Intro to Sight Reading Part 3 – “Ode to Joy”

So to recap on our last ’sight reading’ blog post we have looked at the notes on the music staff and learned to identify them on sight.  We have also established where on the guitar neck we are going to play our notes using the G form scale in the key of C as our base pattern.  Now we are going to put it all togeather and begin using what we learned in order to play what we have been waiting for, a piece of sheet music.

I have chosen “Ode to Joy” for our first piece.  There are two versions I have included in this post, an easy one and a more complex version.  Not to say the complex one is all that hard.  It is just using a different set of notes.  The easy one uses quarter notes and half notes.  The “complex” version uses eight and quarter notes.  In other words, when it comes down to it, the complex one is going to be faster.

Key Points

• Play Slow and do not increase the speed of the metronome until you are playing the current speed to par.
• May sound funny, but don’t listen to what you are playing.  If you play the notes right and in time you will always be playing the song right.  Just focus on the notes and the time and you will be fine.
• Look ahead.  When you read a sentence you are not looking at each individual word, you are looking ahead.  You are reading what is in front of what you are speaking so you are not surprised by what to say next.  Same applies to sight reading music.  The further you are able to look ahead the smoother your playing will be.

“GO PRACTICE”

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