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AndrewH said
As an amateur, I do a lot of sight-reading in first rehearsals. My orchestra typically distributes music about a week in advance of the first rehearsal, but realistically there isn't time to practice everything. Before the first rehearsal, I look over the music and figure out what needs practice in advance, so typically I've practiced the tricky-looking passages but nothing else. I do listen to recordings if possible, but most of what I get out of it is familiarity with what other parts sound like and when I should start playing. It's often of limited use for learning my own notes because the viola part may be in the background. (Also, listening to recordings is not always possible because some of the music we play is contemporary music that has never been recorded.)................
You might be amazed by how many professional musicians site-read at first rehearsals. Not always because they didn't have a chance to look at the music, but because they are lazy, good at site-reading, and are able to get away with it. Obviously it's not the optimal thing to do, but like with all employees, there are good, bad, and great ones. The perfect employee will be well prepared, but when you're doing the same job for many years and your job is secure..... You never know.
I was guilty of site-reading first rehearsals but not if it we were performing music that was challenging, had a reputation of being difficult, or contained leader solos that I had to play. I would evaluate the first rehearsal and work hard if I had been mistaken to make sure that I could perform the program as well as possible.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Fiddlerman said
You might be amazed by how many professional musicians site-read at first rehearsals. Not always because they didn't have a chance to look at the music, but because they are lazy, good at site-reading, and are able to get away with it.
There's another reason to sight-read if you are a 2nd violin - the music is often too boring to be worth practising!
I'm currently working on this repertoire, and it's pretty soul-destroying.
And I'm supposed to be finding time for the Bach D minor Allemanda and the Massenet Méditation as well, somehow. And scales. Luckily the Massenet doesn't require a huge amount of effort.
Andrew
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Gordon Shumway said
Fiddlerman said
You might be amazed by how many professional musicians site-read at first rehearsals. Not always because they didn't have a chance to look at the music, but because they are lazy, good at site-reading, and are able to get away with it.
There's another reason to sight-read if you are a 2nd violin - the music is often too boring to be worth practising!
I'm currently working on this repertoire, and it's pretty soul-destroying.
And I'm supposed to be finding time for the Bach D minor Allemanda and the Massenet Méditation as well, somehow. And scales. Luckily the Massenet doesn't require a huge amount of effort.
Peter and the Wolves or... great googly moogly man, maybe it's just my skill level (cough cough not even at vibrato cough cough) but Mendelssohn's name alone gives me a bit of anxiety. Hoping it's going well and at least you still have a month and a half left!
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Sharon Begley
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Cajun said
Gordon Shumway said
Fiddlerman said
You might be amazed by how many professional musicians site-read at first rehearsals. Not always because they didn't have a chance to look at the music, but because they are lazy, good at site-reading, and are able to get away with it.
There's another reason to sight-read if you are a 2nd violin - the music is often too boring to be worth practising!
I'm currently working on this repertoire, and it's pretty soul-destroying.
And I'm supposed to be finding time for the Bach D minor Allemanda and the Massenet Méditation as well, somehow. And scales. Luckily the Massenet doesn't require a huge amount of effort.
Peter and the Wolves or... great googly moogly man, maybe it's just my skill level (cough cough not even at vibrato cough cough) but Mendelssohn's name alone gives me a bit of anxiety. Hoping it's going well and at least you still have a month and a half left!
The good thing about being a 2nd violin in a symphony orchestra (as opposed to a string orchestra) is that it's not too difficult to keep your head below the parapet.
Yes, they are doing Peter and the Wolf too in a separate gig, but rehearsals for that are on Saturdays, so I can't make them, which is a pity, as playing in P&TW would be on my bucket list if I had one.
Andrew
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I've just noticed the organist isn't credited in Fauré's requiem.
Whose thread am I hijacking, lol?
Andrew
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I would like to chime in on this topic as well. I remember my father teaching me sight reading back in the late early 70s as a child with him telling me about his father helping him sight read and now I find myself teaching Thomas the same things that were handed down to me. For the first few years, as you are strengthening your sight reading skills, the only time you would need to focus on and practice with regards to sight reading is when you are auditioning for an orchestra(this is purely from a violinists standpoint). And then, they give you a 30 second-1 minute time frame to look as much over as you can. So far, for the past 3 years for Thomas and the entirety of my childhood, sight reading involved only a line or at the most 2 lines of music, and most often right in the middle of a piece of music. I remember my father telling me that when you sight read, it does not matter if you have heard the music before, as long as you had not played it before...which makes perfect sense because those giving you the excerpt to sight read(conductor most of the time) do not know whether or not you have ever heard it or played it before. They give the same excerpt to all the violinists and those who have heard it before simply have a silent upper hand. WHich is fine because nobody can control what someone has heard throughout their life. Just need to do the best you can. I have taught Thomas to look for where his shifts will be in the excerpt along with time and key signatures, bowing, dynamics and tempo.
Jim(Thomases Dad)
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