My Interview with my Mentor Mrs. Allison!
- Have you always enjoyed sight reading? Why or why not? It depends on the moment in my life. I started in band in 6th grade. I absolutely loved everything about reading music. Any opportunity we got to do something new, I thrived on. My senior year, I moved into chorus and ended up at Piedmont College as a music major. I loved sight-reading until my Music Skills Level 3 course. The sight-reading was INSANE! It was the most challenging music I have ever done, and so many days I became very frustrated. I will be honest- I cried. A lot. However, it gave me a new found love for sight-reading. It is a skill that few can do well, and I love that I can do it well.
- Was Sight reading hard for you to learn? Why or why not? I think I was a natural when it came to reading music. It never seemed difficult to me- I just loved it. I am not sure why I am good at it though.
- As a music educator, do you enjoy sight reading? Why or why not? I do! I love sight-reading. Being a middle school teacher makes sight-reading that much more enjoyable too. When students walk in my door, they have no previous knowledge (for the most part) about reading music. There is nothing better than giving them an example later in the year and hearing them perform it well, and on their own!
- How has sight reading helped you as a Music Educator? Sight-reading is the base of all music. Without good sight-reading skills, I could not successfully teach music. I have to be able to sight-read everything so that I can then teach it. It is the first step I take before teaching a song.
- Have you experienced any negative effects of sight reading? I have not. I think because it has always come fairly naturally, I have really only loved it.
- Has the skill set involved with sight reading, helped in other areas of your life (or in your education) besides with music? Absolutely! Sight-reading is a process. You have to attack each example in steps- look it over and identify music elements and solfege, sing through notes, add in rhythm, and then perform it. Sight-reading is just like any real life problem. You must face different challenges in your life with an attitude of “how can I solve this and be successful.”
- As a music educator, what is your method for teaching beginners to sight reading?? I start by teaching scales. Once students have a good understanding of solfege, I introduce the major scale on quarter notes. We talk about the direction of the notes and write in our solfege. By taking something familiar (the major scale) and then transferring it to the music staff, it helps it click faster for them. From there, we add in new rhythms and notes. Once they feel solid on those foundational items, I add in skips.
- When teaching new sight readers, do you often reflect back on your past experiences with sight reading? To be honest, no. It is interesting that you asked that because I haven’t really thought about where it all began in a long time!
- What have been some of the negative effects of sight reading, (that you have seen) that beginners struggle with? I think sometimes students can get frustrated when it doesn’t click immediately. One of the most important things to do is to keep them calm and to remind them that it is a process. You aren’t going to be a professional sight-reader after one day of learning it. I try to be as encouraging as possible so that they do not get frustrated. I think it is actually harder when someone is a beginner sight-reader in a group of experienced readers.
- What skills do you think that students develop while sight reading? Why? Teamwork, problem solving, and intrinsic motivation. It may sound strange to list teamwork and intrinsic motivation, but sight-reading does develop both skills. Students must first learn how to diagnose and walk step by step through the problem (the example). Then they have to work through the example by themselves. They must be internally motivated to solve the problem. This is where teamwork comes in. Sight-reading is generally a group activity. You must be motivated to solve the problem yourself so that then you can sing it as a group.
- With these skills that sight reading offers do you think that students will use them through their lives? I definitely do. I think that they may not realize that they are using them, but they are life long skills.
My Interview with my Private Piano Teacher!
- Have you always enjoyed sight reading? Why or why not? I have, because it opens me up to new literature, and helps me to become a better musician.
- Was Sight reading hard for you to learn? Why or why not? No it was not, because I have always had the tendency to improvise and with sight reading I was able to become more accurate with the music I was reading.
- As a music educator, do you enjoy sight reading? Why or why not? Yes, and I like to expose my students with sight reading, in lessons and in the classroom because it makes me feel joy as a educator.
- How has sight reading helped you as a Music Educator? Helps me become a better teacher since I know more music and literature, and can help my students learn new music not to be afraid of this new music.
- Have you seen any negative effects of sight reading? Yes, because I have seen students who do not want to develop this skill and just want to learn the music by ear. By doing this they lose the joy of being able to learn the music accurately and new key signatures and time signatures.
- Has the skill set involved with sight reading, helped in other areas of your life (or in your education) besides with music? Yes because it has made me more observant in other areas of my life as well as in music.
- As a music educator, what is your method for teaching beginners to sight reading? I teach my students to always look at the page before sight reading. By doing this they can notice the time signature, key signature, mood of the piece, accidentals, and the plan of the piece (parts that are alike a different).
- When teaching new sight readers, do you often reflect back on your past experiences with sight reading? Yes I do, because I realized that they do not have the same skills that I have now. So I reflect back on my youth to help them through sight reading and be patient with them.
- What skills do you think that students develop while sight reading? Why? Observation, learning to reading music quickly, focusing, learning different patterns
- With these skills that sight reading offers do you think that students will use them through their lives? I think anything you do that's a skill helps you in other areas of your life because you use the same reasoning and thinking throughout life. By doing this it helps your IQ and takes away some new fears and overall could help with new skills.
- Have you seen the aspects of sight reading (this skill set) help students in other areas of their education? Yes because I have notice that music students have a higher IQ because they use these aspects in their education and can be found throughout their lives.
My Interview with my Band Director!
- Have you always enjoyed sight reading? No, as a young students, sight reading was always very stressful and intimidating (mainly because of my insecurities regarding instant rhythmic precision). Unfortunately, I only concentrated on sight reading when I was preparing for an audition - never on a regular basis.
- Was Sight reading hard for you to learn? It wasn't necessarily hard, just terrifying because, as musicians, we are taught “perfection” is the goal and any
blemishes would cause failure. I have since learned that mistakes made me stronger, but it was only after enduring this struggle. - As a music educator, do you enjoy sight reading? Yes, because it gives me a clear view on concepts that have been mastered or need further review for my students. I approach sight reading as a positive experience - not necessary on the desire for “perfection.”
- Have you experienced any negative effects of sight reading? Yes, I was told very early in my study of music that “if you didn’t score perfection in sight reading, that it would show deficiencies in your performance!” I have since learned that sight reading is a skill that, like swimming, or long distance running, or long tone studies for an instrumentalist, improves the more we do it.
- Has the skill set involved with sight reading, helped in other areas of your life (or in your education) besides with music? Yes, mastering sight reading helped improve my reading and analytic skills - because its recognizing patterns. For example, when we see the word “stop,” we don’t study each letter, but we recognize the pattern of the letters arranged together and connect it to the word “stop.”
- As a music educator, what is your method for teaching beginners to sight reading? For beginning students, I use step wise patterns (a la Scales) just to get things moving and the idea of getting the connect with what is seen moving with the fingers and ears. I will also use sight reading examples that present no dynamics or tempo indications, and very few articulations. This is to allow the concepts of timing and pulse to be the primary focus while sight reading the material.
- When teaching new sight readers, do you often reflect back on your past experiences with sight reading? Yes, I use things that have worked with students from the past and discard things that have not worked.
- As a music educator, what is your method for teaching beginners to sight reading? See question No. 6. I believe a strong sense of pulse is important before moving on to more advanced levels of sight reading. The first thing students must do just prior to performing a sight reading example is to establish a pulse slow enough to get everything on the page and stick to it!
- What have been some of the negative effects of sight reading, (that you have seen) that beginners struggle with? Performing with confidence. Because it is new, most beginning students struggle to sight read with the same confidence of their other performance tasks.
- What skills do you think that students develop while sight reading? A solid rhythm vocabulary that moves them to more advanced musical context of articulation, dynamics, style, etc.
- With these skills that sight reading offers do you think that students will use them through their lives? Yes - it allows them to see, like other musical principles, sight reading is a skill that is developed through practice. Practice at any skill helps with mastery.