Learning to sight read

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
A few ppl have been telling me I best learn to sight read so I think I'm gonna start making a little effort.

I studied classical theory and piano growing up but I never was that great at reading. I can do it but it's a bit slow and frustrating.

I thought about guitar hero, and a maths game I used to play and thought, surely there's a program that can help?
 
Rock Band helped me a lot. A lot of it, I think, is just raw experience- having your brain learn to recognize common patterns. Rock Band helps you recognize what a lot of patterns look like (even though it's not an exactly allegory to sheet music) so I'd start with some complicated songs there.
 
Rock Band helped me a lot. A lot of it, I think, is just raw experience- having your brain learn to recognize common patterns. Rock Band helps you recognize what a lot of patterns look like (even though it's not an exactly allegory to sheet music) so I'd start with some complicated songs there.

I would skip this entirely and buy a beginner snare drum book, then move to drum set or multi percussion books.
 
A few ppl have been telling me I best learn to sight read so I think I'm gonna start making a little effort.

I studied classical theory and piano growing up but I never was that great at reading. I can do it but it's a bit slow and frustrating.

I thought about guitar hero, and a maths game I used to play and thought, surely there's a program that can help?


IMO sight-reading is just a volume game. Just do it alot and you'll be golden. :)


Cheers
 
reading jazz charts for class helped me get better at sight reading.

one of my professors has this on his office door lol

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Does rockband have notation?

Topgun I have a couple of books but I like the idea of something interactive, or something that instantly tells me whether I'm right or wrong. I think it would help me learn alot faster.
 
Does rockband have notation?

Topgun I have a couple of books but I like the idea of something interactive, or something that instantly tells me whether I'm right or wrong. I think it would help me learn alot faster.

Metronome. Lessons.

When I was a little kid taking piano lessons, my teacher had a computer game that taught the notes. I have no idea what it was, but it exists out there.
 
Here you go.

http://stoneymusicman.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Read-Drum-Sheet-Music

If you focus on what you are playing on the hats/ride (on the top line) and then just put the rest of the notes on or between hi hat 8ths/qrtrs/16ths you should be able to do this in a few minutes really.

Good for deciphering what notations mean, but Topgun2120 has it right. Before you can sight read, first you need to be able to read. And, as far as drum notation is concerned, what is on the page is not necessarily what you should play. It is a GUIDE to what you should play.
 
A few ppl have been telling me I best learn to sight read so I think I'm gonna start making a little effort.

I studied classical theory and piano growing up but I never was that great at reading. I can do it but it's a bit slow and frustrating.

I thought about guitar hero, and a maths game I used to play and thought, surely there's a program that can help?

Nope. You get better at reading music by READING MUSIC. Yes, most times for the drummer interpreting what you see and simplifying it is the way to go. But there's always that chance you might get some music where the composer knows what he wants and writes it out for you, so you need to prepare for both scenarios.

There are no apps for this. Get a bunch of music out and read 'em. If you do this enough, instant recognition of a written pattern is what tricks people into thinking you're sight-reading. You've seen certain figures enough that you know what they sound like and how to play them before you even get there. So you're not really sight reading, you're reading ahead. Knowing where you are in the written music is a whole 'nother challenge in reading. You can do it. You just need to start doing ;)
 
If you wana really get good at sight reading you need a good progressive reading book.

Before even playing with your sticks I recommend doing a couple of exercises.

1) Spell the pulse (e.g.1-2-3-4) while clapping the rhythm.

2) Clap the pulse while spelling the rhythm.

Do it free time before you try with a metronome or along with music.


To make things more fun and alos useful try playing.

1) Starting with the right/left hand.

2) Right/left hand lead.

3) Whole thing with right/left hand.

4) One bar each hand.

5) Conseqent double strokes.

6) Play rhythms as accents filling in 16-notes and triplets.

7. Same as 6 but play doubles on the fill in notes.


Do this using the whole kit and combine with foot ostinato. Then you got some useful reading skills. Take it slow, and as always make it feel good and master each level before moving on to more complex rhythms.
 
Good for deciphering what notations mean, but Topgun2120 has it right. Before you can sight read, first you need to be able to read. And, as far as drum notation is concerned, what is on the page is not necessarily what you should play. It is a GUIDE to what you should play.

Unless you are in a concert band, drum line, percussion ensemble, performing a written solo piece...
 
IMO sight-reading is just a volume game. Just do it alot and you'll be golden. :)

Correct. You don't learn to sight read... you learn to read. With enough practice/experience, you read more efficiently. Eventually, you're sight reading.

That said, some things are easier to sight read than others.

And that said, nobody is ever going to sit you down with sheet music, completely cold, and expect perfection. You will always get some time to peruse parts, and typically run-through them as well.

Bermuda
 
by jazz charts i meant big band charts - charts with hits and syncopation.

Honestly drum music has come such a long way - and there are so many times I get handed a chart that looks ancient and does not tell me enough - other times the road map is telling me too much stuff!
 
Joey Baron has some good advice about that:
I would just work on sightreading sometimes. I would take a piece of music I'd never seen and just try and read the rhythms. It could be out of a fake book, or whatever. And just play through it once, and that's it; the point being not to stop, not to make it better, just to play like for real, like if I was playing a classical piece, just trying to read through a snare drum etude, no matter how many mistakes, from start to finish. That's how to work on sight-reading. And you do that every day, just for ten minutes, you're gonna see an improvement in that skill. That's anything, any area you work on.
 
Learning to read music is like learning to read a book.
Your eyes see the note and have to transfer this information to your brain which interprets what it's value is and then send this information back to your hands.
The longer you practice that, the easier it gets.
Harmonic music notes are a bit more difficult of course as your brain not only has to interpret the length of the note but also the harmonic value.

What helped me a lot when I started to learn reading (I was a looser when it comes to read music when I was younger) was to start with very simple exercises:

8th notes with rests
8th notes mixed with 16th notes
8th notes mixed with 16th notes and 16th rests

Practicing syncopations all the day

Always count out loud:
- Quarter notes
- 8th notes
- 16th notes
- count what you play

These were some exercises that helped me alot...


Just my 2 cents :)
David
 
Good for deciphering what notations mean, but Topgun2120 has it right. Before you can sight read, first you need to be able to read. And, as far as drum notation is concerned, what is on the page is not necessarily what you should play. It is a GUIDE to what you should play.

I guess I am just thinking that is starts on the most basic level. If you can play 8ths (even if you dont know what they are called- the musical notes are there and the average person should be able to count them) and count them 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &..... then start adding a the kick on 1 and 3 for a few bars then snare on 2 and 4 you have learned to read drum music. On the simplest level at least but that is where it starts.

Once you have the riding pattern down, the rest has to be fit in around it but that pattern is the foundation of the beat.

Agree that a teacher would be best but that page I posted explains just this for a simple money beat.
 
Does rockband have notation?

Topgun I have a couple of books but I like the idea of something interactive, or something that instantly tells me whether I'm right or wrong. I think it would help me learn alot faster.

The device you're looking for is called "a good teacher". This device will provide instantaneous feedback on errors, track progress and set increasingly difficult tasks so that you don't stagnate. Some newer models even a have the interactive capability of providing praise when you successfully accomplish a particular task. As an added bonus, this unit also comes with a full information packet that gathers the sight reading knowledge and experience of many great musicians into one handy guide. Learn all the tips and tricks that will save you hours of wasted practice and frustration. Act today, supplies are limited.
 
Correct. You don't learn to sight read... you learn to read. With enough practice/experience, you read more efficiently. Eventually, you're sight reading.

That said, some things are easier to sight read than others.

And that said, nobody is ever going to sit you down with sheet music, completely cold, and expect perfection. You will always get some time to peruse parts, and typically run-through them as well.

Bermuda

This is my experience as well. Now and again I've had a new chart thrown at me cold, but only if they're really straightforward.
 
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