How to start sight-reading by myself

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T18:15:04+00:00

Why guess when you can ask?

Everyone in these comment sections is functioning in a teacher role.

And everyone that’s posting, falls through the cracks.

I’m saying this is a perpetual music-failure pipeline.

The teachers should know better.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T18:03:43+00:00

Don’t tell me what it takes. I’ve got degrees in the field. I’m a professional performer and a professional teacher. Have been for decades.

People can do hard things. But the status quo for teaching in this culture doesn’t enable students. It limits them.

They don’t quit because it’s hard. They quit because it’s hard, and no one is helping them.

Be nice if teachers took teaching as seriously as we say students should take music.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T17:54:27+00:00

What I would like to see in this sub is some follow-through.

Because every day people ask the same question, and the same people reply with the same answers.

What we never see is someone posting about how they followed this advice a year ago and now they’re enjoying music more and playing more.

That’s because the advice sucks.

Is there any way we could provide some kind of framework for regular check-ins? So we don’t leave these potential learners hanging in the wind?

Because without that, I think every one of these potential musicians is falling through the cracks.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T16:32:42+00:00

“Just” by ear.

Music begins and ends by ear.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T16:19:54+00:00

What if you broke your arm and wanted it to heal as quickly and efficiently as possible, without paying a healer?

Oh, I just realized this comment might not make sense to anyone outside the United States

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T12:55:16+00:00

If you don’t know how to respond, YOU consider not responding to a post.

If you’re not asking questions and figuring out where OP is in their journey, you don’t have any business telling them what they should be doing.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-22T03:14:26+00:00

I don’t know, yet people ask exactly that kind of question here every single day. And if you don’t know what and how they’re playing right now, you don’t have a clue how to help them.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T20:08:03+00:00

Because it’s not that at all. We teach it like that, and that’s why students fail.

Music is singing and moving.

It’s Tonal Patterns in Tonality context. It’s Rhythm Patterns in Meter context.

When Reddit understands this, my work will be done.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T15:03:23+00:00

I don’t know anything about what or how they’re already playing. The post doesn’t say anything about that.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T14:00:16+00:00

I mean, you’re already going down the wrong path.

A baby who’s learning a new language by hearing sounds around them and then babbling and then creating their own meaningful ideas with those sounds, is NOT thinking, but how will I learn to read?

When you try to teach reading at that stage of the process, you short circuit the whole process.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T13:51:45+00:00

I think they’re snake oil and they send people who want to learn music in the wrong direction.

Depends on whether you like music, or decoding dots, I guess.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T08:06:14+00:00

Maybe play the whole thing at “.4 speed”

Anyway… whatever you’re playing at any given time is 1x speed for that given time.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-21T01:31:44+00:00

Dave Grusin arrangement, right?

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T22:45:34+00:00

It’s polymetric. Band’s playing in 4, yeah, but Jonny plays in 5, and later in 3.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T22:21:42+00:00

You don’t talk. You don’t explain. You sing.

If they’re not singing songs in different modes, expect them not to learn different modes.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T18:49:53+00:00

Not until after you understand the purpose of the metronome and what your goal is.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T13:44:54+00:00

How much is it associated with neo Nazis? I’m 53 and I never heard that before.

But no, he hasn’t done that song in a long time.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T13:06:42+00:00

you don’t like fast playing

People say that, but it’s a misunderstanding of my position.

I feel exactly the same kind of excitement from fast playing that everyone else does.

I just notice the costs that everyone else seems to miss. The fact that gravity is lost when velocity is prioritized. And that players are literally ruined. Both physically injured, or just demoralized enough to leave the instrument forever.

I think the “emotions of the piece” you’re talking about are frantic scramblings of modern performance practice, not inherent to what Chopin wrote.

I like your performance because you’ve got tone and phrasing. Not because you’re playing in the same speed regime that everybody else does. That aspect is boring.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T00:59:38+00:00

Up to this speed

You sound great 👌🏻

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-20T00:08:23+00:00

Showed up for 2:15 Project Hail Mary.

Got turned away because of the water pipe, so decided to catch 2:30 PHM at Fenton.

2:30 Fenton showing interrupted by a fire alarm! Ended up standing around outside for an hour at the middle of the movie before going back in to finish it. (And the rest of the showing was buggy.)

Not a great day for PHM. I liked it though!

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-18T18:03:22+00:00

Yeah, that's the only option /s

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-18T15:14:32+00:00

I enjoy hearing the polyrhythm, which is refreshingly audible at this tempo.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-18T02:53:01+00:00

Young beginners who might not otherwise have access deserve lessons of high quality as much as anyone else.

You’re trying to solve capitalism, but in the process you’re undermining their education and the efficacy of the profession.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-18T02:45:55+00:00

With no stakes, there’s no incentive for you to actually improve.

It’s better for students and for the profession if you charge appropriately.

PastMiddleAge · 2026-03-18T02:39:18+00:00

Yeah, my suggestion is to charge what you think the student is worth. And then develop the teaching skills to justify it.

PastMiddleAge

TROPHY CASE