This week’s SmartMusic Feature Friday post is about how you can create your own timed sight reading exercise. In addition to the 600+ graded sight reading exercises for instrumentalists and the several vocal methods that have the sight reading feature as part of it, any on-screen repertoire in SmartMusic can be made into a sight reading exercise. Perhaps you want to give a sight reading test or you want students to have only one opportunity to play a section from the music you are practicing. It is easy to do so let’s get to it!

• Open the selected music (method book, concert music, exercise, etc.).
• Go to the SmartMusic menu and choose Controls> Provide sight reading options. The Sight Reading instruction window will cover the music on-screen and now works the same way as any sight reading exercise in SmartMusic.

• Click on the Sight Reading button in the window to select the amount of study time.

• Press Start Take (or the Spacebar on the computer keyboard).
• The music is revealed on the screen and the count-off click begins after the selected amount of study time.

If you are planning to make a sight reading assignment using the SmartMusic Gradebook, I recommend that you remind your students that after the click track starts, they will not get another opportunity to play it.  It is “one and done”!  Remember to turn off this feature when you are through using it.

Are you creating your own sight reading examples and using them with your students? Let us know by leaving a comment below.