Sight Reading Challenge (Unit 4)

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and today we're going to do a sight reading challenge. I'll present you with three different sight reading exercises from Sight Reading Trainer Book One, and I'll challenge you to sight read them on your piano. Are you ready to take the challenge? For each exercise today we're going to follow the steps that you can find on page fourteen of Sight Reading Trainer Book One. The first step is to identify the clef and the time signature. So what clef are we using? If you said bass clef, you're correct. And what's our time signature? If you said 4/4, you're correct, and that top number tells us we'll count four beats in every measure. Which brings us to step two, which is to tap the Rhythm while we count the beat. Since our top number is four, we'll count four beats in every measure and tap whenever we see a note. Don't forget that during a rest you'll still count the beat but not tap anything. A rest still takes up a beat, so we would in measure one here tap 1 2 3 4, say 4, but don't tap. Now, today my challenge is to do as much on your own as possible so I'm going to count 4 beats to get started, and then I'd like you to tap on your own the rhythm that you see. So I'll count 4 beats and then tap and be sure to count the beat out loud along with me. Here's 4 beats to get ready. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 Great job, now the next step is to point and say all the letter names for each note. So, before we do that just take a quick glance and tell me what you notice about how these notes are moving. Are they moving by step, or skip, or repeat mostly? I don't see any steps the whole time. Notice that all the notes are space notes, and when you have space notes, remember if you skip from a space to the next space that's a skipping pattern. So we have some repeats, but then the rest are all skips. All skips and repeats. So now can you point and say the letter name for this first note? If you said bass C, you're correct. This is one of our guide notes. Remember, bass C is three spaces down. One, two, three, spaces down, and bass clef brings us to bass C. Now can you name the rest of the notes? I'll point and you name each note, the letter name, go. C, now on your own. Rest Rest So if you said C C E rest, G G G, rest, G G E, rest, C E C, you're correct. It's all C E and G in this melody. Now we're ready to try to play it. Now remember, for this challenge I want you to do as much on your own as possible. So can you figure out for the next step where to place your hand? Remember for the bass clef we're using the left hand. Can you use the first note and finger number to find your hand position? Pause the video if you need more time, but you'll take finger 5 because of that number 5 and place it on a bass C which will land you in this C major pentascale position. So now I'd like you to pause the video, and do the next two steps on your own. You're going to play and name the notes. Use the letter names, and then try to play it one more time while you count the beat out loud. So pause to work on those two steps on your own, then press play we'll check it out together. All right for your last step it should have sounded like this: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. If that match what you played, great job. If you need more practice with it, no problem. You can always pause to get some more practice, but if you're ready, let's go on to the next exercise. Next up let's try exercise number ninety-seven. So, back to step one. Can you tell me what clefs you see? We have a treble and a bass clef, which forms our grand staff. Remember, our right hand will play all the notes on top, left hand will play all the notes on the bottom And what time signature did you see? Once again we have a 4/4 time signature, so we'll count 4 beats per measure. Which means we're ready for step two. This time when we tap the rhythm, use your left hand for any notes down here in the bass staff so you can do this on your lap or any flat surface, and use your right hand for any notes you see up in the treble staff. So this first measure would sound like this: 1 2 3 4 Make sure your right hand takes a turn there, your left hand's tapping these three notes while you count the beat. So once again I'd like you to try this on your own. Use your left hand for the notes down here, right hand up here, and count the beat out loud with me. I'll give you 4 beats to get ready, and then you'll start here tapping with your left hand on beat 1. Try it on your own, tap and count, ready here we go. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 Great job, now next step is to name the letter names for each note. Can you tell me the letter name for this first note in the left hand? If you said bass C, you're correct. Once again we have our guide note one, two, three, spaces down. Three rhymes with C. Three spaces down is bass C. Can you name these other letters? Go, C, now you go. If you said C D E, you're correct, and then for this we have a chord, so we can just say chord, because it could be kind of tedious to name all the notes in a chord, but we should check it's a C and G together, but we'll just say chord. Now keep going on your own. Name the letters. If you ...