Talented at music BUT...

[apprenticemum]

My DD(11) is musically talented. She has earned a music scolarship, 1 of only 10 places to her secondary school, plays piano, sings beautifully and is about to start the saxaphone. The only problem is that she struggles with sight reading music which is putting her off. Although she had done piano and voice to grade 3 her talent made up for the poor sight reading scores but I know this will not continue if I can't get her help. Having no music skills myself, I am amazed at how she can hear a song or watch it played on utube and within an hour or so play it on the piano. It frustrates me to think that she is getting only half of the story so to speak but haven't the faintest idea where to start. Is there some way or somewhere that she can get some specialised tuition?

I just want to agree with those who stress the importance of sight reading. I have 3 musically able children who are all excellent sight readers (simply because of the musical path they have taken) and it places them in such a good position both as regards exams but also getting into orchestras/bands/choirs and playing/singing at a very good level.

With a saxophonist I suspect it is quiet possible to never really learn to read music, but if she wants to take things on beyond school formally, even in he jazz world, to be able to read music would be very useful. Now is the time to learn, whist she is young rather than as a stuck in her ways older teen/twenties!

I confess, I thought grade 3 at 11 isn't actually that 'talented'...

I started playing the violin at 3 but I didn't learn to read music until I was 11. I went straight in at grade 5 at 11 and was grade 8 at 15. The key to reading sight music is practise, and lots of it!

It doesn't matter if we don't think she's talented, the school saw some potential. All I would say to the OP though is grade 3 is very low for most music scholarships so it may be best that she is aware of this before she starts so she doesn't feel disheartened being surrounded by more gifted musicians.

I agree here with all previous comments. Both playing by ear and sight reading is important. There are multiple online applications that can help out with these skills. Playing by ear can be practices with so called Ear Training. There are some offline regular applications and online resources that can help out with that.
If it comes to online stuff I can recommend teoria that was already mentioned and Ear Training Mastery - www.EarTrainingMastery.com.
With regular practice of couple of minutes a day your kids can become magnificent musicians. I wish you that! :)

Radek, did you say a couple of minutes a day? Really?

Apprenticemum. A completely different opinion here, definitely on sax forget grade 5 theory, not important at all. Your dd can either take gr5 jazz subject, or practical musicianship and not have to do any theory exams. Obviously understanding theory is important but you can learn this as you go along. All the pro's and exceptional tutors I know would tell you this. In addition some of the best musicians throughout history apparently couldn't read music. Ok they could tell you the same as the ones having gone down a more formal route but they obviously chose a different one.

apprentice - its very simple. Get sight-reading practice books (lots of them available in music shops) .

Start every practice with sight-reading , probably starting with earlier grade.

Some of them have methods and instruction, i.e. clap the rhythm first etc.

Just keep doing it religiously every day as was already suggested at the beginning of each practice.

When DS was younger we had the same problem. Just practice every single day - it will get better very quickly. Did for us :).

Some people are naturally better at it then others but its not impossible - just a bit of disipline .

Other useful trick we did was to cover the page with another book so she can only see 1 bar at the time and move it to the next bar as she plays it.