5. SIGHT READING
Sight-reading music is one of the most
important things a music learner should know to be a good musician for playing
the accurate notes of any piece of music that are known or unknown; and a person needs to play the instrument by using sight-reading notes, at least for
a stipulated time.
There are
some sight-reading tips that can help us to become a better sight-reader.
1. Find
music sheets to sight-read. Music sheets can be found for instruments
according to the difficulty levels at music stores. There are even sight-reading websites that provide music sheets specifically to the need.
2. Breathe. Nervousness could
be a problem in sight-reading. It can cause a cracked note, an overkill of
vibrato, or a mistaken tempo, which are the common errors that must be avoided
at all costs. Relaxing and taking deep breaths and starting to look at the musical
elements with durations will help.
3. Read the title of the piece. Reading the title sometimes helps to
understand the mood of the piece of Music and the emotion that is needed to be
put into playing it. Looking at the composer of the piece, also help to get an
idea of the time frame in which the piece was written and the style of the
composition. Knowing the historical period of the piece can help tremendously,
as it helps to anticipate accidentals and tricky dissonance.
4. Look at the tempo. Most of the time, the tempo will be given at
the top of the piece, next to the composer. Sometimes the provided tempo will
be vague, such as simply saying "Slow" or "Jazzy", and
sometimes it will be much more exact, such as saying "Moderately slow with
a slight upbeat swing feel to it, quarter note equals seventy-two". Most of the music sheets at present has the number
of beats per minute.
5. Check out the time signature. Always look at the time signature no matter how
many times you had looked into it. There is a huge difference between six-eight
time and common time.
6. Check out the key signature. Playing the wrong key signature will make the
piece sound dissonant and inappropriate.
7. Look for changes. Check whether a new key signature is introduced
halfway through the piece or the existence of an accelerando or a ritardando,
articulation, and Dynamics. We need to pay special attention to those and be
sure to note all of them.
8. Look over the beginning. A solid beginning is a key to make sure the
music sounds right, and, often, the opening notes will repeat itself throughout
the piece, so it's crucial to understand it before moving on.
9. Skim over the easier bits. If one rhythm/piece of music could be played,
just slide or skim over it. If it's a rhythm/ piece of music that was present
earlier in the piece, compare the two and skim.
10. Read the very last line. The last line is the conclusion of the piece,
and it is normally quite different from the rest of the piece, or it is
purposefully harder/ different than the rest, with a final element added in to
the piece to make a dramatic finish, sometimes. The beginning and the end are
vital -- the beginning gets the music off to a good start, and the end makes
sure the listener is left with a solid final impression.
11. Start playing. Correct the instrument which has pitch variables,
pay careful attention to start correctly by comparing the sound. It's common
for inexperienced sight-readers to start off/ continuing on a partial above or
below the written one and playing incorrect note for a portion or even the
entire piece.
12. Go slowly. By using a slow, comfortable tempo, learning
occurs much faster than by playing too fast, missing notes. Playing
slowly helps to teach the self about errors which must be unlearnt.
13. Cultivate the habit of keeping eyes slightly
ahead of the note(s) playing.
There's always a bit of processing time required to see a note, understand it,
and play it. It's difficult to do this all at once, so good sight-readers stay
focused ahead to give themselves time to digest what's coming up. We already
use this ability in many actions (walking, riding a bike, reading a book, etc.).
When it’s comfortable with "reading ahead", it could be absorbed that
entire groups of notes, even whole measures are identified, as single
"chunks", and sight-reading becomes much more natural and enjoyable.
5.1.
RHYTHM
Rhythm is the
placement of sounds in time. Rhythm is often identified with one or more of its
constituent which could be beats or regular intervals, but not wholly separate
elements.
ELEMENTS
OF RHYTHM
Musical work
is a composition-dependent upon time. Rhythm is the music’s
pattern in time. In all the elements in music (e.g., patterns in
pitch or timbre), rhythm is one indispensable element. Rhythm can exist without
melody, as in the drumbeats of primitive music, but the melody cannot exist without rhythm as it needs rhythm implicitly or explicitly
to sound aright. In music that has both harmony and melody, the rhythmic
structure cannot be separated from them.
Beat
The unit
division of musical time is called a beat. Just as one is aware of the body’s
steady pulse, or heartbeat, so in composing, performing, or listening to music,
one is aware of a periodic succession of beats.
Tempo
The pace of
the fundamental beat is called tempo. The tempo is often assumed to be that of a
natural walking pace (76 to 80 pages per minute) or of a heartbeat (72 per
minute). The tempo of a piece of music indicated by a composer is, however,
neither absolute nor final. In performance, it is likely to vary according to
the performer’s interpretative ideas or to such considerations as the size and
reverberation of the hall, the size of the ensemble, and to a lesser extent,
the sonority of the instruments. A change within such limits does not affect
the rhythmic structure of a work.
Rubato
The tempo of work is not rigid and mathematical. It is impossible to adhere in a musical
manner to the metronomic beat for any length of time. In
a loosely knit passage, a tautening of tempo may be required; in a crowded
passage, a slackening may be needed. Such modifications of tempo, known as tempo
rubato—i.e., “robbed time”—are part of the music’s character.
Rubato needs the framework of an inflexible beat from which it can depart and
to which it must return.
Time
The mind
apparently seeks some organizing principle in the perception
of music, and if a grouping of sounds is not objectively present it would be
difficult to know a piece of music. Experiments show that the mind
instinctively groups regular and identical sounds into twos and threes, stressing every second or third beat.
The time
measure is indicated at the opening of a piece by a time signature; e.g., 2/4,
4/8, 3/4, 6/8. The length of each
beat in a measure may be a time unit of short or long duration.
“Four-time,” or “common
time” is actually duple time allied to “two times,” as it can hardly be thought
of without subsidiary stress at the half measure; i.e., on the third
beat; thus: Duple, triple, and quadruple time measures—i.e.,
those in which there are two, three, and four beats to a measure—are known as simple time. The division of each of the component beats
into three produces compound time:
More complex
times, such as the quintuple, 5/4,
usually fall into groups of 3 + 2. Folk song and folk dance, particularly from Eastern Europe, influenced the
use of asymmetrical time measures, as 7/8
and 5/8.
5.2. COUNTING THE BEATS (THAALAM):
Thaalam is a tool used in Indian music for
measuring the tempo and to some extent, know the structure of the song. Thaalam
helps us in maintaining the rhythm or the beats of a song at equal intervals.
It also reflects the mood of that song. Thaalam is a combination of
"SasapthaKriyai" and "NisapthaKriyai". Kriyai is a method
for counting the aksharas or measures. The sasapthakriyai part in a thaalam
produces sounds while the second type will be soundless. Thaalam is defined
under two categories. One is based on "Shadangaas" and the other is
based on "Shodashaangaas".
SHADANGAA TYPE OF DESCRIPTION:
In this type, the thaala will be based on
"Six Angaas". The six angaas are as follows:
1) Laghu
2) Dhrutham
3) Anudhrutham
4) Guru
5) Plutham
6) Kakapaadham
Prior to the description of the above six, some basic things that will make the
understanding of the angaas better is as follows.
Thattu - the downward beat with the palm facing down
Veechchu - the wave (sometimes the downward beat with the palm facing up)
Finger Counts - counts start with the little finger and the no. of counts
depends on the type of thaalam. Kryihyai- waving the right hand from right
to left
Sarpini- waving the right hand from left to right
Padhagam- lifting the right hand
Aksharam - Each beat of a thaalam is termed as "One Aksharam".
The six angaas are defined below.
`Laghu - A Laghu is one thattu followed by a specified number of counts. The
total aksharam of a laghu depends on the type of Thaalam.
Dhrutham - It is one thattu followed by one veechu. The total akshara kaalam is
2 for this.
Anudhrutham - It consists of just one thattu. In terms of Aksharam, this has
only one.
Guru - It consists of a thattu and for the remaining aksharas (depends on the
type of Thaalam) hand (closed one) will be rotated in a circular motion. The
default aksharam for this is 8.
Plutham - It consists of one thattu, one kryihyai and one sarpini. The default
aksharam for this is 12.
Kakapaadham - It consists of one thattu, one padhagam, one kryihyai, and one
sarpini. The default aksharam for this is 16.
SHODASHAANGAA TYPE OF DESCRIPTION:
Similar to the shadangaa type of description, there is also another one called
shodashaangaa description. Here one more angam called "Viramam" is added.
Here to measure thaalam, two types of scales are used namely aksharaas and
tablets. Four aksharaas constitute one tablet. Because of the addition of
viramam, here we have sixteen angaas.
The sixteen angaas with their respective aksharaas and tablets are given below.
It is given in the order Name, Aksharakaalam, and Tablet.
Anudrutham - 1 - 1/4
Dhrutham - 2 - 1/2
Dhruthaviramam - 3 - 3/4
Laghu - 4 - 1
Laghuviramam - 5 - 1.25
Laghudhrutham - 6 - 1.5
laghudhruthaviramam - 7 - 1.75
Guru - 8 - 2
Guruviramam - 9 - 2.25
Gurudhrutham - 10 - 2.5
Gurudhruthaviramam - 11 - 2.75
Plutham - 12 - 3
Pluthaviramam - 13 - 3.25
Pluthadhrutham - 14 - 3.5
Pluthadhruthaviramam - 15 - 3.75
Kakapaadham - 16 - 4
Gathi and Jaathi are two very important terminologies. There are five Gathis
and Five Jaathis.
The Five Gathis (or Nadai) are:
1) Chathurashra Gathi which is four letters (or swaras) per aksharam or beat.
2) Thisra Gathi - 3 swaras per beat or aksharam
3) kanta Gathi - 5 swaras per aksharam.
4) Mishra Gathi - 7 swaras per aksharam.
5) Sankeerna Gathi - 9 swaras per aksharam.
The five Jaathis are:
1) Chathurashra Jaathi - 4 beats or aksharams.
2} Thisra Jaathi - 3 aksharams.
3) Kanta Jaathi - 5 aksharams.
4) Mishra Jaathi - 7 aksharams.
5) Sankeerna Jaathi - 9 akshrams.
Variations in Laghu:
The laghu is a combination of Thattu and Finger counts. Depends on the Jaathi
of the Laghu, the total akshram of the laghu varies. Jaathi laghu will have
three aksharams - one thattu and two finger counts (1+2). Similarly chaturashra
laghu will have 4(1+3), kanta laghu - 5(1+4), Mishra laghu - 7(1+6) and
Sankeerna laghu - 9(1+8) akshrams or beats respectively.
Some of the examples of the Thaalam’s include
1) Dhruvam - laghu,dhrutham,laghu,laghu - 1011 - 14
2) Matyam - laghu,dhrutham,laghu - 101 - 10
3) Roopakam - dhrutham,laghu - 01 - 6
4) Jhampa - laghu,anudhrutham,dhrutham - 1U0 - 7
5) Thriputa - laghu,dhrutham,dhrutham - 100 - 7
6) Ata - laghu,laghu,dhrutham,dhrutham - 1100 - 12
7) Ekam - laghu - 1 - 4
8) Mishra chappu (3+4) - 3 swaras for first thattu and 4 swaras for second
thattu.
9) Kanta chappu (2+3)
10) Thisra chappu (1+2)
11) Sankeerna chappu (3+6)
12) Viloma chappu (4+3)
OTHER
TERMINOLOGIES/ ASPECTS OF THAALAM:
Some other terminologies (or aspects) of Thaalam with respect to songs are as
follows:
1) Graham or Eduppu: Represented by the starting point of a song. This is
divided into two categories. One is Samagraham and the other is Vishamagraham.
This vishamagraham is divided into Atheetha Graham and Anaaghatha graham.
Samagraham: Both song and thaalam start at the same time.
Atheethagraham: Song starts before the start of the thaalam.
Anaaghathagraham: Song starts after the start of the thaalam.
2) Layam: This determines the speed (or tempo) of the song. There are three
types.
a) Vilambitha layam(Chowka kaalam) - slow tempo
b) Madhya layam(Madhyama kaalam) - Medium tempo
c) Dhrutha layam(Dhuritha kaalam) - fast tempo
The medium tempo is double the slow tempo and the fast tempo is four times that
of the slow tempo.
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