Sight-Reading Blues

[MacMorighan]

Posted: 7/4/19 at 1:53am

Anyone else get frustrated when they attempt to sight-read a piece of music that they should be able to play with relative ease, only to fail in a flaming ball of despair!? Ack, my head and hands sometimes won't coordinate! :P What terrifies me, of course, is being asked to sight-read as a part of a placement exam when enrolling in a new music program and being misplaced! It'd be a serious blow to my self-esteem! Heck, I can't believe that my previous piano teacher never taught me to sight-read. She should have! Then again, I once sat in on a speech during a conference of piano teachers who admitted that some otherwise excellent piano teachers actually suck when it comes to sight-reading. But, my piano teacher was actually good at it, and it ought to have been a part of my regular curriculum. Unfortunately, it's rare that I play a piece all the way through without stopping/ re-starting to get back on track and proceed. Sometimes I'll find that if I'm very tired or not concentrating much and relying more on instinct/ previous practice, even sight-reading very easy music can trip up the coordination between my hands and my head. :P

But, I love progressing with sight-reading because my former brilliant voice teacher was an amazing sight-reader! I want to follow in his foot steps. Heck, one day I showed up to my lesson and we were wearing the same outfit! But, I have to wonder: How are there any voice teachers without sight-reading skills? My first voice teacher--the one prior to my former brilliant voice teacher--was the kind of singer who emerged from the womb with raw, natural talent and, despite having taken years of lessons herself, she didn't seem to know what she was doing. She caused more harm than good by blaming me for not advancing as she thought I should under her instruction, causing me to be hoarse for a week following a lesson,* and even criticizing me for my lack of piano chops when she couldn't even sight-read the songs she had assigned me to rehearse. Instead, she had a student-pianist record my song on tape for me. Even with MY meager sight-reading skills, NOW, I can easily sight-read it with minimal effort! This woman of course was a fellow student and hadn't a degree in the subject she was teaching; whereas, my brilliant teacher had a Master's Degree, and my lessons with each teacher was like night and day! This is why I always insist that my Voice teacher had his or her Master's Degree in the subject. :)

*She tried to get me to "project" my voice by having me imagine that I was a "fat Italian opera singer" and visualizing my voice as a laser and blasting off one of those huge hinges from a heavy rehearsal room door. I was trying everything--even almost scream-singing--and it wasn't good enough for her. She threw up her hands frustration, and I of course was to blame. Meanwhile, the following year my brilliant voice teacher discovered that my tongue creeps back down into my throat and muffles the sound. He created vocal exercise for me to absolve the problem by rolling an "R" on a 5 note scale and sticking my tongue WAY out at the 5 of the scale. It worked VERY well.