Sight-Reading: For the Contemporary Musician

By Pablo S. Della Bella

So what is sight-reading? Sight-reading is the ability to take a piece of music for the very first time and play it through as if you knew it your whole life. So when do you master Sight-Reading? Being a good reader is only half way there, you master Sight-reading when you are able to read anything in any given key, with any metric modulation, in any Clef, when you are able to transpose the notated music on the spot, following conductor cues performing dynamics, articulations and styles flawlessly.
The ability to sight-read is crucial but not only in the working field. Can you imagine how your ability to grow as a musician will be expanded? Youll be able to pick-up any book and sight read whatever is written: Examples, Transcribed solos Anything. Finally! You will go forward from wasting hours figuring out those parts instantly!
In this edition I share with you all the information that I put together all these years of sight-reading new shows every day, and the key points to finally achieve that skill that has been troubling your sleep for so long.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781469138848

Pablo S. Della Bella

Pablo grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And although his professional career begun at the age of 7, by the time he turned 19 he couldn’t read a single note or follow a lead sheet. –He didn’t know what a quarter-note was-. At that age, he was left out without a job and his only hope to stay involved in music was to learn to sight-read and play on a cruise-ship orchestra. Without money for a tutor he had to come up with a method to make it happen and teach himself from scratch.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Pablo S. Della Bella.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011962852

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-3883-1

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-3882-4

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-3884-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

107909

Contents

About Me

Chapter I Catching Up

Time Signatures:

Notes and Rests:

Dynamics

Ties

Articulations:

Bar Lines

Repeat Signs:

Accidentals

Key Signatures

Conductor Markings

Chapter II The Keys to Sight-Read

Chapter III The Sightreading Calendar

About Me

When I was a child, I had to figure everything myself. We had no money for teachers or tutors. When I turned nineteen, I couldn’t read music—I didn’t know what a quarter note was or what was in 4/4 and what was in 3/4. At that age, after a family tragedy, I was left out without a job, and my only hope to stay in music was to play on a cruise-ship orchestra. The problem was that gig required excellence in reading. I promised to myself that I wasn’t going to give up because music was the only thing that truly mattered to me. So I had a little money with me and I bought Marc Johnson’s Concepts for Bass Soloing. I sat hours and