hey u guys! i really need your help. does anybody have any tips on how to improve sight-reading skills... especially when playing the violin...
how long does it take for a person to catch up with playing in an ensemble... will it help a lot in improving sight reading skills? what are some good practice tips on reading notes?
please help... thanks...

It helps to focus not only on the present measure,but the beginning of the next as well

If it`s really bad, start with simple music and get familiar with notes. then work your way up.

I`d say lots of practice, starting with easy pieces. And yes, you need to be looking ahead at the next measure, just as when you read a book you`re looking ahead at the next phrase and not just at each word at a time. But being a good sight reader comes after you know the notes well, so back to lots of practice.

If you have been a Susuki student you will need to begin sight reading at a very basic level. Elementary flash cards (get them from any instructor) would be beneficial. Good luck and hang in there with the ensemble even if you are having trouble "keeping up". Playing with others is the key while you improve your reading skills.

expose ureself to as much sheet musc as possible!

My sight reading was really bad at the beginning of the year but after joining many bands and orchestras, it has improved. Jazz can be very helpful. Riffs are usually pretty easy to play but have many accidentals and strange rythms. Its good because they can be short and its easy to practice.

practice measures at a time. then complete phrases. long hours longdys and nights. gary

it`ll take maybe a week or two to get caught up. no worries and if u wanna make easy on your self start writting the notes in like "C" or you could put "A2" meaning your second finger on the A string so you can get used to it and ease your way in.
BY THE WAY i used to not really be able to read music but i could still play!

The first two things you have to be confident of are firstly to recognise the notes on the stave, and secondly to recognise the position of the natural notes on the violin. My understanding is about 2/3 of people have the sort of visual memory which just remembers these things without much effort. I, and from your question I suspect you, fall into the other third of people!

As to recognising notes on the stave, in my view it is insufficient to learn to find notes by saying "Every good boy does fine" and "FACE". In any piece of music, you simply don`t have time to say or think "every good boy does fine" each time you want to play an F. I agree with the writer who suggests flash cards. you can make flash cards both for the stave and with four lines and "blobs" to represent strings and finger positions on the violin. If you want to learn the notes in a different position e.g. third position, draw a line across the strings on your flash card at CGDA (first finger in third position) and start your blobs from there. With the note learning you have to use your imagination. For instance the note on the third leger line above the stave is E. If you imagine a line down the left hand side of the legers, it would make a capital "E" with the leger lines becoming the three prongs of the "E". Similarly the note two leger lines above the stave is "C", and if you connect the two leger lines on the left you get an (admittedly boxy) Capital "C".

Moving on, one of the main problems of sightreading is being able to play in key.

I have found a helpful trick in this regard which arises from the fact that the violin is tuned in fifths, and coincidentally there are only two semitone intervals in the major scale, one of which is a perfect fifth below the other.

Take for example the scale of G major. Start by searching for the tonic on the A and E strings. You find it as second finger back on the E string. From the structure of the major scale you know the note below the tonic will always be a semitone down, in this case F sharp. Because this note will always be a semitone down from the tonic, it will always be a "touching" finger in terms of "space space touching", i.e. in this instance you have the second finger back on the note G, and the first finger is "touching" the second finger. Now here`s the trick. Because the violin is tuned in fifths, and because the lower semitone interval in a major scale is exactly a fifth below the upper semitone interval, you can be certain without doing the calculations for the individual scale that if the leading note and tonic are first touching second on the E string, then the third and fourth notes of the scale will also be first finger touching second on the string below, the A string. This is the same for every major scale, because they all have exactly the same structure. Take C major. There is a semitone from the leading note to the tonic, first finger touching second on the A string. There is also a semitone on the string below, first finger touching second on the D string (E to F natural). Take A major. There is a semitone from 2nd to 3rd finger leading note to tonic on the E string, and a corresponding semitone from 2nd to 3rd finger on the string below, the A string.

The above steps only allow you to place a scale in one octave ending on the A or E string. But two similar further step will allow you to place the notes correctly across all 4 strings. In the same way as there is a perfect fifth between the first and second semitone intervals of the major scale, the interval between the second semitone interval of a scale, and the first semitone interval of the next scale is a perfect fourth. Since the violin is tuned in fifths, this means that as you ascend the strings from the tonic to the first semitone interval, the position of the touching fingers slips down the strings by a tone. Taking the example of C major, we found "first touching second" on the A and then the D strings, but coming up to the E string the touching fingers slip back a tone, and we have "open string touching first" i.e. E to F natural.
By the same process, the leading note to tonic semitone in the octave beneath ours is again a perfect fourth below. Again because the violin is tuned in fifths, this means that the "touching interval" moves up the string by a whole tone. In C major this means that instead of first finger touching second as on the D string, the semitone "creeps up" on the G string to second finger touching third.

Imagine a violin not with four strings but with lots and lots. For convenience sake imagine the scale of C major starting on the E string. As you descend from string to string a simple repeating pattern with the fingers creeping up the strings opens up as follows; it looks complicated but if you do it on your fingers you will see it looks like a newton`s cradle in slow motion: SPACE SPACE SPACE x 1 (E string; ie spaces between 1+2, 2+3, 3+4); TOUCHING SPACE SPACE x 2 (A string and D string); SPACE TOUCHING SPACE x 2; (G string and what would be the C string) SPACE SPACE TOUCHING x 2; (the next two strings in descending order) SPACE SPACE SPACE x 1 - this is now back to stage one, with the whole hand position having crept up the violin by one semitone, and the pattern would simply keep repeating ad infinitum. In the opposite manner, when ascending the strings, the hand gradually creeps down the strings by the same order in reverse.

Once you appreciate the above, it becomes possible to identify whatever key you are in, and mentally or physically run your fingers over the notes up and down before commencing. The advantage of the above system is it works exactly the same for every key and in every position. For instance because my piano is a semitone flat I had to play a piece with my wife which should have been in G major, in G flat major and it was easy.

For playing out of first position there are a series of studies by Hans Sitt in all different positions which are fairly easy once you use the above system, and really good for getting your eye in.

The advantage of knowing the scales is that as a piece is rushing along, you don`t have to identify the name of each note before you play it- you can see sometimes for instance a run in tone steps, or thirds, and your knowledge of the scale tells you where to put your fingers without first identifying the names of the notes. However the danger of this is becoming woefully detached from the music you are playing, so your knowledge of the map of your fingerboard, and of the notes of the stave should be such that a moment`s thought in relation to any note on the stave or your fingerboard will tell you what the note is.

i agree with you there!