and just play. When you're jamming and improvising, just listen and play what feels right and sounds good. But if you're playing a specific composition with other people who are also reading, not only is there an objectively right answer, you're going to throw the others in the band off if you're just doing your own thing and that's not being a good bandmate. So don't guess, count. Feeling is good. but counting and knowing is even better. Now, if you want to count, but struggle to turn on that inner monologue, here's a few things you might find helpful. Start by just trying to be aware of the beat while listening to music. Listen to the drums and the bass. Clap along with the beat and tap your foot. Next, notice the cycle of strong and weak beats. Notice that most music has four beats per bar and be aware of that strong pull to beat one. And of course a metronome can be a very useful tool when practicing. But many people have trouble staying in time with the metronome and drift away from the beat. If the music is too challenging, you may find your ability to listen and lock into the metronome is compromised. So try ramping the difficulty way down so you can focus on counting and staying in time. Count out loud if you can. Wind players should make sure they're actively counting in their head. If you're still having trouble, try counting out loud while you listen to a friend play the piece. Then ask them to do the same for you. Then play again just counting in your head. These exercises can be really useful to turn on your internal metronome. Sometimes music is hard, but sometimes it really isn't. Don't let easy music beat you by not counting. Focus, count carefully, and execute the notation. A, B, C. Always be counting. Next up, tip number five is inspect the piece ahead of time. When you get a new piece of music, before you even begin to examine the notes and rhythms, you want to scan it top to bottom and get a broad lay of the land sort of overview of the piece, while searching for and taking note of a number of different details. And a ton of those details are in the upper left section of the page right here. The time signature is going to tell you how many beats are in a bar and what note value you're counting. Next, take note of the key signature. What notes are sharp or flat in this piece? If you miss this detail, you're going to be playing an awful lot of wrong notes. We'll check the clef as well. Some instruments play in more than one. Above that you may see tempo and style markings. A few words here can tell you a lot about the sound and feel of the piece, and it might inform your stylistic and expressive choices quite a lot. And to never assume the obvious, make sure that the part you have is for the correct instrument. Next we zoom out and look for other big details. Are there any changes in key or time signature? Any markings to indicate changes in style or tempo? And we also want to make sure we understand what many musicians call the roadmap. By that we mean any repeats or directional markings like first and second endings, second time only, or things like da capo and coda markings. You want to check these out before you start playing so you don't get lost in the middle of a piece. Next, start looking at the finer details. Not every note in rhythm, but look for notes that you may not be familiar with because they're very high or very low or have accidentals that you're not used to. You might have to look up a fingering or two. All the while, you're also looking out for any notations, symbols, or words that you don't know. You can either look them up or ask somebody what it means. You may also want to keep an eye out for extreme dynamics. And some musicians need to be mindful of instrument changes, mutes, or other special techniques. If you're sitting in a section with several people who play your instrument and there's a solo, decide who's going to play it. Finally, after you're done all the housekeeping of all those high-level details is when tip number six comes into play. Find the hardest parts of the piece and begin to prepare for them. If you're playing a piece that's appropriately difficult for you, you shouldn't be overwhelmed by the majority of notes and rhythms. But you will probably notice that many pieces have two or three sections that are actually challenging and the rest isn't really too bad. In the moments before you sight-read a piece, don't waste your time and attention on the simple parts. Look for the hard stuff and spend a few moments working through it mentally or even quietly practicing if that's possible. Try to figure out the counting for odd rhythms or work out awkward fingerings. You could also consider making use of the pencil to prepare your music ahead of time. You might label unfamiliar notes, write in counting or mark downbeats to make rhythms easier to understand. or mark down certain accidentals and just generally increase the chances that you don't miss any of those details that we just took note of. There are actually a number of ways that you can use the pencil to increase your reading skills. I truly consider it a secret weapon that many musicians underuse, but we'll get to that in a bit more detail later on in tip number nine. For now, tip number seven is subdivide rhythms and counting. Previously we talked about how your inner monologue should always be counting along with the beat so you know how to manage rhythms and rests. If you don't, you're going to get lost a lot and make errors on pretty simple music. But even if you are counting and you know exactly when to come in, it can still be difficult to execute certain rhythms correctly. Subdivision can be key in preparing yourself to execute upcoming rhythms. Let's say you're counting a rest and there's a bar coming up with eighth notes. If you can just get started, you'll probably be okay. So instead of just counting the beat and then you're in and good luck, you might count eighth notes in the rest. One and two and three and four and... And this works equally well for other subdivisions. For 16ths, you could count the whole bar ahead in 16ths, or maybe just the last beat or two. One, two, three-ee-anda, four-ee-anda. And the same thing with triplets. One, two, three-anda, four-anda. Pickup beats can be especially confusing for some people. But subdividing can really increase your confidence about when to come in. Like coming in on an eighth note pickup. One and two and three and four. Or multiple eighth notes. One and two and three. Coming in on the fourth sixteenth of beat three might be pretty intimidating for some people, but it's a lot easier if you know how to subdivide into sixteenths. 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and. Subdivision can be incredibly useful for mentally preparing to play a rhythm, and it's a great habit to look ahead during rests and figure out what subdivision you should be thinking and counting. Use the custom feature of the Sight Reading Factory to focus on specific rhythms and subdivisions. And you can even turn on the metronome with subdivisions if you like. You should always be counting when you're playing music, but subdividing really brings this to the next level. and it can be a huge upgrade to your sight reading abilities. Next up is learn your scales. There are a lot of benefits to learning your scales. I did a whole video about how learning major scales gives you superpowers, and sight reading is definitely among them. First, if you're playing a piece in the key of C major, that means that the white keys, the natural notes, are likely to be used probably quite a lot. And the black keys, the sharps and flats, are probably going to be used pretty rarely, if at all. This is really useful knowledge, because your brain and fingers learn that they should only be playing these notes. and only even need to think about the others if a sharp or flat shows up in the music. And of course, if the piece is in a different key, you're just dealing with a different combination of notes, where some are really likely to show up and others not so much. The other thing that you'll begin to notice is that a lot of music is just scales and parts of scales anyway. The better you know your scales, the more often you'll see patterns and make connections. You won't have to read and play individual notes, you'll just play the scale that you already know. There are lots of different kinds of scales, but start with major scales. Learning them all can seem like a big project, but start with the easier ones and then build from there. It really doesn't even take that long if you have a halfway decent practice routine. In fact, I have a method to learn all your scales in just 24 hours. Check the description for links to that project. You can use the Sight Reading Factory to focus on reading in one key or a few. or challenge yourself with full random and see if you can find any holes in your abilities that you need to patch. The payoffs to learning your scales, especially major scales, are really huge and I promise you won't regret learning them. Next, this is a big one and it could really transform you as a musician, and that is use your pencil. Learning a new piece of sheet music always begins with sight reading, but that's usually only one step along the way to learning and performing a piece. You might even learn the piece well enough that the sheet music is mostly just a reminder of what to play. But before that point, you're probably still in the reading phase. Now, whether you're a new musician who will have many practices before a concert, or a more advanced musician who might only have a short amount of time to prepare music, if you have at least one practice session before a performance, you have a huge opportunity to find the traps in a piece and prepare your music with pencil markings to help avoid those traps during the performance. A good musician will not squander this opportunity. A good musician does not underestimate the power of the pencil. My general guideline is, If you make a mistake, consider writing something in so you don't make the same mistake again. If you do make the same mistake again, definitely write something in. And if you're making a million mistakes, ask yourself if you're just going too quickly, or if this piece is just too difficult for you right now. The first thing to consider is note accuracy. Did you miss the key signature? Or how about a key signature change? Circle it. Maybe write the name of the key beside it. Did you miss any notes affected by the key signature? Mark them in. Did you miss an accidental that lasts for the whole bar? Did you remember that it cancels at the bar line? If you see an unfamiliar note, or even if you have trouble reading it because of a bad scan or photocopy, darken it and maybe mark the letter name in. These are all easy fixes. Don't hope you'll get it right the next time. Make sure of it. Mark it in. You might write in the counting of a tricky rhythm. Or, with syncopated rhythms, I often find it's enough just to stroke in where the beats are. I'll even do the same thing on simple rhythms sometimes. If I somehow miscount a half note or a whole note, I definitely don't want to do that again. Mark it in. Did you miss a rest? Circle it. Sometimes we call playing in a rest, stepping in the hole. Don't step in the hole. Did you zone out or get confused during a long rest? Write in the word count to help you remember to pay attention next time. Seriously, it works. You might even write cues for yourself during long rests to make sure that you're always confident about where you are in the piece. Don't let simple things beat you. Let the pencil save you. You can also use the pencil to help remind you about all kinds of other markings and make them more obvious, like dynamics or articulations. If you have a repeated section, it can get really confusing. So I'll often write numbers above the bars to make it easier to follow. I'll just memorize one bar and then play it however many times are indicated. And I don't know if this is a thing that's just local to Toronto, but I know lots of people like to draw little eyeglasses on sections that are tricky or surprising or just need a bit of extra attention. And if there are jumps around the page for codas and signs, you might want to add markings so that you don't get lost. Not to mention quick page turns. And there are probably a million other things that might be specific to your instrument. I definitely have my own as a trumpet player. Your teacher will probably have some suggestions about this, and you'll surely figure some for yourself out along the way. The main idea of this tip is to make sure that easily solvable problems get solved ASAP. Don't just hope to avoid these silly little mistakes the next time. Make sure of it. And one note on etiquette, if you're using original sheet music, always use a pencil rather than a pen. Not only might things change or you might make a mistake, but the owner of the music might not appreciate permanent marks on their music. Next up is, don't get lost. and know how to recover if you do. Sight reading takes a lot of concentration. You have to be mentally focused, present, and purposeful. But the amount of information and the speed it comes at you can be really overwhelming, and it can be easy to get lost in the music. So don't get lost is easier said than done. But there are tactics. The first thing to consider is if you're playing alone or with other musicians, because they're pretty different situations. If you're on your own, you don't need to worry about syncing up with anyone else. So just go at whatever speed you can handle and read note by note. moment by moment. If you have to slow down, it really doesn't matter. Just read each note and play it. Notice that smaller subdivisions are grouped together, which makes it easier to visually keep your place. And even if you're looking at a section that's really dense with notes, notice that the groupings can help you keep your place while you focus on playing one note at a time. If you're playing music where you have to coordinate two things at once, like two hands on a piano, imagine a vertical line scanning along the music. That line shows exactly what happens next, moment by moment. It may take a while to get up to speed and have a sense of flow, but so what, you're just reading. Pause when you have to and continue when you're ready. If you do get lost, don't go all the way back to the beginning of the piece. Just find the last spot where you weren't lost and proceed more carefully this time. It's much more important to figure out how to get through the difficult part than it is to play those easy bars again. If you're playing with an ensemble, it's a bit different, because if you stop, the band will continue without you. But fortunately, your fellow musicians might be able to help you if you do get lost. The simplest solution is just to lean over and discreetly ask, Psst, where are we? Hopefully they'll be able to tell you. And you can always look up at your conductor with pleading eyes, and they'll likely understand that you're lost and might be able to yell or mouth a bar number at you. And remember that music is often imbued with big sections where changes in form or melody are fairly obvious. You might be able to hear or feel the end of a phrase coming up, and watch out for big obvious changes in style, like from long and lyrical notes to short and staccato, to rests punctuated with shot notes. If you're listening to the ensemble around you, it should be pretty obvious when those changes happen, and those are usually good moments to jump back in. And actually, listening is so important that it really deserves its own tip. Listen, and it works in a few different ways. For one, listen to see if your part shows up in other parts before you have to play it. If you see this section and you think it's a pretty tough rhythm, but the band starts playing before you, and you hear someone else playing something that seems like that might be it, that's a freebie, because they just showed you how your part goes. Maybe you can return the favor for them on another phrase. And always listen to see if your part fits with what everyone else is playing, either in your section or the whole ensemble. If it doesn't seem to fit, you might be in the wrong spot or have something mixed up. Stop and listen and try to figure out where you are. and where you're actually supposed to be, and then jump back in as soon as you're ready. And aside from listening in rehearsal, listen to lots of music, just in general, as much as possible, especially related to the kinds of music you want to play. If you're presented with music for a piece that you've already listened to, the reading is usually a lot easier because you already know what the piece is supposed to sound like. And there are some things that might look a little bit weird on the page, but if you've heard them before, you're more likely to recognize them when you do. So fill your ears as much as possible. Passive listening is almost as good as active listening, so try to get in the habit of putting on music as much as you can. Tip number 12 is practice staying in performance mode. When you're playing music, you can either be in practice mode or performance mode, and I think it's important to be aware of which mode you're in and what to do about it. When you're in practice mode, you're allowed to start, stop, pause, review, and retry, and that's all fine because you're just practicing. You're just trying to learn the piece and figure out how it goes. But performance mode is different, because the goal is to avoid pauses and hesitations and to get through the piece, start to finish, in one unbroken attempt. Even if you make a mistake, you have to keep going with as little interruption as possible, because nothing saps the energy from a performance more than stopping and going back and trying a tricky section a few times. This doesn't come naturally to most people. Most people have to practice staying in performance mode. When you're sight reading alone, you may start out in performance mode, but quickly fall out of it because you just can't resist fixing that little mistake you just made. Try sight reading with a friend or your teacher. If either of you make any mistakes, they probably won't be the same ones at the same time, and the other person will just move on without you. You have to learn to recover quickly and keep up. Now, I usually call this performance mode, but on the Sight Reading Factory, they actually call it challenge mode, and it's a great feature. This means you'll have a certain amount of time to study the piece, and then it counts in and just starts playing, and you have to keep up because playback is not going to stop for you. It's just like sight reading in the real world with a band. You can even turn on a feature that makes bars disappear after they've played. With this feature on, you really have no choice but to move on. It's a really great way to practice staying in Performance Mode. This final installment includes a few tips that I'd consider to be a bit more advanced. But the first one really applies to every musician, and that is, look ahead. You probably already do this when you're reading text. Although it may feel like your eyes scan along like a camera, they actually jump forward and back constantly. looking ahead and sometimes even behind to make sense of the ongoing narrative. But when we read music, we often do read like a camera, focusing only on the note we're playing right now, when we should be looking at and mentally preparing to play what's coming up next. Start small. When you're looking at whole notes, you don't need to look at the note that you're playing right now. Look at the note that's coming up. Then, graduate to half notes, hopefully two or three at a time. Try to look a bar or two ahead. As you get better, your musical memory and pattern recognition will increase and you'll be able to look ahead further and memorize more material in more complex music. To practice this, take turns with a friend covering up a bar of music at a time as you're reading it. That way you have no choice but to look ahead, and you may find it easier than you think if you give it a try. Or if you're signed up for the Sight Reading Factory, you can use Challenge Mode and turn on disappearing bars. Then just wait an extra bar after the count-off and you'll be playing a bar that just disappeared. It's really an incredible exercise and will be a huge upgrade in your reading abilities. Tip number 14 is prioritize details. Music can be really, really detailed. And all these markings can be really important for making a piece sound beautiful and exciting. But sometimes you're just trying to survive, so you have to prioritize. Context matters and there are exceptions, but most of the time you want to prioritize rhythms, then notes, and then everything else. Most of the time, it's usually preferable to play the wrong note at the right time rather than the right note at the wrong time. If the piece is supposed to sound like this... But a couple of people play a wrong note, it's not so bad. But if even one person plays at the wrong time, it's just so much more obvious and disruptive. So do your best to play the right rhythm even if you do miss a note or two. Now for notes, if you're a wind player or a vocalist and you're worried about a section that's outside your comfortable range, keep in mind that it's usually more important to play the right letter name than the right absolute pitch. If you move a phrase or a note to a different octave, it may not be ideal, but it's probably better than missing completely and sounding terrible. If you're playing in a group and the music is really difficult, even if you're not able to execute all the notes, try to keep up reading and follow along. Because once you get past the really difficult section, you might be able to join back in. Don't give up. After rhythms and notes, there's everything else. All those little expression markings. And the truth is, if you miss some of them, it's maybe not the end of the world. It's still going to sound like the piece. But do keep your ears open and try to match style. If everyone else around you is playing short and soft and you play long and loud, you'll stick out and sound pretty bad. And speaking of prioritizing and being careful not to stick out, there may be times when it's so important not to make a mistake that you may choose not to play at all. If you're in a lesson, rehearsal, or practice session, it's not a huge deal if you make a mistake. These are the places to allow yourself to take chances. But if you're sight reading in a really critical situation, like a recording session, you might want to be cautious. because if you play badly, it can bleed into all the other mics and ruin the take for everybody. In the business, sometimes we say, when in doubt, lay out. Often it's better to just record your parts separately after the fact, and you can take a few tries if you need to. Tip number 15 is how to survive mixed meter. Mixed meter is when you see different time signatures mixed together. Sometimes it's relatively simple, and only the length of the bar changes. Other times the field changes between bars, like between duples and triplets. but it's fairly repetitive and you can adapt fairly quickly. But sometimes it's not simple at all. Mixed meter by its nature can be pretty unpredictable. But regardless of complexity, I've found the best way to survive through it is to stay in the moment and don't worry too much about context. If you're looking at music with changing bar lengths, just follow the quarter note pulse and subdivide when necessary. If you see longer notes, you might count them normally in the context of the bar, or you might just count the value of the notes themselves. It doesn't really matter that you know that this is on beats 3, 4, and 5. You just need to know that it's 3 beats long when you get to it. If you're working with compound meter, follow the underlying triplet feel and play each beat as it comes. It takes practice and concentration, but just try to stay in the moment and execute each set of notes as they come. When mixing simple and compound meter, follow the underlying eighth note pulse throughout. That's how you'll keep your place and know how long each note is. And that's true for basically any combination of time signatures. Figure out the underlying pulse and follow that. Go slow, concentrate, and as always, practice. The more you do this, the easier it gets. Number 16 is Composition and Transcription. Although this series is about reading, I think there's something to be said for figuring things out from the other side. Figuring out how to write a song that's in your head or transcribe a lick or melody can be a great exercise to understand musical notation better. These days, notation programs make it easy, because they'll play back what you write, and if you don't do it correctly, you'll hear the difference. If you don't want to invest in one of the big notation programs, they all have free versions with limited functionality. Or you can try a free open source option like MuseScore, which is pretty fully featured. Serious athletes cross-train in activities other than their main sport, and musicians can do the same with composition, transcription, and so many more things, which are all highly recommended. Tip number 17 is identify your weaknesses and work on them. Being a good musician takes honesty. We all have things we're not great at, but if you want to actually improve, you have to face your fears. Whether it's keys, clefs, or anything else, the solution is pretty simple. Read that thing a lot if you want to get used to it. You can use the sight reading factory to focus on any of those things, and the custom feature allows you to work on certain rhythms or restrict yourself to upper or lower registers and work on ledger lines. You can also challenge yourself by ramping down the difficulty but adding dynamics and articulation to make sure you're looking beyond just the notes and rhythms. If you think you've got most of those things under control, just push the tempo. Not only very fast, but try playing very slow to push the limits of your tempo control and mental focus. And of course, challenge mode with short prep time is a great option. You'll get a few seconds to study the music, and then you have to do your best to keep up with the playback. When you challenge yourself in these ways, your general reading abilities will increase substantially, and what used to be medium difficulty will feel much easier. Number 18 is Learn Movable Do Solfege. Now this might upset some people because there are actually two kinds of solfege, and many people hold strong opinions about it, usually preferring the version they learned first. Fixed Do Solfege is just another way to name notes. You can name this scale by using the letter names, or Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. It's the exact same thing with different words. C is always DO, D is always RE, and so on. Movable DO is different. These notes are always known by their letter names, but their solfege syllable changes depending what key you're in. In C major, C is DO, but if you're in a different key, like D major or E flat major, then the root note of those scales are assigned DO, and all the syllables follow afterwards. Now this is a bit more complicated, and you have to know your scales well to make it work. But with practice you start to see and hear notes as solfège syllables, and that's great because each one has a really specific sound about them in relation to the key center. You'll hear intervals better and develop relative pitch so you can transcribe and even sight-sing music without hearing it first. And this can also really help brass players and string players pitch notes better because they need to be able to hear a note in order to place it correctly on their instrument. There are even special syllables for sharps and flats, and those syllables can really help train your ear because it's an extra level of association. Each one has a specific sound in relation to the key center, and the syllables can be very helpful to help you hear and identify them. And you can even turn on solfege annotations in the sight reading factory. I highly recommend working on this. It made a huge difference to my ear training when I learned it in university, and it really increased my overall level of musicianship. Number 19 is Learn Music Theory. Many people think that music theory is about rules, and that it defines what music should and shouldn't be, but I think that's a misunderstanding. Music theory is about definitions and vocabulary. And there's probably a term for just about anything you can think of. Being able to chunk large amounts of information into a few words makes it easy to communicate efficiently with other musicians. But it also helps with sight reading, because you start to see those patterns in pieces. So you often don't need to read the individual notes, you just absorb entire passages all at once. Learning theory can feel overwhelming. but every little bit that you do absorb will make every other bit make more sense. I've done videos on most of the basics, so check my channel if there's anything you need to brush up on. Theory can be helpful with improvisation, transcription, and composition, not because theory tells you what you should do, but it can help identify sounds you might want to use in your own pieces. Tip number 20 is practice technique. We've already talked about why you should learn your scales in music theory, and technique is closely related, but it's more practical on your Technique can refer to a number of different things, but in this case what I'm talking about is learning scales and arpeggios in every permutation that you possibly can. There are a million ways you can practice a major scale, and there are so many other types of scales too. As we've discussed, so much of music is just scales and parts of scales, but they can show up in a lot of different forms. The more versions you practice, the more likely you'll be able to not only recognize them, but execute them on your instrument easily. Finally, the last tip is practice sight reading everything. Tip number one in this series was the only way to get better at sight reading is by practicing sight reading. And now at the end of this series, it still couldn't be more true, and it's time to take it to the next level. We've already covered most of the obvious ways you should challenge your reading, and how you should work on your weaknesses. But have you ever tried reading music for another instrument? Or reading in a new clef? It's an incredibly mind-bending mental workout to orient yourself around an unfamiliar clef, and there are a number of reasons why you might consider it. Clefs can be useful for transposition. Pause here if you'd like to get a sense of how that works, and check back soon for a deep dive on this topic. Speaking of which, try transposing music into a different key, either just visually by imagining the notes on a different line or space, or by thinking in solfege and moving those syllables to a different key. This is a great exercise for key fluency. Also, try reading music in different styles. Every genre has its own rhythmic, melodic, and stylistic quirks, and learning to read them can really expand your comfort zone. You can even borrow music from one of your friends who plays a different instrument and figure out how to make it work on your own. And put yourself in situations where you have to read more. Join a community band or a choir. In the jazz world, there are bands known as reading bands. They rehearse regularly and read new music every week. Jazz players tend to be really good readers because they do a lot of sight reading. We've covered a lot in this series, from the most basic fundamentals to more abstract mental hacks. Some are quicker fixes and some are long-term projects. But if you're able to put these tips into practice, you're going to read with more accuracy and confidence. Special thanks to the Sight Reading Factory for sponsoring these videos. They really are a fantastic resource for accessing fresh, new exercises to challenge your reading skills with. And the ability to customize exercises in so many different ways is fantastic. If you want to support the channel, be sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe. And even consider becoming a member of the channel here on YouTube or supporting me on Patreon. You can find links for that in the description below. Thanks for watching and happy sight reading!

The other three sections cover a number of different ideas, tips, and strategies that generally increase in complexity, but I'd argue that most of these tips apply to basically everyone, no matter your level of experience. And here's the complete list if you want an overview. Feel free to jump around if you like or watch the whole thing and go on a journey.

Time codes are in the description and timeline if you want to jump around to see any particular tip. And this series was sponsored by the Sight Reading Factory, so I'll be referring to them and their features several times throughout the video. I highly recommend them and be sure to use my code at checkout to save 10% off your first year, but all of these tips will apply to you whether you decide to sign up for their service or not.

With that, let's get started. Sight reading. What it is.

Why it's a useful skill. and the only real way to get better at it. Sight reading is the act of reading and performing a piece of written music without having prepared it ahead of time. And it may be one of the most feared topics in music, certainly commonly among beginners, but even some very accomplished musicians are repelled by the idea of sight reading.

Some people treat sight reading like a superpower that some lucky few musicians are bestowed with, a power unattainable by mere mortals. But really, it's just a skill that you can learn, practice, and develop over time with a bit of effort and routine. And it's a really useful skill, because at a fundamental level, the better you can read, the less you have to practice.

It makes sense, doesn't it? If you can't read at all, you have to learn by ear, or have someone teach you note by note, phrase by phrase. And that's fine, but that can take a while if it's a long or complicated piece.

And you'll probably experience a lot of trial and error along the way, which may not be the most efficient way to learn something. But if you can read a bit, then the trial and error part becomes optional, because the information you need to perform the music is right in front of you. You just have to learn to interpret it. And it potentially can make the process much shorter.

And if you happen to have pretty good reading skills, and the music is within your comfort level for complexity, you just read the music. Of course, there are many great musicians who don't read music at all. And exploring the value of learning by ear versus reading music is something I'd definitely like to explore another time. Though, spoiler, they're both super important and useful, often support each other, and insisting that one is inherently better or inferior is just gatekeeping.

But I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that most people who read traditional musical notation would like to read better, faster, and more accurately. So this video is a collection of tips and techniques from basic to advanced to help you learn how to sight read better. But for now we have to talk about some of the fundamental truths about sight reading, such as the fact that learning to read music is not that different from learning to read written language. At first, when you're trying to read, the process is very slow. You start with the alphabet and you sang that song every day for years when you were little.

And then you learned to read some simple words, which turned into simple sentences. Some words were difficult and you had to sound out each syllable, but you practiced and got better at reading over time until it just wasn't a big deal. When you were younger, you were reading picture books with a few hundred words. And reading a book with dozens of chapters and hundreds of pages seemed like an impossible task.

But eventually it just doesn't seem like a big deal. You just read it. Music is the same. You learn the basics and start with very simple pieces and notation, then move on to more complex music with more details and more advanced musical vocabulary. It takes a while and it takes effort, but when you practice reading, you get better at reading.

Along the way, there will be challenges, because music is like any other language in the fact that it evolved over time and has many features that are simple, logical, and consistent, but it's also riddled with special cases and exceptions. Like in English, the rule of I before E except after C. except for all the times that it doesn't, which is so, so many times. And in music, how a quarter note gets one beat, except for all the times it doesn't, which happens kind of a lot. English also has homonyms, words that sound the same but are spelled differently, or words that are spelled the same but mean different things.

And if you mix them up, it can be very confusing. Music also has things that sound the same, but are written differently because they perform different functions and work differently depending on the context. And there are also notations that look similar at first glance but are actually very different.

But even English punctuation has similar challenges. You just got used to it. Consider the comma. It can be used for a pause, contractions, another kind of pause, for quotes, quotes within quotes, or whatever is happening with proper nouns in fantasy novels. All these things were a bit tricky at first, but you got used to them over time through exposure and practice.

And to anyone who is annoyed by any of these rules and might be tempted to try to fix the system, I'll just say that a lot of these weird rules actually make things simpler in the long run, and fixing the system just tends to create far more complications than it eliminates. For instance, if you decide that C-flat is a dumb note just because it's the same as B, then you'll have to explain and remember a whole bunch of new complicated exceptions in music rather than just letting C-flat exist. Similarly, if you were trying to fix English pronunciation to make it fully phonetic, you'd have to deal with, just to start, the fact that most vowels have a whole bunch of different sounds. So you'll either have to introduce accents to show different sounds, or you'd have to decide that vowels only make one sound, which is going to cause lots of problems.

Because if all A's sound like they do in cake, then Snack Shack would sound like Snake Shake. And when your friends suggest that for dinner, you won't know if you're getting a burger and fries or a really weird protein drink. Over time, you get used to these weird inconsistencies. In fact, with practice, reading becomes not only effortless, but involuntary. You probably can't even look at text without reading it.

Go ahead and try. It's almost impossible. Your brain just automatically reads it, whether you want to or not. The reason reading is so easy is that we practice reading all the time.

It's just such an efficient way to transmit information that it's just everywhere and you get great at reading. If you're going to give a speech, you might practice and prepare. But that's probably more to do with the performance itself, making sure that you have good cadence, flow, and pacing, rather than any real concerns about reading the words. And actually, actors and public speakers have their own version of sight reading. They call it cold reading.

They practice this because they don't want to just say the words correctly. they want to learn to emote and even find the best words and phrases to emphasize from a cold read. The goal is to learn to anticipate the cadence of a text and make a convincing performance even though they've never read this passage before.

And that's what we want. We want to read music effortlessly and even with the ability to add emotion and expression in the moment the very first time. So if you want to get good at sight reading, you have to practice sight reading.

It's so obvious that I think people actually forget it sometimes. But if you want to get good at reading music that you've never read before, you have to practice reading music that you've never read before. The truth is, many people don't make this a priority.

They practice repertoire and technique, but rarely sight reading, and it remains an underdeveloped skill. Of course, it's important to choose material that's of appropriate difficulty. You wouldn't start a toddler off with Shakespeare, but it's a pretty common assignment for teenagers. To pick music that's good for sight reading, think about what your personal sight reading comfort zone is as far as keys, notes, range, and rhythms. and try to find new music to sight read that's right in that pocket.

It should be what you personally consider to be of medium difficulty and will require you to focus and be mentally engaged. You probably shouldn't bother spending much time on music that's too easy because you won't be challenged and you'll get bored. And while it can be good to push yourself to the limit of your abilities, going too far beyond them with really difficult music isn't really sight reading.

Sight reading is all about reading and playing now. Maybe not absolutely perfectly, but with as much flow and forward motion as you can manage. So do it. Do it often. Do it every time you practice.

Make it a habit. But the big question is, how do you find music that's at the right level and plentiful enough so you always have new, fresh music to sight-read? There are a few places. You can find etude books online, at your local music store, or maybe even your local library. You can trade books with friends or borrow from a teacher.

And hymnals, method books, and jazz fake books will also have large amounts of repertoire to explore. But also there are software tools just for this purpose. And one of the best, most ridiculously useful tools is the sight reading factory.

I used the site to practice sight reading long before I even had a YouTube channel and I still use it because it's really pretty great. This site creates new music to practice sight reading for any instrument, even choirs, bands, and orchestras in harmony or in unison, instantly, infinitely, at the push of a button. There are several levels of difficulty suitable for every level of musician and tons of ways to customize beyond that. Lower levels have simpler rhythms, smaller range, and smaller leaps between notes. As you progress, you'll see more complex material.

If you're not sure what level you're at, try a few and see what feels right. Once you're signed up, you can create as many exercises as you like. It's not like buying a book and then realizing the material is too easy or too hard. With the Sight Reading Factory, it's easy to find your personal sight reading comfort zone and begin to push beyond it. If you want the metronome on, it's here, and feel free to adjust the speed.

If you want to hear the starting note before you begin, use this button. There's also playback if you want to hear the exercise before you try it or listen back and see how you did, or even play along with it. If you want longer or shorter exercises, you can do that too.

And you can turn on several different kinds of annotations if you find that helpful. If you want to focus on just one time signature or a selection of a few, or go full random, you can do that. If you want to work on one key or a few, or just the major keys or just the minor keys, or challenge yourself with all of them, you can do that as well. You can also get really granular if you want to go to custom mode.

This will allow you to choose what types of rhythms and rests are included. You can also include articulations, dynamics, syncopations, what specific range you want, and what maximum leaps you want. At first, you'll probably just read slowly. Work through the exercises at your own pace, and teach yourself to get used to reading new music on a regular basis. That's called Free Play Mode.

But Challenge Mode is much more like sight reading in the real world. You have some time to study the music, and then it just starts playing and you have to keep up. And if you make an error, you just have to recover and continue.

It can be difficult at first, but it's an amazing exercise. And if you're a teacher, there are a number of features like classes, assignments, and even live practice mode. that will create separate transposed parts for each student and push them directly to their personal devices live. So you can practice sight reading together as a class.

And you can do this in unison or in harmony. If you want to get better at sight reading, you have to practice sight reading. And one of the best places to get new music to do that is the sight reading factory. If you want to give them a try, be sure to use my discount code for 10% off your first year. As the series progresses, we'll get into increasingly advanced concepts.

But part two is mostly about the basics. The value of which should not be underestimated, because if you want to be a good reader, developing these basic skills is really not optional. The first thing to tackle in learning to sight read is making sure you've got a strong grasp of note naming and fingerings on your instrument. It doesn't matter if you're reading music that's basic, intermediate, or advanced.

The rules for knowing what note you have to play are the same, and actually pretty simple. If you need a quick review, here are the basic rules of note naming. Feel free to pause and screenshot if you want to keep this as a reference. But if you're new to reading music or have struggled with note naming, I did two full videos on the subject, both linked in the description, and you should definitely start there. If you understand these rules, you should be able to name any note in any piece of music, whether it's on the staff or placed a million ledger lines away.

It might be a bit tedious at first, but it's not exactly complicated. The rules are the same. The Sight Reading Factory actually has a feature to turn on annotations for note naming. Just click on Settings, add note names, and load a new exercise. Many people find this helpful when learning to read sheet music.

It can act as a fail-safe to make sure that you're playing the right notes. Or some people like to pencil in all the letter names for each note when they get a new piece of music. Though while this can be a great exercise to practice note naming, I really recommend teaching yourself to read notes without added letter names. For one, it's a whole extra step you have to go through when you get a new piece of music, rather than just learning to read the notes, which is the whole point.

You're also likely to miss a lot of other details like rhythm and expression. Because you're focusing on reading penciled-in note names, all the other information seems to just fade away. And if you accidentally mislabel a note, you might never realize it because you're not actually reading the notes.

And even if you do put the right letter names in, it doesn't even tell you which octave to play in, or if a note goes up or down. So actually reading the notes really matters. Just like learning to read language, note naming can be slow at first, but you'll get better with practice and probably not even think about it after a while. It just becomes natural and automatic.

Of course, after you've figured out note naming, you've got to know how to actually play those notes on your instrument. Many people find it useful to keep a reference handy. That could be a labeled piano keyboard, a fretboard diagram, or a fingering chart. You've probably got one in your method book, but you can also find them online for free.

Eventually you'll memorize all your notes and fingerings, but until you do, keep these references close by while you're practicing. Tip number three is understand the fundamentals of reading and counting rhythms. In my experience, new musicians are often known to say, I'm not good at sight reading. I need to hear the piece first so I know how it goes, then I can play it. Now, if you're a vocalist, this might be a fair thing to say.

But for an instrumentalist, not so much. Because in my experience, they're not talking about trouble reading the notes, they're talking about trouble reading the rhythm. Most people don't put up too much of a fuss about learning to read notes.

But for some reason, rhythm is usually a much bigger struggle. And people are often very hesitant to work on learning to read and count rhythms. But it's crucial to being able to read music at all, let alone sight read.

I did three separate videos as a deep dive on rhythms that you might want to take a look at if you're new to this or have struggled with these topics in the past. But let's take a quick look at the basics, including a system of rhythmic notation and a method of counting that can make it much easier to read and understand rhythms, so you can figure them out on your own without having to hear them first. We always count notes for the beat that they fall on in the bar. A bar of quarter notes isn't 1-1-1-1, it's 1-2-3-4.

And if a note is longer than a beat, like half notes or whole notes, we tie the numbers together. For rests, the rules are the same, but sometimes we put parentheses around the affected beats. If you're subdividing the beat into eighth notes, we count 1-and, 2-and, 3-and, 4-and, and use a plus sign for the ands. And if you're subdividing into sixteenth notes, it's a bit weird, but many people count them as 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, and so on. All of these rhythms and rests can be put together in basically any combination.

It can get a bit complicated, and I know a few of you are getting a bit overwhelmed, but please, don't panic. Learning to count rhythms takes practice, but if you're working on music that's appropriate to your level, it should be challenging, not overwhelming. If you're on level 1 of reading, work towards level 2. And don't worry too much about what's on level 42. When you get there, you'll be ready to start. That being said, when you see a rhythm like this, start by figuring out the counting. You might say 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, and 2, e, and, da, 3, and 4, which is not in time, but it is the correct counting.

Then work towards keeping a consistent pulse and fitting the rhythms between the beats. Something like 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, and 2, e, and, da, 3, and 4. After a couple of tries you'll probably have it figured out. This kind of notation and counting can be really useful for dotted or syncopated rhythms, which many people find challenging. For one, if you know where the beats fall, it helps you to know whether to place the notes on or off the beat. So if I'm counting dotted quarters out loud, I usually say the second beat sort of under my breath, something like one, two, and three, four, and one, two, and three, four.

For syncopated rhythms, after you figure out the counting, you might not even say every downbeat and just focus on when the notes actually start on the upbeats. For example, 1 and, and 3 and 4, 1. 2 and, and 4, 1 and, and 3, 4. Again, this can be tricky at first, but I promise it gets better with a bit of practice. You can learn to sound out rhythms just like you sound out unfamiliar words. One great way to practice reading rhythms is the Rhythm Only feature on the Sight Reading Factory.

Start with the lower levels to build your confidence and then work your way up to the higher levels. And feel free to turn on the metronome, adjust the tempo, or turn on playback if you want to hear the rhythm or clap or play along with it. Struggles with rhythm reading are a huge detriment to being able to read, so make rhythm practice and understanding a priority.

Next up is tip number four. Just remember A, B, C. Always be counting. This is different from the ability to count and interpret rhythms themselves. In this case, always be counting means to be able to feel and lock into the pulse of the music, knowing where the downbeat of each bar is, and being able to count along in tempo.

Your internal metronome should always be active when playing or listening to music. It may be nearly subconscious, as if there's a track playing with the volume all the way down. But you also need to be able to turn the volume up and actively count in your inner monologue while playing or resting.

Without this ability, you may find yourself getting lost or making errors on really easy material. For example, almost anyone with basic knowledge of music notation can look at this passage and tell you all the note names and explain all the rhythms and the rests. But I find even good musicians sometimes struggle with relatively simple music because they aren't counting.

They might start off okay, but then turn these half notes into quarters, hold this note for, you know, a while, get lost in the rest, and come back in just whenever they think sounds right, and then have no idea how to manage this tie, all because they haven't been counting. Some people are very resistant to this concept. They don't want to count. They just don't think they need to.

They just like to listen and play what feels right. And there's no doubt, there's a time to turn off your brain and just play. When you're jamming and improvising, just listen and play what feels right and sounds good.

But if you're playing a specific composition with other people who are also reading, not only is there an objectively right answer, you're going to throw the others in the band off if you're just doing your own thing and that's not being a good bandmate. So don't guess, count. Feeling is good. but counting and knowing is even better.

Now, if you want to count, but struggle to turn on that inner monologue, here's a few things you might find helpful. Start by just trying to be aware of the beat while listening to music. Listen to the drums and the bass.

Clap along with the beat and tap your foot. Next, notice the cycle of strong and weak beats. Notice that most music has four beats per bar and be aware of that strong pull to beat one. And of course a metronome can be a very useful tool when practicing.

But many people have trouble staying in time with the metronome and drift away from the beat. If the music is too challenging, you may find your ability to listen and lock into the metronome is compromised. So try ramping the difficulty way down so you can focus on counting and staying in time. Count out loud if you can.

Wind players should make sure they're actively counting in their head. If you're still having trouble, try counting out loud while you listen to a friend play the piece. Then ask them to do the same for you. Then play again just counting in your head.

These exercises can be really useful to turn on your internal metronome. Sometimes music is hard, but sometimes it really isn't. Don't let easy music beat you by not counting. Focus, count carefully, and execute the notation. A, B, C. Always be counting.

Next up, tip number five is inspect the piece ahead of time. When you get a new piece of music, before you even begin to examine the notes and rhythms, you want to scan it top to bottom and get a broad lay of the land sort of overview of the piece, while searching for and taking note of a number of different details. And a ton of those details are in the upper left section of the page right here. The time signature is going to tell you how many beats are in a bar and what note value you're counting.

Next, take note of the key signature. What notes are sharp or flat in this piece? If you miss this detail, you're going to be playing an awful lot of wrong notes. We'll check the clef as well. Some instruments play in more than one.

Above that you may see tempo and style markings. A few words here can tell you a lot about the sound and feel of the piece, and it might inform your stylistic and expressive choices quite a lot. And to never assume the obvious, make sure that the part you have is for the correct instrument.

Next we zoom out and look for other big details. Are there any changes in key or time signature? Any markings to indicate changes in style or tempo?

And we also want to make sure we understand what many musicians call the roadmap. By that we mean any repeats or directional markings like first and second endings, second time only, or things like da capo and coda markings. You want to check these out before you start playing so you don't get lost in the middle of a piece. Next, start looking at the finer details. Not every note in rhythm, but look for notes that you may not be familiar with because they're very high or very low or have accidentals that you're not used to.

You might have to look up a fingering or two. All the while, you're also looking out for any notations, symbols, or words that you don't know. You can either look them up or ask somebody what it means. You may also want to keep an eye out for extreme dynamics. And some musicians need to be mindful of instrument changes, mutes, or other special techniques.

If you're sitting in a section with several people who play your instrument and there's a solo, decide who's going to play it. Finally, after you're done all the housekeeping of all those high-level details is when tip number six comes into play. Find the hardest parts of the piece and begin to prepare for them.

If you're playing a piece that's appropriately difficult for you, you shouldn't be overwhelmed by the majority of notes and rhythms. But you will probably notice that many pieces have two or three sections that are actually challenging and the rest isn't really too bad. In the moments before you sight-read a piece, don't waste your time and attention on the simple parts.

Look for the hard stuff and spend a few moments working through it mentally or even quietly practicing if that's possible. Try to figure out the counting for odd rhythms or work out awkward fingerings. You could also consider making use of the pencil to prepare your music ahead of time.

You might label unfamiliar notes, write in counting or mark downbeats to make rhythms easier to understand. or mark down certain accidentals and just generally increase the chances that you don't miss any of those details that we just took note of. There are actually a number of ways that you can use the pencil to increase your reading skills. I truly consider it a secret weapon that many musicians underuse, but we'll get to that in a bit more detail later on in tip number nine.

For now, tip number seven is subdivide rhythms and counting. Previously we talked about how your inner monologue should always be counting along with the beat so you know how to manage rhythms and rests. If you don't, you're going to get lost a lot and make errors on pretty simple music.

But even if you are counting and you know exactly when to come in, it can still be difficult to execute certain rhythms correctly. Subdivision can be key in preparing yourself to execute upcoming rhythms. Let's say you're counting a rest and there's a bar coming up with eighth notes.

If you can just get started, you'll probably be okay. So instead of just counting the beat and then you're in and good luck, you might count eighth notes in the rest. One and two and three and four and...

And this works equally well for other subdivisions. For 16ths, you could count the whole bar ahead in 16ths, or maybe just the last beat or two. One, two, three-ee-anda, four-ee-anda. And the same thing with triplets. One, two, three-anda, four-anda.

Pickup beats can be especially confusing for some people. But subdividing can really increase your confidence about when to come in. Like coming in on an eighth note pickup.

One and two and three and four. Or multiple eighth notes. One and two and three.

Coming in on the fourth sixteenth of beat three might be pretty intimidating for some people, but it's a lot easier if you know how to subdivide into sixteenths. 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and. Subdivision can be incredibly useful for mentally preparing to play a rhythm, and it's a great habit to look ahead during rests and figure out what subdivision you should be thinking and counting. Use the custom feature of the Sight Reading Factory to focus on specific rhythms and subdivisions. And you can even turn on the metronome with subdivisions if you like.

You should always be counting when you're playing music, but subdividing really brings this to the next level. and it can be a huge upgrade to your sight reading abilities. Next up is learn your scales. There are a lot of benefits to learning your scales. I did a whole video about how learning major scales gives you superpowers, and sight reading is definitely among them.

First, if you're playing a piece in the key of C major, that means that the white keys, the natural notes, are likely to be used probably quite a lot. And the black keys, the sharps and flats, are probably going to be used pretty rarely, if at all. This is really useful knowledge, because your brain and fingers learn that they should only be playing these notes. and only even need to think about the others if a sharp or flat shows up in the music.

And of course, if the piece is in a different key, you're just dealing with a different combination of notes, where some are really likely to show up and others not so much. The other thing that you'll begin to notice is that a lot of music is just scales and parts of scales anyway. The better you know your scales, the more often you'll see patterns and make connections. You won't have to read and play individual notes, you'll just play the scale that you already know.

There are lots of different kinds of scales, but start with major scales. Learning them all can seem like a big project, but start with the easier ones and then build from there. It really doesn't even take that long if you have a halfway decent practice routine.

In fact, I have a method to learn all your scales in just 24 hours. Check the description for links to that project. You can use the Sight Reading Factory to focus on reading in one key or a few. or challenge yourself with full random and see if you can find any holes in your abilities that you need to patch.

The payoffs to learning your scales, especially major scales, are really huge and I promise you won't regret learning them. Next, this is a big one and it could really transform you as a musician, and that is use your pencil. Learning a new piece of sheet music always begins with sight reading, but that's usually only one step along the way to learning and performing a piece. You might even learn the piece well enough that the sheet music is mostly just a reminder of what to play.

But before that point, you're probably still in the reading phase. Now, whether you're a new musician who will have many practices before a concert, or a more advanced musician who might only have a short amount of time to prepare music, if you have at least one practice session before a performance, you have a huge opportunity to find the traps in a piece and prepare your music with pencil markings to help avoid those traps during the performance. A good musician will not squander this opportunity.

A good musician does not underestimate the power of the pencil. My general guideline is, If you make a mistake, consider writing something in so you don't make the same mistake again. If you do make the same mistake again, definitely write something in.

And if you're making a million mistakes, ask yourself if you're just going too quickly, or if this piece is just too difficult for you right now. The first thing to consider is note accuracy. Did you miss the key signature? Or how about a key signature change? Circle it.

Maybe write the name of the key beside it. Did you miss any notes affected by the key signature? Mark them in.

Did you miss an accidental that lasts for the whole bar? Did you remember that it cancels at the bar line? If you see an unfamiliar note, or even if you have trouble reading it because of a bad scan or photocopy, darken it and maybe mark the letter name in. These are all easy fixes.

Don't hope you'll get it right the next time. Make sure of it. Mark it in. You might write in the counting of a tricky rhythm. Or, with syncopated rhythms, I often find it's enough just to stroke in where the beats are.

I'll even do the same thing on simple rhythms sometimes. If I somehow miscount a half note or a whole note, I definitely don't want to do that again. Mark it in.

Did you miss a rest? Circle it. Sometimes we call playing in a rest, stepping in the hole. Don't step in the hole.

Did you zone out or get confused during a long rest? Write in the word count to help you remember to pay attention next time. Seriously, it works.

You might even write cues for yourself during long rests to make sure that you're always confident about where you are in the piece. Don't let simple things beat you. Let the pencil save you. You can also use the pencil to help remind you about all kinds of other markings and make them more obvious, like dynamics or articulations.

If you have a repeated section, it can get really confusing. So I'll often write numbers above the bars to make it easier to follow. I'll just memorize one bar and then play it however many times are indicated. And I don't know if this is a thing that's just local to Toronto, but I know lots of people like to draw little eyeglasses on sections that are tricky or surprising or just need a bit of extra attention.

And if there are jumps around the page for codas and signs, you might want to add markings so that you don't get lost. Not to mention quick page turns. And there are probably a million other things that might be specific to your instrument.

I definitely have my own as a trumpet player. Your teacher will probably have some suggestions about this, and you'll surely figure some for yourself out along the way. The main idea of this tip is to make sure that easily solvable problems get solved ASAP.

Don't just hope to avoid these silly little mistakes the next time. Make sure of it. And one note on etiquette, if you're using original sheet music, always use a pencil rather than a pen. Not only might things change or you might make a mistake, but the owner of the music might not appreciate permanent marks on their music.

Next up is, don't get lost. and know how to recover if you do. Sight reading takes a lot of concentration. You have to be mentally focused, present, and purposeful.

But the amount of information and the speed it comes at you can be really overwhelming, and it can be easy to get lost in the music. So don't get lost is easier said than done. But there are tactics. The first thing to consider is if you're playing alone or with other musicians, because they're pretty different situations. If you're on your own, you don't need to worry about syncing up with anyone else.

So just go at whatever speed you can handle and read note by note. moment by moment. If you have to slow down, it really doesn't matter. Just read each note and play it. Notice that smaller subdivisions are grouped together, which makes it easier to visually keep your place.

And even if you're looking at a section that's really dense with notes, notice that the groupings can help you keep your place while you focus on playing one note at a time. If you're playing music where you have to coordinate two things at once, like two hands on a piano, imagine a vertical line scanning along the music. That line shows exactly what happens next, moment by moment.

It may take a while to get up to speed and have a sense of flow, but so what, you're just reading. Pause when you have to and continue when you're ready. If you do get lost, don't go all the way back to the beginning of the piece. Just find the last spot where you weren't lost and proceed more carefully this time.

It's much more important to figure out how to get through the difficult part than it is to play those easy bars again. If you're playing with an ensemble, it's a bit different, because if you stop, the band will continue without you. But fortunately, your fellow musicians might be able to help you if you do get lost. The simplest solution is just to lean over and discreetly ask, Psst, where are we?

Hopefully they'll be able to tell you. And you can always look up at your conductor with pleading eyes, and they'll likely understand that you're lost and might be able to yell or mouth a bar number at you. And remember that music is often imbued with big sections where changes in form or melody are fairly obvious.

You might be able to hear or feel the end of a phrase coming up, and watch out for big obvious changes in style, like from long and lyrical notes to short and staccato, to rests punctuated with shot notes. If you're listening to the ensemble around you, it should be pretty obvious when those changes happen, and those are usually good moments to jump back in. And actually, listening is so important that it really deserves its own tip.

Listen, and it works in a few different ways. For one, listen to see if your part shows up in other parts before you have to play it. If you see this section and you think it's a pretty tough rhythm, but the band starts playing before you, and you hear someone else playing something that seems like that might be it, that's a freebie, because they just showed you how your part goes. Maybe you can return the favor for them on another phrase.

And always listen to see if your part fits with what everyone else is playing, either in your section or the whole ensemble. If it doesn't seem to fit, you might be in the wrong spot or have something mixed up. Stop and listen and try to figure out where you are. and where you're actually supposed to be, and then jump back in as soon as you're ready. And aside from listening in rehearsal, listen to lots of music, just in general, as much as possible, especially related to the kinds of music you want to play.

If you're presented with music for a piece that you've already listened to, the reading is usually a lot easier because you already know what the piece is supposed to sound like. And there are some things that might look a little bit weird on the page, but if you've heard them before, you're more likely to recognize them when you do. So fill your ears as much as possible.

Passive listening is almost as good as active listening, so try to get in the habit of putting on music as much as you can. Tip number 12 is practice staying in performance mode. When you're playing music, you can either be in practice mode or performance mode, and I think it's important to be aware of which mode you're in and what to do about it. When you're in practice mode, you're allowed to start, stop, pause, review, and retry, and that's all fine because you're just practicing. You're just trying to learn the piece and figure out how it goes.

But performance mode is different, because the goal is to avoid pauses and hesitations and to get through the piece, start to finish, in one unbroken attempt. Even if you make a mistake, you have to keep going with as little interruption as possible, because nothing saps the energy from a performance more than stopping and going back and trying a tricky section a few times. This doesn't come naturally to most people. Most people have to practice staying in performance mode.

When you're sight reading alone, you may start out in performance mode, but quickly fall out of it because you just can't resist fixing that little mistake you just made. Try sight reading with a friend or your teacher. If either of you make any mistakes, they probably won't be the same ones at the same time, and the other person will just move on without you.

You have to learn to recover quickly and keep up. Now, I usually call this performance mode, but on the Sight Reading Factory, they actually call it challenge mode, and it's a great feature. This means you'll have a certain amount of time to study the piece, and then it counts in and just starts playing, and you have to keep up because playback is not going to stop for you. It's just like sight reading in the real world with a band.

You can even turn on a feature that makes bars disappear after they've played. With this feature on, you really have no choice but to move on. It's a really great way to practice staying in Performance Mode. This final installment includes a few tips that I'd consider to be a bit more advanced.

But the first one really applies to every musician, and that is, look ahead. You probably already do this when you're reading text. Although it may feel like your eyes scan along like a camera, they actually jump forward and back constantly. looking ahead and sometimes even behind to make sense of the ongoing narrative.

But when we read music, we often do read like a camera, focusing only on the note we're playing right now, when we should be looking at and mentally preparing to play what's coming up next. Start small. When you're looking at whole notes, you don't need to look at the note that you're playing right now. Look at the note that's coming up. Then, graduate to half notes, hopefully two or three at a time.

Try to look a bar or two ahead. As you get better, your musical memory and pattern recognition will increase and you'll be able to look ahead further and memorize more material in more complex music. To practice this, take turns with a friend covering up a bar of music at a time as you're reading it.

That way you have no choice but to look ahead, and you may find it easier than you think if you give it a try. Or if you're signed up for the Sight Reading Factory, you can use Challenge Mode and turn on disappearing bars. Then just wait an extra bar after the count-off and you'll be playing a bar that just disappeared.

It's really an incredible exercise and will be a huge upgrade in your reading abilities. Tip number 14 is prioritize details. Music can be really, really detailed.

And all these markings can be really important for making a piece sound beautiful and exciting. But sometimes you're just trying to survive, so you have to prioritize. Context matters and there are exceptions, but most of the time you want to prioritize rhythms, then notes, and then everything else. Most of the time, it's usually preferable to play the wrong note at the right time rather than the right note at the wrong time. If the piece is supposed to sound like this...

But a couple of people play a wrong note, it's not so bad. But if even one person plays at the wrong time, it's just so much more obvious and disruptive. So do your best to play the right rhythm even if you do miss a note or two.

Now for notes, if you're a wind player or a vocalist and you're worried about a section that's outside your comfortable range, keep in mind that it's usually more important to play the right letter name than the right absolute pitch. If you move a phrase or a note to a different octave, it may not be ideal, but it's probably better than missing completely and sounding terrible. If you're playing in a group and the music is really difficult, even if you're not able to execute all the notes, try to keep up reading and follow along. Because once you get past the really difficult section, you might be able to join back in. Don't give up.

After rhythms and notes, there's everything else. All those little expression markings. And the truth is, if you miss some of them, it's maybe not the end of the world. It's still going to sound like the piece. But do keep your ears open and try to match style.

If everyone else around you is playing short and soft and you play long and loud, you'll stick out and sound pretty bad. And speaking of prioritizing and being careful not to stick out, there may be times when it's so important not to make a mistake that you may choose not to play at all. If you're in a lesson, rehearsal, or practice session, it's not a huge deal if you make a mistake.

These are the places to allow yourself to take chances. But if you're sight reading in a really critical situation, like a recording session, you might want to be cautious. because if you play badly, it can bleed into all the other mics and ruin the take for everybody.

In the business, sometimes we say, when in doubt, lay out. Often it's better to just record your parts separately after the fact, and you can take a few tries if you need to. Tip number 15 is how to survive mixed meter.

Mixed meter is when you see different time signatures mixed together. Sometimes it's relatively simple, and only the length of the bar changes. Other times the field changes between bars, like between duples and triplets.

but it's fairly repetitive and you can adapt fairly quickly. But sometimes it's not simple at all. Mixed meter by its nature can be pretty unpredictable.

But regardless of complexity, I've found the best way to survive through it is to stay in the moment and don't worry too much about context. If you're looking at music with changing bar lengths, just follow the quarter note pulse and subdivide when necessary. If you see longer notes, you might count them normally in the context of the bar, or you might just count the value of the notes themselves.

It doesn't really matter that you know that this is on beats 3, 4, and 5. You just need to know that it's 3 beats long when you get to it. If you're working with compound meter, follow the underlying triplet feel and play each beat as it comes. It takes practice and concentration, but just try to stay in the moment and execute each set of notes as they come. When mixing simple and compound meter, follow the underlying eighth note pulse throughout.

That's how you'll keep your place and know how long each note is. And that's true for basically any combination of time signatures. Figure out the underlying pulse and follow that.

Go slow, concentrate, and as always, practice. The more you do this, the easier it gets. Number 16 is Composition and Transcription.

Although this series is about reading, I think there's something to be said for figuring things out from the other side. Figuring out how to write a song that's in your head or transcribe a lick or melody can be a great exercise to understand musical notation better. These days, notation programs make it easy, because they'll play back what you write, and if you don't do it correctly, you'll hear the difference.

If you don't want to invest in one of the big notation programs, they all have free versions with limited functionality. Or you can try a free open source option like MuseScore, which is pretty fully featured. Serious athletes cross-train in activities other than their main sport, and musicians can do the same with composition, transcription, and so many more things, which are all highly recommended.

Tip number 17 is identify your weaknesses and work on them. Being a good musician takes honesty. We all have things we're not great at, but if you want to actually improve, you have to face your fears. Whether it's keys, clefs, or anything else, the solution is pretty simple.

Read that thing a lot if you want to get used to it. You can use the sight reading factory to focus on any of those things, and the custom feature allows you to work on certain rhythms or restrict yourself to upper or lower registers and work on ledger lines. You can also challenge yourself by ramping down the difficulty but adding dynamics and articulation to make sure you're looking beyond just the notes and rhythms.

If you think you've got most of those things under control, just push the tempo. Not only very fast, but try playing very slow to push the limits of your tempo control and mental focus. And of course, challenge mode with short prep time is a great option. You'll get a few seconds to study the music, and then you have to do your best to keep up with the playback.

When you challenge yourself in these ways, your general reading abilities will increase substantially, and what used to be medium difficulty will feel much easier. Number 18 is Learn Movable Do Solfege. Now this might upset some people because there are actually two kinds of solfege, and many people hold strong opinions about it, usually preferring the version they learned first. Fixed Do Solfege is just another way to name notes. You can name this scale by using the letter names, or Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.

It's the exact same thing with different words. C is always DO, D is always RE, and so on. Movable DO is different. These notes are always known by their letter names, but their solfege syllable changes depending what key you're in. In C major, C is DO, but if you're in a different key, like D major or E flat major, then the root note of those scales are assigned DO, and all the syllables follow afterwards.

Now this is a bit more complicated, and you have to know your scales well to make it work. But with practice you start to see and hear notes as solfège syllables, and that's great because each one has a really specific sound about them in relation to the key center. You'll hear intervals better and develop relative pitch so you can transcribe and even sight-sing music without hearing it first. And this can also really help brass players and string players pitch notes better because they need to be able to hear a note in order to place it correctly on their instrument. There are even special syllables for sharps and flats, and those syllables can really help train your ear because it's an extra level of association.

Each one has a specific sound in relation to the key center, and the syllables can be very helpful to help you hear and identify them. And you can even turn on solfege annotations in the sight reading factory. I highly recommend working on this.

It made a huge difference to my ear training when I learned it in university, and it really increased my overall level of musicianship. Number 19 is Learn Music Theory. Many people think that music theory is about rules, and that it defines what music should and shouldn't be, but I think that's a misunderstanding. Music theory is about definitions and vocabulary.

And there's probably a term for just about anything you can think of. Being able to chunk large amounts of information into a few words makes it easy to communicate efficiently with other musicians. But it also helps with sight reading, because you start to see those patterns in pieces. So you often don't need to read the individual notes, you just absorb entire passages all at once. Learning theory can feel overwhelming.

but every little bit that you do absorb will make every other bit make more sense. I've done videos on most of the basics, so check my channel if there's anything you need to brush up on. Theory can be helpful with improvisation, transcription, and composition, not because theory tells you what you should do, but it can help identify sounds you might want to use in your own pieces. Tip number 20 is practice technique. We've already talked about why you should learn your scales in music theory, and technique is closely related, but it's more practical on your Technique can refer to a number of different things, but in this case what I'm talking about is learning scales and arpeggios in every permutation that you possibly can.

There are a million ways you can practice a major scale, and there are so many other types of scales too. As we've discussed, so much of music is just scales and parts of scales, but they can show up in a lot of different forms. The more versions you practice, the more likely you'll be able to not only recognize them, but execute them on your instrument easily. Finally, the last tip is practice sight reading everything. Tip number one in this series was the only way to get better at sight reading is by practicing sight reading.

And now at the end of this series, it still couldn't be more true, and it's time to take it to the next level. We've already covered most of the obvious ways you should challenge your reading, and how you should work on your weaknesses. But have you ever tried reading music for another instrument? Or reading in a new clef? It's an incredibly mind-bending mental workout to orient yourself around an unfamiliar clef, and there are a number of reasons why you might consider it.

Clefs can be useful for transposition. Pause here if you'd like to get a sense of how that works, and check back soon for a deep dive on this topic. Speaking of which, try transposing music into a different key, either just visually by imagining the notes on a different line or space, or by thinking in solfege and moving those syllables to a different key. This is a great exercise for key fluency. Also, try reading music in different styles.

Every genre has its own rhythmic, melodic, and stylistic quirks, and learning to read them can really expand your comfort zone. You can even borrow music from one of your friends who plays a different instrument and figure out how to make it work on your own. And put yourself in situations where you have to read more.

Join a community band or a choir. In the jazz world, there are bands known as reading bands. They rehearse regularly and read new music every week.

Jazz players tend to be really good readers because they do a lot of sight reading. We've covered a lot in this series, from the most basic fundamentals to more abstract mental hacks. Some are quicker fixes and some are long-term projects.

But if you're able to put these tips into practice, you're going to read with more accuracy and confidence. Special thanks to the Sight Reading Factory for sponsoring these videos. They really are a fantastic resource for accessing fresh, new exercises to challenge your reading skills with. And the ability to customize exercises in so many different ways is fantastic.

If you want to support the channel, be sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe. And even consider becoming a member of the channel here on YouTube or supporting me on Patreon. You can find links for that in the description below. Thanks for watching and happy sight reading!

Transcript for:Effective Strategies for Sight Reading Music

Transcript for:
Effective Strategies for Sight Reading Music