I suppose it goes back to my days playing the viola and saxophone in school. I remember learning what a “c” was on the viola. Then the next year in band I started learning this bizarre thing called the treble clef and all the letter names changed! It was also confusing in high school when I started to sing in bass clef. Piano, I suppose, was the final straw, when now I not only had two clefs, I had multiple notes to figure out at the same time….
All of this happened before I left high school, so I guess I took it fairly well in stride. For many people, however, it can be a daunting task to think about reading music when school is but a distant memory.
I have heard from many people in my various choirs who say they are intimidated by reading choral music during rehearsals. Part of it may be that adult singers just haven’t needed the skill all that much since finishing that music class or lesson all those years ago. Another source of our fear may be that, just like the fear of public speaking, we are uncomfortable with the fact that we may make mistakes, many mistakes, in front of (or next to) others. Our self-criticism gene switches to high gear and we begin to lose the excitement, and even begin to think negatively about the whole experience of making music as being “too hard.”
What makes the matter even worse, is that you may have someone like me standing up in front of you, giving you suggestions about how to improve your singing; i.e. telling you what’s wrong with your sightreading!
OK, I hope it’s not that bad for you, but I do know that for many people, sightreading is a daunting process. I haven’t seen any studies on the subject, but in my experience it seems that most people will answer “no” or “not really” if asked point blank whether they read music. I have partially gotten around this during auditions by asking whether people play any instruments; knowing that not everyone who plays an instrument reads and that not everyone without playing experience can’t read. But it helps clarify better than the dreaded question, “Do you read music?”
As for my rehearsals, I always encourage singers to be bold in their mistakes while reading. I appreciate loud mistakes early on because it allows us to begin shaping the sound we will eventually make at a concert. As for the public part; it’s always good to remember that everyone makes mistakes, no matter how good they may seem to be at sightreading. As children, we all made mistakes while learning to read “see spot run,” etc. – does that mean we can’t read now? It took practice, bold determination, and probably some patient teachers and classmates to get to the level we read books today. It’s very much the same with music.
If you feel nervous about reading music, I would encourage you to look at sightreading as the beginning of a process. All sightreading leads us to a point past actual reading. It is a way for us to become acquainted with a new discovery; a piece of music that may be sublime or quite ordinary; it almost doesn’t matter. For me, there’s a thrill in working to read music so you can embark on a journey of musical discovery. Just like reading a great book, there is nothing more thrilling to me than opening a piece of music and turning it into human expression. Does it happen on the first time reading through? Usually not. But we get a taste, a clue into the shape of the piece; the personality of the tune. Just like a new friend, enough time spent with the piece will continue to unfold little details, possibly large characteristics, that you didn’t notice at first. Then it happens: the moment of sublime discovery when the piece moves beyond the notes and rhythms and speaks to your soul; speaks through your soul to others. It’s the mountaintop experience almost every musician longs for; patiently waits for. However, without taking the chance to open that piece of music and endeavor to decode the dots, lines, and squigglies, you might never get to that mountaintop musically. Sightreading is the first step to expressing human emotion through music.
Sure, there are other ways to learn music. People have passed music through oral tradition for thousands of years. But just as written language has expanded the wealth of information we can reliably share, written music has had a similar effect on how we interpret music.
This fall, I will begin to teach a music sight reading skills class before rehearsals with the Rocky Mountain Chorale in Boulder. I am working to implement something similar at Saint Peter Lutheran Church for the singers there. With the enjoyment of music is often an important value to many people, and with a record number of people participating in choruses today in the U.S. (based upon a Chorus America study this past month), it seems irresponsible to not help empower people to read music; music that can change lives and give us such a liberating form of expression. The plan is simple – begin with the basics and work our way sequentially through lessons until students find that they are able to make more connections in music on their own. They will eventually find themselves empowered to get past the awkward learning stage sooner and learn more about true musical expression. What a gift!
I encourage everyone to continue learning throughout their lives – learning the basics of music reading can be a means to greater expression, understanding, and can turn sightreading sessions in ensembles from apprehension to excited anticipation. Happy reading!
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