As was mentioned in the previous two installments of the fundamentals series, for this one I actually split up what was originally just one item on the list of fundamentals in the Douglas Hill book. His wording is:
18. Sight reading: bass clef, “old notation bass clef,” key signature, varied styles and periods, meter changes, complex rhythms.
Which is also to explain also why I split it up into three articles, as the topics of reading bass clef and key signatures are certainly foundational. And yes, sight reading in bass clef and with key signatures is part of the skill too, but the basic topic of sight reading is an important and separate fundamental as well.
I’m not a big fan of sight reading
A personal aside. One of the things I most liked about playing Third Horn in the Nashville Symphony was that, on that job at least, I never needed to sight read! There was a guarantee in the master agreement that we would have music available to us 21 days in advance. I certainly took advantage of that! Always one of my least favorite things to do is sight read on a gig. We all need to get as good as we can with this skill.
How do I improve sight reading?
Back a few years ago I posted a longer article on this very topic:
Within that article, I most like the tactics put forth by hornist Nicholas Perrini in Develop Accuracy Through Sightreading. And who does not want to improve accuracy! From my earlier article,
I recently got it back out and was interested to see the tactics he presents. The central one involves scanning in general and more specifically “a triangular motion at the beginning of each etude” where you start a ways in (at the first logical breathing point), then look back to any markings at the top of the beginning of the etude, then down to the bottom of the opening, and finally track back over the music to the first breathing point. With the idea that you study the beginning a bit and skim over the rest of the work looking at:
- Key signature(s)
- Time signature(s)
- Tempo (Phrases)
- Breathing places
- Dynamics and articulation
- Accidentals or other unusual notations
Perrini explains this tactic further in his text, which also contains 39 etudes suited to sight-reading practice.
For sure it is a fundamental we all need to improve! As to the various specifics in the title of this article, it all gets better with practice, you just have to work on it with some tactics in mind, as suggested in the longer article.
Update: For a podcast on the topic of this and the previous three posts in this series see Episode 65 of the Horn Notes Podcast (direct link, but find it anywhere you get podcasts).
When the series continues, the topic is vibrato.
Continue reading the Fundamentals Series
