I am 57 years old, and just starting to learn the piano. I found your video on sight reading VERY entertaining, humorous, AND informative. I thought you did a GREAT job of using analogies to illustrate how, if you really want to sight read music, you need to see the patterns, in the same way we see patterns of letters in words when reading - perfect! Now I get how it is possible. I was surprized at the other comments about people worrying about being condesening - I think you were just exaggerating things to: (a) make your point more emphatically, and (b) add some humor. Don't stop - it is much appreciated!
I want to be really good at sight reading. I'm part of a youth symphony and I have been in the classic orchestra (which is the lowest level for my instrument) for the past two years. I auditioned for the symphonic wind ensemble this year (it's the next level up) but I got put back in the classic orchestra. During my audition, I decided to try sight reading the advanced excerpt (it was optional). That was a really bad idea. I completely failed at the sight reading. I regret doing that, I should've just stuck with the normal excerpt.
I just finished my BM in Flute Performance and to this day I'm still working on my sight reading. I sometimes envy pianists because they sight read things on the spot and one person that I know who did this really well was my piano teacher from NWSA(New World School of the Arts) who was also my main accompanist for my senior recital. :)
Yes, I am one of those look at every single note & figure out what they are and wonder why it takes me 2 hours to work out a 2 minute piece guys. Thanks for the pointing out the errors of my ways, great advice to learn from :)
My first flute teacher gave me a good break down to sight reading that really helped me. I became pretty good at sight reading. She would pull out duets for us to play every lesson so I could practice. Even Kuhlau duets, and those can be brutal.
wow, thanks for the tips, I struggle all the time in band practice, because I try to read every damn note....love the idea of finding pattens. so lots of work to do, but hopefully this will help me nail this problem down.
Finally... someone telling sthg interesting on theory. Someone who remembers what it's like to start à instrument and guides you through your first steps. Most confirmed pianist forget about those simple tips as they learned it very soon and it became natural. Well, THANK YOU !!
Thank you very much.. I finally feel like I'm learning how to sightread, after how my flute instructor confused me with all 'this that those' stuff. I never knew learning how to play a flute is so simple. I am definitely tuning in to your videos to do my revisions for my flute exams & assignments. Thanks again
Been playing piano for many years. Always refreshing to get a new perspective on sight reading. You make very good points and are entertaining as well. Thanks so much. Now, back to my jazz charts. We never stop learning and improving, do we? No matter what instrument we play. Nor should we. Blessings to you.
great video. i've been wanting to learn how to sight read and my curiosity peaked this week when i got a new piano. I learned a lot from this video, mostly that i am very far behind in theory and that's probably what's been holding me back. Thank you for making this video.
I need to learn to sight read well. I failed this part of my Violin audition and didn't get in to the conservatory I applied to. (lol the only one where I live). I just know that that's the reason why I didn't get it. The professor practically pushed me out the room saying that 'it's because you need to know how to sightread because first year students are required to play in orchestra..' I was so upset. It took all of me not to cry. Because when I'm home, I can sightread, like without having never seen the piece before. But I still do it with bad tempo and have to stop and don't do it well; at audition I couldn't even do it.
I got really lucky with sightreading, my old music teacher always gave me heaps of music to play, if you want to learn to sightread easily just keep learning new mysic
0:51 Min 2nds? Indeed. Exotic :D 5:18 As you found 1/2 of a 60 beat to get 120, to get 90bpm from 60, you can find 2/3 of the beat like so: 1) Count in 60bpm (1, 2, or 1-one-thou-sand, w/e) 2) Subdivide your 60bpm 1/4 note into quaver triplets (1-&-a, 2-&-a or 1-thou-sand instead of 1-one-thou-sand), then while maintaining that tempo, count in 2s instead of 3s, so: 1-&-a-2-&-a becomes 1-&-2-&-3-& with the same spacing 3) Remove the &s (tie every 2 quavers) and you're done! MATH! XD
You describe completely the problem I have with sight-reading - which is I read the patterns, and have no problem with runs and arpeggios. Stick a page of semiquavers following underlying chord changes/progressions/modulation with many and changing accidentals, or where patterns are nearly, but not the same and I'm completely useless. So this is useful starting out maybe, but might actually be misleading advice for those like me who've hit a ceiling in their sight reading ability following these principles.
oh uh okay i was not told that in til now from you. my band teacher acturally had a very different way of sight reading and i only sight read one which was acturally wasn't sight reading that much i just call it just seeing different song in front of me and playing . we have do 3 different types of songs and sight read . that's when i went to MPA in Enterprise, Alabama . this year . by !
I have to subscribe to your channel ur so funny...Lol, but I got a question I am working on my side reading for a while now and I did start by concentrating on the side reading rhythmic parts 100% before anything else, now I am adding the notes to it. Is that a good approach?
Hehehehe, don't we all? But it's a lot like learning to read anything (like, a book) out loud for the first time. There *is* a huge disconnect because you're trying to connect audible sounds with abstract scratchings on a piece of paper. It just takes practice. You need to give yourself time to get used to it and go slowly. ;) I remember what it was like when I first learned how to sightread. Felt the same thing as you. :)
I think this is really interesting because when I played the flute in school, we were taught to read each note. I always wondered how piano players did it because it seemed overwhelming to me that they would look so closely at each note. Now it makes sense!
I've always been terrible at sightreading, because I started out in fourth grade, writing out every note name in the whole sheet of music before I even began playing. I played like that until my eighth grade band teacher yelled at me for writing in the notes. I then went to bomb my sightreading in regionals my freshman year, and I still suck at sightreading...
that kind of confused me on some of the big words that were said because in my school, we have band as an elective and we have beginning band and advanced band and im in beginning band so i got alittle confused but i still learned alot more on justanotherflutist's videos than at band. =)
I have never been particularly good at sight reading no matter how hard I have tried. For me it takes practice, not to mention patience. I admire those musicians who can sight-read most anything put before them. The Hollywood-based musicians from AFM Local 47 are geniuses in this regard.
Well, first off, it's not really up to us to fiddle with the crown. ;) It's just pulling the headjoint out or pushing it in to mess with the tuning. Think of pan pipes--the shorter tubes create higher pitches, the longer tubes create lower pitches. So if you pull out, the whole tube gets longer and thus the overall tuning goes flatter. If you push in, the whole tube gets shorter, and thus the overall tuning goes sharper. So if you're sharp, pull out; flat, push in. ;)
But if you're a beginner/new to music theory (even music in general), how do you get to the level where you can see the big picture, the pattern? Don't you start by reading the notes first? or should you try to see patterns from the very start before developping "bad habits"?
WhysoSeriousXx Yes, which is why she mentioned that we have to first know our theory. I'm still struggling with theory as I started really late on it. E.g. Only started cramming for Grade 1-5 theory when I needed it to do a grade 6 practical. So I find this video more for those who already have mastered their theory.
Besides looking for patterns, what else did this teach? I'm a beginner and I'm even more confused now. I thought it was going to actually teach me how to site read when I don't know how to site read....you're acting like I'm good to go now. How can I be when you didn't actually explain how to?
deartotheheart Getting the rhythm of a sight reading piece is the most important part, look at the time signature and how many flats/sharps there are and also look at the articulations, and just give it your all after looking over the piece real quick.
Self taught guitarist tackling sitereading here. I get that I have to be identifying patterns instead of reading each individual note, like recognizing words instead of just sounding out each letter on its own. But then my question is, where are the vocab lists? I need something that shows me the difference between "though", "thorough", and "through" so I don't stumble over it when I see it on a sheet. Maybe someone makes flashcards for this.
I feel like you should have said something about how to slow the music down. Maybe this seems to be common sense but from what I've seen it's not. The number of beats per measure can be doubled and it really helps with being able to play. Also - you could have said something about the importance of looking ahead while playing. While maybe an advanced concept it is impossible to play at tempo if you focus on each and every note. Without memorizing anyway.
your videos are so helpful funny: could you please do one for most of the different types of articulation, along with examples... please but i understand if you can't basic articulation legato staccato double tounging sluring
Oh I see... My next question is, is there a particular breathing pattern a person should have for a piece that he or she is playing for the flute? Like, are there pieces where you can breathe after every measure? If so, where does it say that it should be like that or how do you determine that? I'm sorry for this question I just don't have a flute teacher right now and I'm self-studying
I just found you and I think I'm in love lol. You're freaking hilarious. When I teach my kids, sometimes I have your attitude. This is a TRIAAADDDD. I love how you were reading the letters of "once upon a time". I will try it this week. I would love to get in contact with you just to have a funny fellow teacher.
i like that youre so..... full of life and you make things sound so easy. :) and i have a question. so my problem is i got used to learning piano by using a software that is displaying midi files and checking me for errors while playing. and i got pretty far with that but i realized my sightreading is very bad and also very dificult for me to learn a new piece from a music sheet. so what should i do ? keep practicing the MIDI way or get a step back and start leaning sightreading from very beginning:( ?
Thanks for the tips! Would try that next time when i doing sight-reading... On another note, i got some unrelated questions to ask you: are there any specialized musical notations for flutes (like for the violin, there's up-bow/ down-bow indications...)? Is it possible to write a flute melody without any of these notations (if there are any), and just take into consideration that the flutist has to breathe? Is it crazy to put appoggiacatura for a flute melody like about 4 quavers apart?
PLEASE start a series of TUTORIALS on SIGHT READING! PLEASE!
It would be just great to understand music like you do.
María Inés agreed🙏🏾🙏🏾
Yes please ! it would be awesome. So enlightening :-)
I agree😋
AND ALL STATE GUYS TO ALL THE YOUNG MUSICIANS OUT THERE
I am 57 years old, and just starting to learn the piano. I found your video on sight reading VERY entertaining, humorous, AND informative. I thought you did a GREAT job of using analogies to illustrate how, if you really want to sight read music, you need to see the patterns, in the same way we see patterns of letters in words when reading - perfect! Now I get how it is possible. I was surprized at the other comments about people worrying about being condesening - I think you were just exaggerating things to: (a) make your point more emphatically, and (b) add some humor. Don't stop - it is much appreciated!
Totally agree - rhythm so important, so many students fixate on getting all the pitch correct and it sounds nothing like it should.
I want to be really good at sight reading. I'm part of a youth symphony and I have been in the classic orchestra (which is the lowest level for my instrument) for the past two years. I auditioned for the symphonic wind ensemble this year (it's the next level up) but I got put back in the classic orchestra. During my audition, I decided to try sight reading the advanced excerpt (it was optional). That was a really bad idea. I completely failed at the sight reading. I regret doing that, I should've just stuck with the normal excerpt.
How is it going now?☺
I feel like I'm watching a comedy youtuber and learning stuff at the same time.. You're amazing! xD *pusshheeeee*
she is great
I’m sayin 😋 BEAT TEACHER EVER😋😋
Berry BerryBerry I’m your 💯th like
when your a percussionist and you have no idea what the actual notes are because you have learnt that they mean completly
different things
bruh
I just finished my BM in Flute Performance and to this day I'm still working on my sight reading. I sometimes envy pianists because they sight read things on the spot and one person that I know who did this really well was my piano teacher from NWSA(New World School of the Arts) who was also my main accompanist for my senior recital. :)
The 'wrong' Mary Had A Little Lamb sounds like Debussy. I like it.
Yes, I am one of those look at every single note & figure out what they are and wonder why it takes me 2 hours to work out a 2 minute piece guys.
Thanks for the pointing out the errors of my ways, great advice to learn from :)
I wish you could be my teacher, well at least on youtube you can c:
My first flute teacher gave me a good break down to sight reading that really helped me. I became pretty good at sight reading. She would pull out duets for us to play every lesson so I could practice. Even Kuhlau duets, and those can be brutal.
wow, thanks for the tips, I struggle all the time in band practice, because I try to read every damn note....love the idea of finding pattens. so lots of work to do, but hopefully this will help me nail this problem down.
Finally... someone telling sthg interesting on theory. Someone who remembers what it's like to start à instrument and guides you through your first steps. Most confirmed pianist forget about those simple tips as they learned it very soon and it became natural.
Well, THANK YOU !!
I have an audition and I have to sight read and this helped a lot, Thanks!! 😁😁
Thank you very much.. I finally feel like I'm learning how to sightread, after how my flute instructor confused me with all 'this that those' stuff. I never knew learning how to play a flute is so simple. I am definitely tuning in to your videos to do my revisions for my flute exams & assignments. Thanks again
Been playing piano for many years. Always refreshing to get a new perspective on sight reading. You make very good points and are entertaining as well. Thanks so much. Now, back to my jazz charts. We never stop learning and improving, do we? No matter what instrument we play. Nor should we. Blessings to you.
You are lovely and smart! : ) new supporter
Love your channel Becca.
Thank you teacher that was a great break down. Note recognition plus basic Theory saves a lot of time.
great video. i've been wanting to learn how to sight read and my curiosity peaked this week when i got a new piano. I learned a lot from this video, mostly that i am very far behind in theory and that's probably what's been holding me back. Thank you for making this video.
Any tips on learning to have a steady internal pulse??
Your enthusiasm.
Omg 😍 😍 hello Peter
I need to learn to sight read well. I failed this part of my Violin audition and didn't get in to the conservatory I applied to. (lol the only one where I live). I just know that that's the reason why I didn't get it. The professor practically pushed me out the room saying that 'it's because you need to know how to sightread because first year students are required to play in orchestra..' I was so upset. It took all of me not to cry. Because when I'm home, I can sightread, like without having never seen the piece before. But I still do it with bad tempo and have to stop and don't do it well; at audition I couldn't even do it.
I got really lucky with sightreading, my old music teacher always gave me heaps of music to play, if you want to learn to sightread easily just keep learning new mysic
Thank you, I'm a beginner in irish flute, and it was helpfull for me !
Was taught STAND. Signatures, Tempo, Articulations, Notes, and Dynamics.
No rhythms? K
4:13 When you live in Canada and move to South Carolina, lmao
0:51 Min 2nds? Indeed. Exotic :D
5:18 As you found 1/2 of a 60 beat to get 120, to get 90bpm from 60, you can find 2/3 of the beat like so:
1) Count in 60bpm (1, 2, or 1-one-thou-sand, w/e)
2) Subdivide your 60bpm 1/4 note into quaver triplets (1-&-a, 2-&-a or 1-thou-sand instead of 1-one-thou-sand), then while maintaining that tempo, count in 2s instead of 3s, so:
1-&-a-2-&-a becomes
1-&-2-&-3-& with the same spacing
3) Remove the &s (tie every 2 quavers) and you're done!
MATH! XD
You describe completely the problem I have with sight-reading - which is I read the patterns, and have no problem with runs and arpeggios. Stick a page of semiquavers following underlying chord changes/progressions/modulation with many and changing accidentals, or where patterns are nearly, but not the same and I'm completely useless.
So this is useful starting out maybe, but might actually be misleading advice for those like me who've hit a ceiling in their sight reading ability following these principles.
I liked that "Mary Had A Little Lamb" with the "wrong" pitches more than the original melody
Seeing patterns and chords,a great tip thank you
oh uh okay i was not told that in til now from you. my band teacher acturally had a very different way of sight reading and i only sight read one which was acturally wasn't sight reading that much i just call it just seeing different song in front of me and playing . we have do 3 different types of songs and sight read . that's when i went to MPA in Enterprise, Alabama . this year . by !
First video I watched of yours. Before it end I had crossed the point of no return. I now frequenty binge-watch your videos.
I have to subscribe to your channel ur so funny...Lol, but I got a question I am working on my side reading for a while now and I did start by concentrating on the side reading rhythmic parts 100% before anything else, now I am adding the notes to it. Is that a good approach?
Hehehehe, don't we all? But it's a lot like learning to read anything (like, a book) out loud for the first time. There *is* a huge disconnect because you're trying to connect audible sounds with abstract scratchings on a piece of paper. It just takes practice. You need to give yourself time to get used to it and go slowly. ;) I remember what it was like when I first learned how to sightread. Felt the same thing as you. :)
I think this is really interesting because when I played the flute in school, we were taught to read each note. I always wondered how piano players did it because it seemed overwhelming to me that they would look so closely at each note. Now it makes sense!
I love the Once Upon a time analogy. Thanks!
I've always been terrible at sightreading, because I started out in fourth grade, writing out every note name in the whole sheet of music before I even began playing. I played like that until my eighth grade band teacher yelled at me for writing in the notes. I then went to bomb my sightreading in regionals my freshman year, and I still suck at sightreading...
I’m first chair and section leader this year so I’m counting on you to help me know and teach stuff. Love you and everything you fo
Take a shot every time she blinks
You are great! I will use it to train my violin students.
This is the Asian musician version of Jenna Marbles. :)
U are a super amazing teacher!! I just love watching u.. I am grabbing the concepts with ease
that kind of confused me on some of the big words that were said because in my school, we have band as an elective and we have beginning band and advanced band and im in beginning band so i got alittle confused but i still learned alot more on justanotherflutist's videos than at band. =)
cYou did a great job at simplifying the basics. Thanks
Awesome video! I love the way you present yourself and your funny expressions! Thanks for sharing your knowledge in music.
This was completely amazing, and not only does it work, it made me want to study theory even more. You RULE THE SCHOOL.
What an entertaining video -- Thanks!
I have never been particularly good at sight reading no matter how hard I have tried. For me it takes practice, not to mention patience. I admire those musicians who can sight-read most anything put before them. The Hollywood-based musicians from AFM Local 47 are geniuses in this regard.
Well, first off, it's not really up to us to fiddle with the crown. ;) It's just pulling the headjoint out or pushing it in to mess with the tuning. Think of pan pipes--the shorter tubes create higher pitches, the longer tubes create lower pitches. So if you pull out, the whole tube gets longer and thus the overall tuning goes flatter. If you push in, the whole tube gets shorter, and thus the overall tuning goes sharper. So if you're sharp, pull out; flat, push in. ;)
But if you're a beginner/new to music theory (even music in general), how do you get to the level where you can see the big picture, the pattern? Don't you start by reading the notes first? or should you try to see patterns from the very start before developping "bad habits"?
WhysoSeriousXx Yes, which is why she mentioned that we have to first know our theory. I'm still struggling with theory as I started really late on it. E.g. Only started cramming for Grade 1-5 theory when I needed it to do a grade 6 practical. So I find this video more for those who already have mastered their theory.
Besides looking for patterns, what else did this teach? I'm a beginner and I'm even more confused now. I thought it was going to actually teach me how to site read when I don't know how to site read....you're acting like I'm good to go now. How can I be when you didn't actually explain how to?
deartotheheart Getting the rhythm of a sight reading piece is the most important part, look at the time signature and how many flats/sharps there are and also look at the articulations, and just give it your all after looking over the piece real quick.
You have such a great way of teaching! I truly love watching your videos, because I learn while laughing. It's great! Thank you!
Self taught guitarist tackling sitereading here. I get that I have to be identifying patterns instead of reading each individual note, like recognizing words instead of just sounding out each letter on its own. But then my question is, where are the vocab lists? I need something that shows me the difference between "though", "thorough", and "through" so I don't stumble over it when I see it on a sheet. Maybe someone makes flashcards for this.
thescowlingschnauzer you could always look on quizlet for flashcards
I play Bari saxophone and you have helped me so much
JustAnotherFlutist Who motivated you to play the flute and how did you get into playing the flute. Just wondering. ..
Thanks for the tips
I play percussion sooooo having rhythm is a must haha. But this is very helpful thank you!
omg this helped so much, i have an allstate audition in 3 days 😱
hell yea august 2nds
I feel like you should have said something about how to slow the music down. Maybe this seems to be common sense but from what I've seen it's not. The number of beats per measure can be doubled and it really helps with being able to play. Also - you could have said something about the importance of looking ahead while playing. While maybe an advanced concept it is impossible to play at tempo if you focus on each and every note. Without memorizing anyway.
your videos are so helpful funny: could you please do one for most of the different types of articulation, along with examples... please but i understand if you can't
basic articulation
legato
staccato
double tounging
sluring
Oh I see... My next question is, is there a particular breathing pattern a person should have for a piece that he or she is playing for the flute? Like, are there pieces where you can breathe after every measure? If so, where does it say that it should be like that or how do you determine that? I'm sorry for this question I just don't have a flute teacher right now and I'm self-studying
does being able to sight read mean one also has perfect pitch?
I have my grade 4 exam in a week do u have any extra tips cus I play sight reading like a grade 1
I like the second version of merry had a little lamb...Had an Arabic twist to it.. Was that in a minor key?
What you said about the sight reading thing about repeating it is true that is what some people do
Excellent! Thanks for sharing!!
The beginning of Beethoven's Appassionata 1st Movement - Opus 57 No. 23 is the same song as Star Spangled Banner.
I just found you and I think I'm in love lol. You're freaking hilarious. When I teach my kids, sometimes I have your attitude. This is a TRIAAADDDD. I love how you were reading the letters of "once upon a time". I will try it this week. I would love to get in contact with you just to have a funny fellow teacher.
Those are very nice points, thank you!
Any recommendations for music theory books?
Your videos are interesting so I subscribed
Thanks for the video. One question: Why did you cut so many parts? Like almost every 10 seconds theres a cut
East Hartford, CT
Just perusing some of your videos. Girl, you crack me up! ... too funny.
i like that youre so..... full of life and you make things sound so easy. :)
and i have a question. so my problem is i got used to learning piano by using a software that is displaying midi files and checking me for errors while playing. and i got pretty far with that but i realized my sightreading is very bad and also very dificult for me to learn a new piece from a music sheet.
so what should i do ? keep practicing the MIDI way or get a step back and start leaning sightreading from very beginning:( ?
4:16 you know what i- i feel attacked
Now beginning so it looks bit complicated
Where can we learn harmony for sight reading more advanced pieces
What Flute would you recommend for an intermediate player?
Great tutorial! Thank you 🙏🎶🌷
I laugh many time while watching this video. I think you're also a comedian.
You should do a video about tonal and phrasing that would be cool
I was laughing and learning at the same time. Thank you.
Thanks for the tips! Would try that next time when i doing sight-reading...
On another note, i got some unrelated questions to ask you: are there any specialized musical notations for flutes (like for the violin, there's up-bow/ down-bow indications...)? Is it possible to write a flute melody without any of these notations (if there are any), and just take into consideration that the flutist has to breathe? Is it crazy to put appoggiacatura for a flute melody like about 4 quavers apart?
i just started the flute in band. my first lesson is next week. can i have some tips. plz reply
what do you mean by the tonic third of the major chord?
What does "Know your theory" mean?
She said "You have to know your theory"
Well i know that i mean like, what part of it do i have to have down in order to efficiently sightread.
Thanks for making this video!
I had so many "kpssssshh!!" moments. Thank you:)
woah what flute were you using in the video it sounds so good and it looks so pretty!!
very good video.. thanks for the tips!!!
love the lambs in the background too lol very appropriate :-)
Good tips, thanks! But how to move the finger to the right key without looking the keyboard?
You are very good and also very funny, i really enjoyed you Thank you.
my sister and i are flutist and this is really good
You're welcome!! Really appreciate the support. :)
very intuitive. thanks!
group basics: count and keep going no matter what
Thanks! Great video
Do you use metronome during practice or shows?