In addition, there’s the Sight Reading Level Tracker that allows you to read music straight away in your browser. Depending on how fast you want to work, you can use either your mouse or your touch screen to interact with the widget or simply rely on your computer keyboard for a faster workflow. It will produce brief pieces of music that is aligned with the chosen level of difficulty. This means that you’re able to test yourself with rhythm and pitch recognition at any time.
To start, choose one of the lanes from the left-hand side of the interface. These are graded from easy (simple stepwise movement in C major) to more challenging keys containing flats and sharps. As you go further up the scale, the leaps between notes gets bigger, the range becomes wider, and you will need ledger lines. You can monitor your improvement over time as the percentage of your best performance for that lane appears alongside its name.
How to Use the Sight Reading Tracker
After you choose your lane, then you get a two measure part from the piece, shown here in treble clef on the main area. Spend a few seconds looking at it before you begin. First, scan the key signature and the contour of the notes. Then look over the shape or contour of the notes. A lens bar above the staff gives you some quick information about what card you’re working with: how many ledger lines appear, what the overall span of the written music is, and what’s the largest interval used?
If you want to work on something else besides just the transfer of notes, you can adjust the contour lens selector to generate a different kind of excerpt. You can choose leap spotting, range-edge hunts, stepwise fluency, or balanced transfer. Instead of trying to memorize another card, printing out another one gives you new batch of notes to see if you’ve mastered the transfer.
There are two options for interacting with the music. The first is a passive one: previewing. To do this, simply click on the button that says Hear ink become sound. The system will then play back the excerpt in your selected tempo. This allows you to check the melody and rhythm without feeling pressured. The tempo dropdown has options that range between 56-92 beats per minute. Quicker tempi create a sense of performing conditions while slower tempos allow you more time to process each note.
There are two modes: passive previewing and active sight reading. To start a timed pass you click the button that opens up a reading lane containing the score. Listen for the metronome click track. Hit the matching tile at the bottom of the screen as visual cursor moves over it along the staff. The pitch deck shows just the different notes used in this extract in pitch order. It also has a number key attached to each one so they can be typed in quickly. You’ll get immediate feedback via colour changes on the staff notes and a message telling you if you got the right answer or not.
As you pass along, your play throughs add to your session evidence profile. On the right hand of the widget, this data will be gathered into a metric grid and radar chart. Here are the four aspects that is measured: range comfort, flow consistency, rhythmic pulse alignment and pitch accuracy. Each time you complete a pass these metrics will update to reflect an honest view of your weak spots and strong points. To begin again you can set the evidence to baseline which resets your score and removes existing evidence.
If you don’t want to reach for the mouse, there are keyboard shortcuts that make everything easier. To move from button to button in lanes, just use the arrow keys; hit Space or Enter to select a button. While practicing, answering notes is as easy as pressing the corresponding number key displayed on the pitch tiles. There’s also global hotkeys so you can control the widget without even moving your hands away from the middle of keyboard. When you’re not typing in a menu field, just press G to create another card. Press H to get an audio preview. Press L to cycle through the lens options for the contour. Press R to begin a scored pass.
An active reading session includes a metronome click track to help you get your timing right. You can control the sound volume of the notes by using the evidence panel slider. Depending on whether you have a quiet or crowded practice environment this might come in handy. If you’re having trouble getting started with the audio engine, it relies on Web Audio tech which sometimes needs a click event to start running in browsers. The volume settings works for both live reading sessions and preview playback.
Remember: These are your metrics for this particular visit. You’re not saving any data on a server. Once you close the tab, these metrics vanish. Use it like a dedicated practice period. Pick a lane that is just outside of your comfort zone. Read through the music thoroughly before hitting start. If you mess up, concentrate on keeping eyes moving smoothly.
If you’re looking to improve your ability to read from a score this is the tool for you. There’s no faffing around trying to set it up and no need to print out sheets. Pick a lens type, pick a lane, press G to generate a new card and away you go. Get the tempos right for you and see which lenses and combinations of lenses gives you the greatest confidence. Then keep working through gradually increasing lanes until your speed and accuracy are good. The proof of what you’ve done will show you where to concentrate next.