As a cellist of nearly 9 years, who has deliberately practiced reading in advance whilst playing, I can confidently say that it works wonders. Not just for being comfortably ready for upcoming music, but also for placing unused fingers on upcoming notes in advance, allowing for smoother transitions
As a violinist and a pianist of 11 years, it does really help. I’ve incorporated sight reading practice and rhythm reading practices into my practice sessions for years. My sight reading is miles better than it was before I learned how to do this, and in orchestra it’s such a huge help as well.
As a singer and pianist, solfège is one of the best things you can do. It’s an amazing learning tool and can help sight reading TREMENDOUSLY. ask your choir director or look into it! It’s sooooo. Amazing.
You don’t know how much I love your videos and topics you choose, that’s why I’m leaving this comment here! Sight reading intrigues me as a skill because although in music schools we’re being taught almost the same thing but all students result in different levels of sight reading proficiency Edit: 4:58 you cheeky bastard…
So glad you’re enjoying them! Thanks for the support. Yeah, it is interesting how the apparent same input produces different results. The reasons why can make for really interesting discussion.
I have no problem thinking about music theory as definitions, vocabulary, and RULES. Rules are a lifeline to grasp when I get stuck on a concept. This was yet another one of your well-thought-out and explained videos - thanks!
It depends on what rules you’re talking about. Depending on who you talk to, there are rules about what chords must or cannot follow other chords, or how melodies must work, or what kind of voice movement is allowed. Parallel fifths and octaves are a great example. They are very inappropriate for some styles but work just fine in others. It’s a bit like how raw fish works great with rice and seaweed in sushi but would be a very adventurous choice in an ice cream sundae. There’s no rule about fish and ice cream, but I don’t think there’s a lot of precedent for it.
Speaking as someone who grew up using standard western notation and is now learning an alternate form (减字谱，for the 古琴) , it's really interesting to see how some of this advice (from the whole series) can apply to 减字谱，and how some or it can't. But it's a great reminder to always challenge yourself and both go back to basics and challenge yourself with new things! Thank you for this wonderful concise but thoughtful primer on sight reading! ps: if anyone reading this is curious about 减字谱 (jianzipu) or the 古琴 (guqin), I highly recommend checking it out. it's a beautiful instrument, and the writing system is fascinating. It gives you a lot of information standard notation doesn't (such as what finger to press down on what string at what place, and what finger to pluck with going what direction), but also skips some of the information standard notation considers vital (such as how long to hold each note, or even displaying them visually relative to each other), because of the way the instrument was historically taught, using a mixture of sight reading and playing by ear. pps: I'd love to see you do a series on alternate/historical musical notation! I feel like there's so much you can learn and take away from it even if at the end of the day you go back to standard, and it tells you so much about what was prioritized at the time and for that specific instrument!
I have a feeling you might enjoy this video by tantacrul. It’s really long and the beginning is somewhat skippable, but there’s a lot of themes that align with your interest in the history of notation. I really enjoyed it. th-cam.com/video/Eq3bUFgEcb4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DJ2efIgzLyiGzrIJ
Thank you very much. I subscribed to the srf thanks to you Just one little correction 7:17 : It's not exact: In all the countries that use fixed do (i.e the countries that don't speak english nor a germanic language) B is not Ti at all but definitively Si. Ti is a changement made in the 19th century by Sarah Glover, so it's common only in the english speaking countries which use movable do.
this video was helpful, even though i play arguably the hardest instrument to sight read (classical guitar) just imagine consistently reading 5 and 6 note chords that, unlike piano, any given note can be played in several different positions, and you only have four fingers to finger with🙃 subscribed
Having viewed all the videos posted are excellent in terms of visuals and analogies and your step-by-step approach are all packed into each video. A good range of mix (of videos) for the beginner to more advance musicians. The challenge is how to make music theory and all its strands interesting to practice so perhaps for future videos this is a subject you might cover a practical song for reference. A good example might be Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” as it sounds good and you can use all your previous videos visuals intersected to break down (and explain) rhythms, counting (e.g., the bass line). Hopefully this will encourage beginners to practice and master a song at the same time.
Solfege is one thing I don't know well! I only know the natural notes going up the scale! A friend and I were talking recently about not understanding solfege, because we've never had to use it! Both of us are planning on going into music related fields and she'll need to learn solfege at university. I'm not sure if the uni I'm applying to uses solfege or not! It's just so foreign to me!
For people like me, who really need to work at ear training, solfege can be a really great tool. Give it a try and see how it works for you! It can be hard at first but the payoffs can be huge. And worst case, you’ve got a bit of familiarity with a thing lots of other musicians know.
@@BradHarrison thank you sir and truly appreciate it. I mean snare reading is as start great for rhythm comprehension, but a drum chart with all notation can be an eye whelming experience, so i suggest its better to have such feature as well of chart grooves/breaks etc for drums, would really help students😊
It's interesting how his first premise is literally wrong. You actually don't really improve your weaknesses in sight-reading by sight-reading. Sight-reading is more of a TEST of what you do know, not something that teaches what you don't know. The way you actually improve at sight-reading is by improving reading. You learn music while not looking at your hands and you begin to develop spatial awareness of where your hands are. The difference between doing that and sight-reading is just speed. But tempo is always the easiest thing to add on later as you get more comfortable with a given passage. If you struggle to sight-read larger jumps for example on the left hand and you try sight-reading those you literally will just hopelessly fail and also PRACTICE MISTAKES which is one of the main things you want to avoid. But if you learn dozens of pieces with jumps on the left hand you will learn how to do it. There actually isn't a way around that. You HAVE to do that.
"Fixed Do" makes no sense to me. The notes already have names. They don't need two names. The whole point of naming them is to understand their underlying relationships in the first place. It's like a bunch of musicians take figured bass and decide that I is a C major chord, II is a D major chord, etc. It's added complication for no benefit while missing the point
In Europe many countries use do re mi fa,... as the primary note naming system. We usually learn about C, D, E, F,... later on, especially for those of us who learn about music in English. I understand the concept of movable do and I'm not against it at all, but to my French brain it's just too confusing calling an F# "do" or "la" hahaha I like to use numbers instead of movable do to achieve the same goal ;)
@@Shikamati03 (biased movable do person here, sorry in advance) With the numbers, 1-2-3 sounds different in a major key (do-re-mi) than in a natural minor (la-ti-do) for instance. Ofcourse you can sing '1-2-flat3' or something like that, but that's not very practical since it's not one syllable anymore. With movable do, the half-note-distances are always the same in whatever key you are. With 1-2-3 you have to 'remember' it all, instead of it being the same but just start on a different note. For me that's the biggest benefit of movable do.
@@hannekehommes i mean i can’t disagree with this hahaha one day i’ll try and erase fixed do from my brain, but i think that means using exclusively English note names which can be complicated in a French speaking environment Anyway thank you for your insight ☺️
Hmmmm….I think you may be correct. Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to do a deeper dive on solfege at some point and will make a note about it. [Though, technically, I think that still counts as “some” people. ;-) ]
@@BradHarrison good starting point on the notation is the latest David Bennet video. th-cam.com/video/MVA8bgSBt5A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=V2xP0CYdeKrnpqwZ And no, I refuse to define English speaking living being as « people » 😁
BLA BLA BLA BLA .... TO BE A GOOD MUSCIAN TAKES TIME, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.... WHY CONFUSE PEOPLE AND TRY TO SCARE THEM, IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT, IF YOU RELLY LIKE MUSIC !!!
I sight read this entire video in 5 minutes despite it being nearly 12 minutes long.
give him the nobel prize now
Absolutely amazing
Give this man a medal
Gusto mo medal?
As a cellist of nearly 9 years, who has deliberately practiced reading in advance whilst playing,
I can confidently say that it works wonders. Not just for being comfortably ready for upcoming music, but also for placing unused fingers on upcoming notes in advance, allowing for smoother transitions
you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about at all
As a piano player: You guys have unused fingers????
As a violinist and a pianist of 11 years, it does really help. I’ve incorporated sight reading practice and rhythm reading practices into my practice sessions for years. My sight reading is miles better than it was before I learned how to do this, and in orchestra it’s such a huge help as well.
As a singer and pianist, solfège is one of the best things you can do. It’s an amazing learning tool and can help sight reading TREMENDOUSLY. ask your choir director or look into it! It’s sooooo. Amazing.
Ill try it one day, thanks for the advice :)
5:04 He thinks we didn't notice the mixed meter megalovaina.
I saw the thumbnail and it was like multiple alarms went off in my head all at once.
Or the Lick
You don’t know how much I love your videos and topics you choose, that’s why I’m leaving this comment here! Sight reading intrigues me as a skill because although in music schools we’re being taught almost the same thing but all students result in different levels of sight reading proficiency
Edit: 4:58 you cheeky bastard…
So glad you’re enjoying them! Thanks for the support.
Yeah, it is interesting how the apparent same input produces different results. The reasons why can make for really interesting discussion.
I have no problem thinking about music theory as definitions, vocabulary, and RULES. Rules are a lifeline to grasp when I get stuck on a concept. This was yet another one of your well-thought-out and explained videos - thanks!
It depends on what rules you’re talking about. Depending on who you talk to, there are rules about what chords must or cannot follow other chords, or how melodies must work, or what kind of voice movement is allowed. Parallel fifths and octaves are a great example. They are very inappropriate for some styles but work just fine in others. It’s a bit like how raw fish works great with rice and seaweed in sushi but would be a very adventurous choice in an ice cream sundae. There’s no rule about fish and ice cream, but I don’t think there’s a lot of precedent for it.
Speaking as someone who grew up using standard western notation and is now learning an alternate form (减字谱，for the 古琴) , it's really interesting to see how some of this advice (from the whole series) can apply to 减字谱，and how some or it can't. But it's a great reminder to always challenge yourself and both go back to basics and challenge yourself with new things! Thank you for this wonderful concise but thoughtful primer on sight reading!
ps: if anyone reading this is curious about 减字谱 (jianzipu) or the 古琴 (guqin), I highly recommend checking it out. it's a beautiful instrument, and the writing system is fascinating. It gives you a lot of information standard notation doesn't (such as what finger to press down on what string at what place, and what finger to pluck with going what direction), but also skips some of the information standard notation considers vital (such as how long to hold each note, or even displaying them visually relative to each other), because of the way the instrument was historically taught, using a mixture of sight reading and playing by ear.
pps: I'd love to see you do a series on alternate/historical musical notation! I feel like there's so much you can learn and take away from it even if at the end of the day you go back to standard, and it tells you so much about what was prioritized at the time and for that specific instrument!
I have a feeling you might enjoy this video by tantacrul. It’s really long and the beginning is somewhat skippable, but there’s a lot of themes that align with your interest in the history of notation. I really enjoyed it. th-cam.com/video/Eq3bUFgEcb4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DJ2efIgzLyiGzrIJ
@@BradHarrison Ooh, thank you! I somehow haven't seen that video before! Definitely going on my watch later list!
Best video series ever on Sight reading
Thank you very much. I subscribed to the srf thanks to you
Just one little correction
7:17 : It's not exact: In all the countries that use fixed do (i.e the countries that don't speak english nor a germanic language) B is not Ti at all but definitively Si.
Ti is a changement made in the 19th century by Sarah Glover, so it's common only in the english speaking countries which use movable do.
Thanks for the info!
this video was helpful, even though i play arguably the hardest instrument to sight read (classical guitar)
just imagine consistently reading 5 and 6 note chords that, unlike piano, any given note can be played in several different positions, and you only have four fingers to finger with🙃
subscribed
Having viewed all the videos posted are excellent in terms of visuals and analogies and your step-by-step approach are all packed into each video. A good range of mix (of videos) for the beginner to more advance musicians.
The challenge is how to make music theory and all its strands interesting to practice so perhaps for future videos this is a subject you might cover a practical song for reference.
A good example might be Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” as it sounds good and you can use all your previous videos visuals intersected to break down (and explain) rhythms, counting (e.g., the bass line). Hopefully this will encourage beginners to practice and master a song at the same time.
This is wonderful, thank you! I just started sharing videos on my TH-cam channel in the hopes of making music literacy accessible to all.
Excellent! Good luck with the channel!
6:12 laughing at "fingering" being a weakness is so real lmfao
5:55 "Pay negotiation" "Pretend laugh at leader's jokes"
Important skills!
Everyone is talking about him sneaking in Megalovania, but he snuck in the lick too😂
Solfege is one thing I don't know well! I only know the natural notes going up the scale! A friend and I were talking recently about not understanding solfege, because we've never had to use it! Both of us are planning on going into music related fields and she'll need to learn solfege at university. I'm not sure if the uni I'm applying to uses solfege or not! It's just so foreign to me!
For people like me, who really need to work at ear training, solfege can be a really great tool. Give it a try and see how it works for you! It can be hard at first but the payoffs can be huge. And worst case, you’ve got a bit of familiarity with a thing lots of other musicians know.
5:04 he tried to hide the megalovania lol
2:13 is that kris bergs “the chicken”?
Him showing Do Re Mi... And C D E....
But.....
WHY NOT SA RE GA MA...
THAT'S THE ONE I LEARNED FIRST.
THANK YOU❤❤❤ By does SRF have material for drummer? i mean not just mallet and snare. Like full drum set notation
I don’t think at this time. But I’ll send them a note and let them know at least one person is curious about such a feature!
@@BradHarrison thank you sir and truly appreciate it. I mean snare reading is as start great for rhythm comprehension, but a drum chart with all notation can be an eye whelming experience, so i suggest its better to have such feature as well of chart grooves/breaks etc for drums, would really help students😊
Please, make video about improvising🙏🙏
That’s my big project for 2024! Likely late winter/early spring. It’ll be a multi part series.
5:03 bro really sneaked in megalovania im dead 💀
2:13 YOOO THE 🐥 🐥 🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔 🥚 🥚
thanks
Plz upload other parts of Rhythms
They’re on the way! Got a couple in the pipeline before them but definitely in the new year.
By the way, there is also numbered notation.
This is regarding Tip #18
I find mixed meter to be an easy thing except in marching band but that aside i actually sometimes like having mixed meter
Can someone please name all of the excerpts used in this video? I recognized some (like Can Can) but not all of them.
Ones I’ve recognized so far
1:21 Can Can
4:24 Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
5:00 Megalovania
5:30 The lick
That moment at school band comp when you get to open the envelope.
As a professionally trained classical musician, I realized right away that the thumbnail was a mixed Meyer Megalovania
6:10 “I giggled when the teacher said ‘finger your parts’” oh hella nah
4:07 megalovania spotted
I giggled when the teacher said ‘finger your parts’
It's interesting how his first premise is literally wrong. You actually don't really improve your weaknesses in sight-reading by sight-reading. Sight-reading is more of a TEST of what you do know, not something that teaches what you don't know. The way you actually improve at sight-reading is by improving reading. You learn music while not looking at your hands and you begin to develop spatial awareness of where your hands are. The difference between doing that and sight-reading is just speed. But tempo is always the easiest thing to add on later as you get more comfortable with a given passage.
If you struggle to sight-read larger jumps for example on the left hand and you try sight-reading those you literally will just hopelessly fail and also PRACTICE MISTAKES which is one of the main things you want to avoid. But if you learn dozens of pieces with jumps on the left hand you will learn how to do it. There actually isn't a way around that. You HAVE to do that.
i initially thought this was about rhythm games
"Fixed Do" makes no sense to me. The notes already have names. They don't need two names. The whole point of naming them is to understand their underlying relationships in the first place.
It's like a bunch of musicians take figured bass and decide that I is a C major chord, II is a D major chord, etc. It's added complication for no benefit while missing the point
In Europe many countries use do re mi fa,... as the primary note naming system. We usually learn about C, D, E, F,... later on, especially for those of us who learn about music in English. I understand the concept of movable do and I'm not against it at all, but to my French brain it's just too confusing calling an F# "do" or "la" hahaha
I like to use numbers instead of movable do to achieve the same goal ;)
@@Shikamati03 (biased movable do person here, sorry in advance) With the numbers, 1-2-3 sounds different in a major key (do-re-mi) than in a natural minor (la-ti-do) for instance. Ofcourse you can sing '1-2-flat3' or something like that, but that's not very practical since it's not one syllable anymore. With movable do, the half-note-distances are always the same in whatever key you are. With 1-2-3 you have to 'remember' it all, instead of it being the same but just start on a different note. For me that's the biggest benefit of movable do.
@@hannekehommes i mean i can’t disagree with this hahaha
one day i’ll try and erase fixed do from my brain, but i think that means using exclusively English note names which can be complicated in a French speaking environment
Anyway thank you for your insight ☺️
Fixed do is just learning music in Spanish
Bro thought he could sneak megalovania into the thumbnail
❤❤❤❤❤
5:34 bro just licked us.
Mixed meter? Ohhhhh. I always thought it was mitre.
Some places spell it metre too. Don’t think I’ve seen mitre.
Merci, an Al Gore Rhythm comment.
Always appreciated!!
Everyone use « Si », it’s only the English speakers who use « Ti » ;)
Hmmmm….I think you may be correct. Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to do a deeper dive on solfege at some point and will make a note about it.
[Though, technically, I think that still counts as “some” people. ;-) ]
@@BradHarrison good starting point on the notation is the latest David Bennet video. th-cam.com/video/MVA8bgSBt5A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=V2xP0CYdeKrnpqwZ
And no, I refuse to define English speaking living being as « people » 😁
Although in English solfege, Si is So-sharp, so there might be some confusion there
1:18 the guitarist of Ohio 💀
please never speak again
I heard the chicken
SANS UNDERTALE?!?!!!???!!
...
Is that megalovania on the thumbnail?
BLA BLA BLA BLA .... TO BE A GOOD MUSCIAN TAKES TIME, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.... WHY CONFUSE PEOPLE AND TRY TO SCARE THEM, IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT, IF YOU RELLY LIKE MUSIC !!!
If only “just practice” were enough to make everyone a great musician.
not important anymore.....
?
movable do is a sin and a disgrace to nature
Lmao. You’re who I described in the video. ;-)