By Laurie Niles: Sight-reading is an important skill, but how often do you practice it? ![sightreading girl]()
One joke is that the best way to practice sight-reading is to show up unprepared to an orchestra rehearsal or wedding gig. Not really recommended! Of course, sometimes a rehearsal or gig simply requires it. And it's true, the extra pressure of playing either with people or for people makes one want to get it right.
It can be fun to sight-read with a small chamber group or even just with another person, playing duets. I sometimes do this when I'm looking at new music that I'm considering for students.
If you have a teacher, you also might practice sight-reading at a lesson.
It can be a little difficult, though, to sight read all by oneself, because it's all too easy to stop as soon as the going gets difficult. It can help to use a metronome and vow not to stop, but it helps to have someone or something keeping you accountable and preventing you from stopping.
I suspect that a lot of people really don't actually "practice" sight reading! If I'm honest, I have to admit that most of the practice that I've had with sight-reading has been fairly unintentional.
Do you actively practice sight reading? Or not so much? And while we're talking about it, how exactly did you learn to sight read? If you feel pretty good about it, how long did it take you to get good at it? What helped you the most? Please participate in the vote and then add your thoughts in the comments.
Thank you to Susanna Klein for this week's vote idea! If you have an idea for the weekend vote, please e-mail Laurie Niles!
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