Question:
Will I ever be able to read music quick enough? I can read ok if I know the tune but struggle if I have to read the rhythm and the notes at the same time. I lose the count trying to read the notes.
-Russell
Background:
Russell has been playing for 18 months, practices five days a week.
He says that he knows all of the major scales, but has not learned any music by ear.
My response:
Theoretically, if you know all the major scales, recognizing the notes should not be a problem.
However, if the key changes in music you play, then being comfortable with rapidly changing keys may be difficult.
In the last thing you say, where you talk about losing count, the bigger issue seems to come up.
The problem seems to be keeping track of the count.
I would say you should focus and isolate the rhythm when practicing. When I started learning music in middle school we would count the rhythms out loud using syllables. Numbers for downbeats. The word “and” for upbeats. Etc.
The other thing to do, once you have a handle on the rhythm, is to slow down to a temp where you can play it comfortably.
Isolating the rhythm and slowing down should allow you to play the music on the saxophone. And then it will be a matter of practicing to play it at tempo.
There are lots of tools out there to improve sight-reading. In my experience, the best way to hone this skill is to sight-read a lot of material daily, choosing material that is really comfortable for you– like silly easy. Play new material to a metronome for 15-20 minutes daily, and you will see huge improvement.
Apple has a great app called “ReadRhythm” for iPad and iPhone. I use it when I’m away from reading to keep the skills sharp. You can also find tons of books with rhythm examples for practice.
Hey Neal! Nice post and great question!
There are many ways to hone this skill – using a metronome that allows for changing the rhythms comes to mind.
Or, you can play with a track and do it until it’s under your fingers and you can flow with the changes. Maybe take it one key at a time, progressively add an additional key so you can flow from one key to the next slowly. (The Music Slow Downer or Transcribe! software make this easier to do since you can loop specific sections and slow things down to a speed you can build up from.)
Counting out the rhythm using syllables is definitely a great thing to do. That works great for exercises and songs. But the cool thing with songs, I think it also helps if you can listen to lyrics associated with a particular song. That way, if you can remember the words, you can probably lock-in the rhythm. I learned some unfamiliar tunes like this recently.
For example, one of the fastest Jazz songs played is Cherokee. There’s a version by Eddie Harris that cooks! The Charlie Parker versions and others rip at 300 bpm too! There’s one recorded in the 1950’s features Sarah Vaughn. Listening to her vocals and “Cannonball” Adderley’s solo adds to the overall feel of the rhythm. With a Real Book in hand, you can watch the notes fly by and recognize even the toughest things to play – not to get ahead of ourselves though!
It might help to check out much slower tunes first. Check YouTube for videos of Vocalists singing Jazz Standards or buy a Real Book written for Vocalists.
Hearing and seeing and singing the words to the songs can help you find the rhythm and also learn the melody and help you improvise.
Just a few thoughts.
Keep The Music Playing!
Chazz
Thanks Chazz,
I like where you mention using lyrics, that’s something I find helpful too.
-Neal