Posted by euphgirl on November 15, 2001 at 14:03:59:
In Reply to: Sightreading posted by Allan on November 15, 2001 at 13:35:36:
I think that sightreading is definitely improved with practice. In high school, sightreading was always a part of our concert band contests; every year we would do fine on our prepared pieces, but then we would completely tank on sighteading...eventually the directors got a clue and took a few minutes of our daily 75-minute rehearsal to sightread; our sightreading score went up dramatically after that. As an undergrad, I was required to take supplemental sightreading lessons from a tuba grad (mostly for the grad's benefit as part of his assistantship) although I found that the consistant sightreading did make a difference when I got a new piece to work out for ensembles or for my lessons. So...find yourself a nice collection of exercises, do a little sightreading along with your regular practicing, and you should see improvement.
Good Luck!