Posted by Roger Lewis on August 11, 2003 at 07:51:07:
In Reply to: "Reading" Orchestra experience posted by keith C. on August 08, 2003 at 11:54:05:
I get a number of calls each year to go in and sight read actual performances with several of the local orchestras and I find it to be the wildest thrill you can have as a player. You really need to have your "poop in a group" (lots of time with scales and intervals) and be totally able to trust your skills, gained from years in the practice room. The biggest thing about sight reading is the overall simplicity of it. All you have to do is play from the 1st note to the second note, at the right time, dynamic, color and pitch (and a few other things) and then do that again fom the 2nd note to the 3rd, etc. You have to be able to do this really, really fast. You need to know your intervals inside and out, on your horn, on the piano and by singing them and be able to recognize them in any possible enharmonic way they may appear on a page. Then you need to have rock solid rhythm.
Some other rather remote skills and learned talents come into play as well but those already mentioned will let you get passed looking at the notes and into playing the music.