Sight reading

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Sight reading is the reading and performing of a work—typically, a piece of music, but sometimes also linguistic texts like drama—without having seen it before.

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[edit] In music

When singers sight read, it is often called sight singing.

The ability to sight read partly depends on a strong short-term musical memory. An experiment on sight reading using an eye tracker indicates that highly skilled musicians tend to look ahead further in the music, storing and processing the notes until they are played; this is referred to as the eye–hand span.

Storage of notational information in working memory can be expressed in terms of the amount of information (load) and the time for which it must be held before being played (latency). The relationship between load and latency changes according to tempo, such that t = x/y, where t is the change in tempo, x is the change in load, and y is the change in latency. Some teachers and researchers have proposed that the eye–hand span can be trained to be larger than it would otherwise be under normal conditions, leading to more robust sight reading ability.

Sight reading also depends on familiarity with the musical idiom being performed; this permits the reader to recognize and process frequently occurring patterns of notes as a single unit, rather than individual notes, thus achieving greater efficiency. This phenomenon, which also applies to the reading of language, is referred to as chunking. Errors in sight reading tend to occur in places where the music contains unexpected or unusual sequences; these defeat the strategy of "reading by expectation" that sight readers typically employ.

Highly skilled musicians can sight-read silently; that is, they can look at the printed music and hear it in their heads without playing or singing; see Audiation. (True sight-reading or sight-singing—not code-deciphering—is actually notational audiation.) Less able sight-readers generally must at least hum or whistle in order to sight-read effectively. This distinction is analogous to ordinary prose reading during the early Middle Ages, when the ability to read silently was notable enough for St. Augustine to comment on it[1].

[edit] Professional Use

Studio musicians (that is, musicians employed to record pieces for commercials, etc.) often record pieces on the first take without having seen it before. Often, the music played on television is played by musicians who are sight reading. This practice has developed through intense commercial competition in these industries.

McNerney (May 2, 2008), jazz musician, professor, and private instructor, describes auditions for University of North Texas Jazz Lab Bands as being almost completely based on sight reading: "you walk into a room and see three or four music stands in front of you, each with a piece of music on it (in different styles. . .). You are then asked to read each piece in succession."

This emphasis on sight reading, according to McNerney, prepares musicians for studio work "playing backing tracks for pop performers or recording [commercials]." The expense of the studio, musicians, and techs makes sight reading skills essential. Typically, a studio performance is "rehearsed" only once to check for copying errors before recording the final track. Many professional big bands also sight read every live performance. They are known as "rehearsal bands" though their performance is the rehearsal.

According to Frazier (1999), score reading is an important skill for those interested in the conducting profession and "Conductors such as the late Robert Shaw and Yoel Levi have incredibly strong piano skills and can read at sight full orchestral scores at the piano."

MENC (2001) surveyed over 40 professional associations regarding opportunities and requirements in music careers. They found sight reading, transposition, and improvisation among required skills for careers in instrumental performance including armed forces musician, orchestra musician, small ensemble musician, concert soloist, band musician, and clinician. Employment in music for worship including organist, choir director, cantor, and hazan require skills in sight-reading and open score reading. Sight singing and memorization are required for vocal performers such as dance band or night club vocalist, concert or opera chorus member, concert soloist, and opera soloist.

[edit] Pedagogy

Although 86% of piano teachers polled rated sight reading as the most important or a highly important skill, only 7% of them said they address it systematically. Reasons cited were a lack of knowledge of how to teach it, inadequacy of the training materials they use, and deficiency in their own sight reading skills. Teachers also often emphasize rehearsed reading and repertoire building for successful recitals and auditions to the detriment of sight reading and other functional skills. (Hardy 1998)

[edit] Assessment and standards

In some circumstances, such as examinations, the ability of a student to sight read is assessed by presenting the student with a short piece of music, with an allotted time to peruse the music, then testing the student on the accuracy of the performance. A harder kind of test requires the student to perform without any preparation at all.

Washington State has piloted a classroom based assessment which requires 5th and higher grade students to sight sing from sheet music without the aid of instruments. It is suggested that students use solfege or numbering systems or fingering without instruments as aids. [1] Sight singing is a learning requirement in the state at the 8th grade level. Most students and adults cannot sight sing, and many professional singers cannot sing by sight. However, in combination with an assessment which requires composing music on a staff as early as 5th grade, it is hoped that such a requirement will raise arts achievement. Pilot data show that many students can meet or exceed such standards. Other states are evaluating possible performance assessments as well.

[edit] In drama

Sight-reading is also a much-needed requirement in drama, where it is often used in conjunction with improvisations to gauge a performer's ability to perform new works. It is particularly useful during auditions. A good drama sightreader is able to communicate with fluency and clarity and to project speech rhythms and rhymes well. He or she should also be able to bring out the intent, mood and characterization of a piece through appropriate articulation and body language.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Zoo Tunes"

[edit] References

[edit] See also