Sight reading resources that should work

So as anyone who has glanced at this blog is aware, I suck at sight reading.  I didn't start learning to read while playing as most beginning classical guitarists do, instead I was much more comfortable memorizing and playing from memory.  Fine, this has worked out OK in the most part, except for just a few drawbacks, including (but not limited to)

- not knowing where I am if my GT points at the music,
- getting notes wrong and not realizing it,
- ignoring dynamics and tempo markings,
- having way too much work to do in orchestra ( admittedly I actually do read the music as I'm playing in orchestra providing I've figured out where to play it in advance and committed that to memory).

So I've been on a mission to improve.  All the advice says to do a little bit each day.  Fine.  I bought some excellent books designed to practice reading and worked through them.  However being old and slow, I found that I wasn't improving noticeably, and further the books got too hard, too fast for me.  I needed something where I could progress at my own pace with lots of repetition.

We are undoubtedly blessed with a wealth of free and paid resources on the web, however which ones are worth pursuing?  The first really useful resource (mostly because I can set it at a level that is just a bit more than comfortable and repeat endless examples) is sightreadingfactory.com.  It's reasonably priced and has a huge variety of options for customization, including # of measures, position, notes, key sig, accidentals, leaps, rhythm difficulty, syncopation, disappearing measures, etc.   The big thing (apart from the endless examples) that makes this worth the subscription money is that it plays the examples along with you so you have real time feedback on how close you are to what's actually written.  So I'm still doing C major in 1st 5th and 7th... but planning on adding G soon 😉  Another site that I haven't tried (because it is MUCH more expensive) is sightreadingmastery.com  Keep me posted if you try it and find it is super-helpful!

One limitation of the 'factory' is that it is all single line music.  This is all very well, but in my experience guitar music has enough intervals, chords, and partial chords to completely throw me off even when I'm happily managing to read the single notes.   So while searching for a site that would help with learning to translate groups of dots on the page to shapes on the fretboard without having to laboriously figure out each note, I came across  fundamental-changes site:  written by Rob Thorpe.  It's actually the 5th in a series to learn sight reading from scratch with lots of examples - in fact I probably need to go back to the prior pages before getting into full chords.  It also has a lot of recommended books that support and expand upon the examples on the site.

Want some real music to practice on?  There's an almost limitless supply on Delcamp of course, however they're indexed by composer and not graded, so you may have to hunt around for pieces that are the appropriate level.  However if you sign up on Delcamp.net  and post a couple of times, you get access to lots of graded pieces to practice on (right at the bottom of the rather confusing table of menus),  so you can pick the difficulty that works for you.

Now all I have to do is follow through on my own best intentions and keep at it!

When is it time to...?

There are certain things we know we are supposed to do in the never-ending quest to play more elegantly but we don't.  Why not?  Maybe we just don't feel it makes a difference, or it's takes too much work to change, or there are just too many other things to concentrate on...  you know the things I'm talking about --  Pressing as lightly as possible on the fingerboard, making sure your left hand is parallel to the fretboard,  keeping your left hand in close to the guitar neck so you don't bend your wrist inviting an injury,  playing right on your fingertips, playing close to the frets, keeping your fingers ready to play and close close close to that fingerboard at all times - etc.  and that's just the left hand!   I'm sure there are some of you out there that are thinking that this doesn't apply to you - (you perfect students - you already did all those things the first time you were told) - but woe is me, I didn't.

I agree that there is always something that rises to the top of the priority list for "fixing" and it rarely seems to incorporate the more subtle differences.  I see YT videos of quite accomplished players with their wrists way out and bent at wince-worthy angles yet playing beautifully, so there are some things that maybe never rise to the top of the list out of necessity - or maybe they know something I don't - it has happened 😂.

So when is it time to buckle down and do something about those technique things we've been ignoring?  For me,  it's usually not until something forces me to change my technique - IOW it just won't work without (though being called out in public works too - don't ask).  As an example, I was finding that during the first - fifth shift on the first string in Maria Luisa I was dropping off the side of the fingerboard about 1 in 8 attempts. This wouldn't have mattered so much if I didn't have to do that shift 8 times!  One of my friends helpfully slowed down the video frame by frame of me attempting the shift - was my hand parallel (no), were my fingers prepared to land? (no) were they on their tips (no) and was my hand next to the fingerboard with fingers curled? (you can guess the answer).   I had to fix all those things before I could reliably stay on track during the shift up the fingerboard, but until that point it hadn't really bothered me that I wasn't quite doing it right.  Having learned what it feels like to do it that way, interestingly some of it is carrying over into the rest of my playing (at least I think it is).  And some of it appears to be synergistic - for instance, you can't really keep your hand in closer to the neck without curling your fingers more on the top strings, which makes you play more on your fingertips, which encourages playing more lightly... (Check out Jason Vieaux videos for curly fingers...)

Wouldn't it be nice if someone knowledgeable were to identify pieces or exercises that would identify and then practice some of these more nebulous technique issues.     Like the sticky fingers exercise to stop your fingers from rebounding off the fretboard, or buzz scales to learn to press less hard.  I'm voting for Maria Luisa shifts 😉 to start with...

New Years (un) Resolutions

Yes it's that time of year again when we collectively utter a sigh of relief (or disappointment) that the old year is over and look forward to bigger, better and brighter things in the new one.  (Well not bigger in my case, but you get the picture). As this blog is about learning guitar, I will refrain from mentioning that one of last year's failed resolutions was to lose 10 lb, because this year it should be replaced with one to lose 20 lb.   However as cynical realism has set in (not the contemporary movement in Chinese Art, just my version of a lifestyle choice) I will merely write down and consider things I might do to enhance my guitar playing this year.   In the interests of inserting a small amount of optimism though, I will put them down in the order from "likely to happen at least once" to "in your dreams, baby."

1. Practice sight reading every day.   Subscribed to "sightreadingfactory.com" and set it at such a basic level that even I can achieve some success.  Actually it's quite fun providing your guitar teacher isn't watching the results (!)

2. Start each practice session with an (albeit tiny) goal in mind so you can see some results - even if it's only"learn 2 measures."   Today's goal was to write 10 (un) resolutions in my blog 😂

3. Interleave practice to enhance learning - see "make it stick" by Peter C Brown
3a.  Read "make it stick" by Peter C Brown.   I  admit it. I read about the book on another blog...

4. Practice using minimal pressure.  I'm getting quite good at doing buzz scales. However as it's having minimal effect, next is to practice actual pieces this way.

5. Learn at least one piece I abandoned before finishing because it was too hard.  Maybe Villa Lobos  prelude 4... or Joropo from Suite de los Recuerdos...

6. Submit performance for Classical Guitar Corner level 3.  I figure I'm half way there - I've memorized the 5 pieces and can even play a couple of them.  Still got to practice the technical exercises, figure out how to improvise over chords, and actually link it all together in a performance.

7. Go back to playing at the Nursing Home.  Or find another venue to get started again.  I figure I can practice my performance for (5) ...

8. Play at an open mic - you never know...

9.  Work less and enroll in music school part time - I'd like to learn to arrange pieces for guitar.

10. Check back in 3 months to see if any of these things actually happened!

Oh and here’s my first video of 2018 - I guess that could be #11. Get comfortable with making videos...

Happy New Year everyone!