Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 4 1 2 3 4
#335 07/14/02 03:46 AM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
quote:
Originally posted by astrowill:
I have the David Lucas Burge Perfect Pitch Ear Training Supercourse. It's quite good, and it's the only course I've seen that actually teaches it instead of just having you practice note naming. I believe it's at perfectpitch.com

Yeah, as far as I know, he's about the only person that has any useful publications about acquiring perfect pitch. I've used his home study course in the past, and it takes some work, but it helps.

-Nick






#336 07/14/02 04:02 AM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
The perfect pitch course sounds fantastic! Do you know if there's anything that good that can help with sight reading?






#337 07/14/02 04:18 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 81
abc123 Offline OP
Member
OP Offline
Member

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 81
Whats sight reading?






#338 07/14/02 05:29 AM
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 208
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 208
Music theory will!






#339 07/14/02 06:30 PM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
quote:
Originally posted by Texas Bob:
The perfect pitch course sounds fantastic! Do you know if there's anything that good that can help with sight reading?

You just have to do it! Get ahold of all the music you can, and sit down and go through some of it every day. Try to get the rhythm right; NEVER stop and go over lines/phrases again; feel free to go slower than it's written, just as long as the beat is steady and, again, the rhythm is correct.

Oh, and as I think astrowill may have mentioned ( ), theory pretty much helps you with anything related to music. Learn the sounds and feels of all the chords you can. All of the majors, minors, dimisheds (I don't think that's a real term... oh well), augmenteds, and sevenths (all kinds) are musts. You really can't emphasize theory enough, as long as you realize that emotion is still "king" in the world of music (despite what many "good" musicians might have you think....)

-Nick






#340 07/14/02 08:01 PM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
I was hoping for something more along the lines of the Perfect Pitch course but would instead help with sight reading. Something with sight reading drills perhaps.

For instance when I play a chord, it takes forever to figure out what the notes are in that chord before I play them. If I just play without looking, I'm sure if I played the right note at all. I do things like play a fourth instead of a fifth, a third instead of a second, and I particularly have problems with notes above or below the staff. I may eventually get it right if I play it enough, but it takes forever.

I know if I could improve my sight reading skills it would make a dramatic difference.






#341 07/15/02 04:21 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 81
abc123 Offline OP
Member
OP Offline
Member

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 81
That reminds me, i was reading a couple of articles on the brain, about the left and right function things. So, there was this story about musicisans who played using her ears only, she was a pianist, so, once she started trying out to play with chords or notations her right-function skill with was her music ear skill faded. So thats why i wouldnt really want to go with chords too much, but on the other hand use my natural processes for music to work it out. Like savants, its all in the brain






#342 07/15/02 06:14 AM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
quote:
Originally posted by Texas Bob:
I was hoping for something more along the lines of the Perfect Pitch course but would instead help with sight reading. Something with sight reading drills perhaps.

In my experience, the best way to improve sight-reading is to sight-read. I don't see why a course would really be necessary, as long as you have enough sheet music to practice with....

This is all coming from a piano background, so maybe if you're on another instrument, it'd be a little different. But, if you're having trouble recognizing notes above and below the staff, you don't need to try to sight-read anything that has anything five lines about the treble cleff.

Try this:

1) Find something that has relatively few chords and that doesn't go more than about 1 or 2 lines above/below either staff. It should be something that, if you practiced, you would have no trouble playing; that is, if you wanted to perform it a week from today, you'd have no trouble doing so.

2) Now, before you even touch the instrument, look through the music; notice any "trouble spots" that might be there (for instance, since you say you have trouble with chords, notice any chords). Get a mental idea of what these trouble spots would feel like to play. How will your hands be positioned? Where will your fingers be? What will this sound like? Don't feel like "sight-reading" means that you're playing a piece of music just as soon as it hits the music stand; you do have a couple minutes to look through it! You know the first two steps of the PR system? Use them on music, too!

3) Where's the hardest measure of this piece, now that you've looked through it? How slow would you have to be playing in order to be able to play this most difficult section, if you were just reading through, without practicing beforehand? Whatever that tempo is, is how fast you're going to play the entire piece, okay? This way, the beat is always steady -- I can't emphasize how important it is for the rhythm and tempo to be right because if they are right, no one will notice a few missed notes (if the notes are perfect, but the rhythm is wrong, however, the performance will not sound right).

4) Okay, now that you've previewed, and you have a comfortable tempo, play the piece! If you miss a note, a chord, a measure... who cares?? Sight-reading performances don't have to be perfect.

5) Now, repeat this process over and over, and each time you'll get a little better. When you're finding that you can easily sight-read 2 lines above the staff, then go for something that goes 3 lines above it. Then 4, then 5, etc., etc., etc.

In my experience (I've got some of it, I promise! ), there really aren't many good books on music techniques. The best things are advice, and above all, PRACTICE! Just do it!

I hope that helped.

-Nick






#343 07/15/02 07:21 AM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 51
Thanks, Nick. I just ordered the Perfect Pitch course as recommended by Astrowill. I wish there were a similar program that could help with the sight reading side of it.

I'm only in my second semester of piano, so I'm pretty much a beginner. At this point it's all a pain staking process of looking at the page, trying to figure out what notes are written, then finding them on the piano. I look at the grand staff and say, ok that's a quarter note on the space just above the top line. So let's see. Every-Good-Boy-Does-Fine. What comes after F? That's it, I need a G. So then I find the G on the keyboard. Now I have to go through the same process for each note of each chord in the left hand. As I'm sure you can surmise, by the time I go through all this, there really is NO rhythm until I've gone through it several times. Going through the piece ahead of time as you suggest does help somewhat.

At this point I'm putting in HOURS of practice for what may seem to be a relatively simple piece. From what you're saying it should hopefully improve with time.

Thanks again,
Bob






#344 07/15/02 01:43 PM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
Member
Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 15
If this is only your second semester, then I'd say you're doing just fine. Everybody has to go through the steps of figuring out notes and then deciding where they're at on the keyboard at first. Just stick with it, and you'll be amazed at what you can do someday!

If you're really interested in piano, learn as much theory as possible; listen to, and try to develop and appreciation for all kinds of music; read about music history, and especially that of the great pianists and composers; and, of course, practice as much as possible!

I don't think any musician would tell you that getting good is easy; there are times when you have to practice a single line of a piece for hours to get it right, for instance. But trust me when I say that the difficulty you go through is worth it in the end, if you love music. When you get to the point where you can't imagine music not being a part of your life, and when you find yourself able to appreciate a performance so much that it makes you want to cry, then you won't mind the time that you put into it.

Good luck with everything!

-Nick






Page 2 of 4 1 2 3 4

Moderated by  Wendy_Greer 

Link Copied to Clipboard
©, Learning Strategies Corporation, All Rights Reserved
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5
(Release build 20201027)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 5.6.40 Page Time: 0.055s Queries: 34 (0.018s) Memory: 3.2458 MB (Peak: 3.5970 MB) Data Comp: Off Server Time: 2024-03-29 13:06:17 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS