tsupianomajor asked:

…messing around while sight-reading music at Diana’s house.

sight reading music

slhitchcock asked:

This is a great time for kids and for their parents. If your child would like to participate, it is best to sign up ahead of arrival with the instrument they wish to play. That way, they will have enough instruments at the festival so that each child can have one to use. The academy is in sponsored in June by Harry Grant and the Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival and in August by AFBA association and Festival. Here are the links to each of them: www.windgapbluegrass.com www.afbawindgap.org Instructor for the Bluegrass Academy: Mark Panfil and his brother Chris. Born and raised in Lackawanna, NY (a steel mill town, south of Buffalo), Mark began playing harmonica at age eight. He played songs on his Marine Band that he’d heard on local radio by ear, the way his dad taught him to. He began playing five string banjo at 15 and soon after that formed a local bluegrass group with his brother, Chris called, the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. When high school finished, he decided to make music his career by pursuing a degree in Music Education with piano as his primary instrument. After graduationg with his BA in Music, he went to work for Young Audiences of Western New York doing school concerts. In college, he began playing chromatic harmonica and added sight-reading music to his harmonica skills. His first Dobro was bought in the early 80′s and he soon joined Creek Bend as their Dobro player. He still plays with them and they have two cd’s available on the Copper Creek record label from …

Learn How to Sight Read Music

silence asked:


I’m trying to teach myself how to read music and play the keyboard/piano. I haven’t signed up for lessons with a teacher yet, because first, I want to know for sure if I could do this. Right now, reading from two staves seems so impossible for me – it makes me kind of dizzy when I try. lol : ) I want to know for sure if my brain could really handle it before I commit and pay for lessons.. I don’t want to sign up only to find myself stuck when I get to this part…: )

I have no trouble reading from one staff. I can sight-sing a little and translate music onto guitar, recorder and keyboard, as long as it is written on only one staff.

But when I try to read music on two staves, I fall apart! I’m not sure where I’m supposed to focus my eyes. Are you supposed to look at the top staff, then quickly look at the one below it, note per note..? Or do you read a whole measure on the top staff, remember it, then read the one on the bottom staff and play them at the same time? Or are you supposed to focus your eyes in the middle so you could see both staves at the same time (with your peripheral vision)?

And do you recite (either out loud or in your mind) the note names of the notes you’re supposed to play at the same time? Or do you just recognize them and “know” what they are without having to name them? Like, I can recognize a chord if I see it on one staff, so I don’t really have to name the notes one by one in order to play it. (I think it’s also easier to do it on one staff, since it requires a narrower field of vision.) But what if the notes you have to play simultaneously are spread over two staves? Like if there’s an E on the treble clef, and a C on the bass clef… do you have to name them (E, C) as you play them, or do you just recognize the combination and just play them without having to name them?

Any tips and advice would be appreciated. Thanks! : )

Sight Reading Secrets Revealed

Cho_Chang asked:


I know this probably sounds completely stupid, but I’ve have classical piano training for 10 years and friends have asked me to jam, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect/what I’m supposed to do. I’m good at classical piano, I can sight read alright, but when it comes to how music exactly works, I’m lost and I have no idea what I need to work on to not make a fool of myself when jamming. I’ve had some theory, but its very basic. And yes I understand chords and inversions, etc. and I’ve been doing some research and alot of reading.

And how long is this going to take me to learn? I’ve asked my piano teacher and she thought I was crazy to go after this after 10 years of classical training and went into this whole thing about how you have to be musically gifted to improvise/jam and if you aren’t gifted it takes years and years to learn…..

SpeedyMusicReading.com