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Last question first, I usually use Sheet Musics for sight reading practice. But I learned way back when Band in a Box - and the home computer, for that matter - was not yet a gleam in a certain dentist's eye. Certainly Band in a Box can be used for the purpose. A some point, turn off the note highlighting, though, as the sheet music encountered out there in the real world is not going to be able to provide that crutch.

Here is perhaps the biggest single thing that I learned about sightreading;

*The study of Music Theory, Scales, starting with the Major Scales, and how the chords are derived from the scales, how the extensions of chords are the numbers from those scales, was the single most important aspect I found to make a monster sightreader possible.

Sure, that takes a bit of time. More time for some than for others, perhaps, but making a concerted and dedicated effort to understand these things is what makes it possible to scan sheet music while playing it at the same time and quickly understand what it is trying to convey to us.

Practicing Cadences, where we want to teach the hands to "grab" the certain right notes for a certain chord. Eventually, seeing a note stack will not be something that has to be deciphered one note at a time, but becomes a "macro" kind of thing to you. The "shape" of an E Major chord on the staff kind of thing. You see the root. Its an E. You see the notes between the highest note and the root. They are B's and G#'s. One day, with the daily regimen of practice, reading, and perhaps most importantly, THINKING about the triads around the circle, naming the notes for each, then adding extensions to that, starting likely with the dominant 7th, but keep going until you have all extensions out to the 13th, yo may come to the realization that you are no longer one of those players who must plod through a sheet, identifying single notes at a time and then trying to play them. Instead, you are more like an *analyst* who, having been there and done that, seen "everything" (well, just about) and done it, the magical abilities of the sight reader come to the fore.

Get your hands on the various old and good scale books and learn the right fingerings for playing the two octave scales in all 12 keys. It must become drilled in habit to automatically know the fingerings for such. This allows us to not have to peer at fingering numbers as well as notes on the sheet, of course, but it has so many other benefits as well. Schmidtt, Czerny, at least should be two of the books. There is nothing worse than hittin' a planned run and finding out that you've crossfingered and suddenly have run out of fingers before what you have to say has been said. This practice, too, should be done while starin' at the notes, because at some point the brain will kick in and you will be surprised at the ability to take in several bars of never before seen music, realize it ain't nothin' but a Bb scale and, since you've already practiced the special fingering for the Bb Major scale, the only real two things of interest will become the first note, and the last note. All the rest in between are now part of that 'macro' thing.

TIP: Find the common church hymnals. Play the hymns as written as part of the practice drills. Here we find Standardized harmony, rather easy pieces to melodies that many of us have at least heard before if not also sung or performed, and the skillset is readily transferable to other genres. Also, different church denominations will often have the same hymns as others, but arranged in other keys and with differing arrangements, so collecting a few hymnals for your arsenal is advised. Thrift shops, used bookstores, garage sales, etc. are great places to find not only hymnals but music books, sheet musics, and the like without breaking the bank. Also, if you happen to be involved with a church music group, don't be afraid to ask the music director, choir leader or pastor if they would allow you to take a hymnal home for the purpose of practicing.


--Mac