Sight reading book

[bradeinhorn]

hey guys,

i'm looking to improve my sight reading. anyone have any suggestion of sight reading builder books?

brad

[Jonathan Peck]

You could try these: search-sight reading violin
Look here (http://www.ymonline.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=188&CFID=1563571&CFTOKEN=36797766)

Once you have memorized the staff, key signatures and note values, it's just alot of repetition....maybe that's why I stink at it. The one rule that you need to remember is that when you are in a particular key, the notes will always be the notes as indicated in the key signature. Flats, sharps and naturals can be altered and will be indicated as such in the measure where they occur.

Good luck!

[bradeinhorn]

yeah,

thanks. i have all those basics from piano, voice and clarinet. just want some exercise to work through.

[jmcgann]

Brad- I like working with Bach; the Cello Suites are available in treble clef for mando at the Werner Icking archive for free (use Google).

I practice with everything I can get my hands on, from jazz solos for sax and trumpet (almost all the notes fit the mando) to classical flute (to get into the ledger lines and position shifting).

[jaydee]

I think that part of the secret to really practicing sight reading, as opposed to practicing whatever piece you happen to have in front of you, is to let yourself be suprised. I pull out a book and turn to a page and go to it. I usually don't take more than a pass or three at it before I move on to another random selection. I feel that if I keep at it then I'm working the piece and not my sight reading.

Jeremy

[Jim Garber]

I like Goichberg's Thirty Five Progressive Etudes for Mandolin (http://elderly.com/books/items/189-13.htm). It should keep you busy for sometime and they are fun to play and in all the keys. That and the aforementioned Bach.

[JeffD]

I think that part of the secret to really practicing sight reading, as opposed to practicing whatever piece you happen to have in front of you, is to let yourself be suprised. I pull out a book and turn to a page and go to it.
This is great advice. And any fiddle tune book, O'Neils, or Cole's or Ryan's, would be fantastic for this.

[Jim Garber]

Fiddle tunes should certainly in the mix, however the things that hangs me up most in reading or in sight reading are rhythms (esp syncopated ones) and positions. I would suggest reading lots of different musics for that reason, not just fiddle tunes.

Another possibility in that realm might be some jazz fake books like the Real Book. Read some bebop for rhythmic stuff, for instance.

[bradeinhorn]

all good suggestions thanks. i want tunes that i don't know as i my ear has always allowed me to cheat.

[mythicfish]

" i want tunes that i don't know as i my ear has always allowed me to cheat."

Have a friend put tape over the song titles. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Curt

[jaydee]

Jim is absolutely right about not just doing fiddle tunes. Mix it up.
Jeremy

[mando Nick]

Check out Bill Matthiesen's Waltz Books. He has three of them now, full of fiddle tunes. Good for sight reading.
Nick Royal