Sight reading (Clarinet and Guitar)

[educationrocks1]

Does anyone know how we can help Ds improve in his sight reading as its letting him down. He is grade 3 guitar and grade 2 Clarinet. We are not musically trained ourselves so find it a bit difficult helping with his sight reading as I don't know for instance if he is saying the right notes. Thanks

You can buy graded sight reading books, but obviously each exercise can really only be done once as the point is that the music is unknown. I found with DD, a clarinettist, that her sight reading improved most after she joined a junior orchestra and so was regularly being presented with new music.

Clarinet should be easier to sight read than guitar (only 1 line of music to read) so perhaps he could develop his skills with that instrument first.

He needs to keep the tempo he began with and push through his mistakes rather than let himself be stalled by them. Always try to read a note or two ahead and ignore mistakes.

Teach him to check the key signature first and to look for any patterns of rhythm, or any note patterns he recognises (e.g. Parts of scales and arpeggios).

There is a good app on the iPad ABRSM Reader (you can get apps for different instruments) - you can set different tempi and when each bar should have been read, it gets covered up to encourage and teach people to keep going when they are sight reading!!

Good luck - sight reading really is one of the hardest skills for musicians, but so worth it if you persevere.
I second the idea of playing lots of different pieces and with ensembles so you are forced to keep developing the skills (but in a fun way!)

Oops - abrsm app seems to be just for piano now, but there is another sight reading app for general use - search for sight reading clarinet and it will come up. Haven't tried it yet, but hope it also helps mine!

Thanks very much for the very useful advise. Currently plays in his school orchestra and in a rock band. I will search for a possible sight reading app for IPAD as mentioned by ohtobeanon. Thanks also for the tip regarding not 'stalling' if he gets makes a mistake and observing patterns, all very useful.

Maestro thank you for the links.

I would just get any old music, charity shops have some and then you can download free samples too.
As they only need to play a few bars in the exam cut some up and let him play a few bars as he walks passed the instruments. This is how dd learnt her scales as well.