The Art IN Sight Reading
By David Morrison and Judy Morrison
The Art IN Sight Reading from the Neil A. Kjos Music Company helps middle and high school musicians develop and refine their music-reading abilities by incrementally and logically developing the skills needed.
Using short, targeted original melodies and innovative techniques, students will quickly master the skills of reading pitches, rhythms, articulations, and other elements—empowering them to sight read with compelling accuracy, musical expression, and true artistry.
Watch the video here to learn more about how you can use The Art IN Sight Reading alongside SmartMusic’s Sight Reading Builder to give your students infinite exercises to reinforce their skills.
How Does the Book Work?
The pedagogy of The Art IN Sight Reading leads students through an ABC approach, layering skills to ensure their retention.
In Step A, students perform an initial exercise to the best of their abilities as a pre-read of sorts.
In Step B, they work through a set of seven layered steps: 1. Map, 2. Pitch/Sticking, 3. Rhythm, 4. Pitch & Rhythm, 5. Articulation, 6. Dynamics, and 7. Style/Musicianship. This method of adding one skill at a time is essential to students’ sight reading success as it does not overwhelm them with too much new information at one time.
Finally, in Step C, students perform the initial exercise again to demonstrate their new-found knowledge and skills.
How Does SmartMusic’s Sight Reading Builder Work with the Book?
Create the assignment in SmartMusic for your students, and they can play through each exercise, receiving assessment so you and they can see where they stand (Step A). They can practice the supporting exercises in their printed book (Step B), then return to the initial exercise in SmartMusic to track their progress (Step C). The assessment is sent to you.
Sight Reading Builder adds an incredibly valuable final step. By clicking on “exercises like this one,” Sight Reading Builder will open an exercise with similar parameters as the one in the book. Students can click on the refresh button and read through an infinite number of sight reading examples, all with the same parameters. And with SmartMusic’s assessment, they can see themselves improving.
Access The Art IN Sight Reading in SmartMusic
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With a SmartMusic subscription, you’ll also gain access to several of the Neil A. Kjos Music Company’s incredibly successful methods, as well as a large library of repertoire.