I really need to improve my sight reading and was wondering what, in your experience, works well to help with that. I hear a lot to just read a lot of new music, but with that you don't really know if you are playing it accurately.
When I learned to play piano that really helped me. But thats not nessarly the best way. An sort of fun and ez way would be to just practice going over notes. I practice scales on trombone and that helps when I play songs I have seen for the first time. Example, before I played Stars and Stripes, I played my Bb scale. :D
Get as many method books, sheet music that you can. Practise stuff until you can play everything on the page right, but not the whole page mistake free. Tomorrow do the same with the next piece/page/study. Create a pile and rotate each day so you may come back to the first piece say within a month. It's almost like sight reading again without buying yet more music. When alone or in a band or group remember to concentrate 100% the first time you see the piece because you can never actually sight read anything twice.
I sing and clap my music (yeah, it sounds dumb sometimes) before I play it when I site read.
If you have some way to record urself site reading, then you should critizie yourself by watching a video/playing a recording of yourself.
Play straight with no stopping.
and play things backwards.
Etudes and such are based on what that composer/arranger/teacher thinks are popular rythmns and patterns you see in real life music. Here is something I do with my students.
1- look at the fastests notes and based your tempo on that. Then play the music straight through. When sightreading do not stop for anything. Don't stop to replay a note you missed play straight through to the end at the same tempo. Regardless of how many mistakes you make put it away afterwards. As suggested earlier by someone put it in a stack where you will come back to it in a month or so. But don't practice it or work things out during your sight reading time.
You might not think you are getting better at first but playing straight through will stimulate your brain into working these things out.
2 - play things backwards. Playing backwards will joggle your brain a little bit and get you out of what you think are patterns. And it will get it fresh to read forward again in a fresh way.
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