1. ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT: IMPROVING SIGHT-READING
Throughout my career as a music educator, serving primarily as a band director, I
have been highly intrigued with the variance of levels of musical ability that I have
identified in the students I am assigned to teach at the start of each academic year.
However, with each passing year, I have formally and informally assessed a decline in
student skills sets as it relates to their musical ability to sight-read music. At first glance,
it could be assumed that my premise could be supported by factors such as a lack of
technical development due to poor pedagogical instruction, instructor indifference to
sequential methodological development, over emphasis on rote teaching and learning,
which yields song playing ability while stifling cognitive and psychomotor development,
a lack of time or just plain student apathy. To the contrary, in our technologically driven
age, it appears that just perhaps, sight- reading amongst student musicians is waning due
to a de-emphasis by music educators who will debate that time-on-task in their teaching
practice does not yield consistent opportunity to perfect this most essential element of a
musician’s skills sets. If philosophically this viewpoint is held by a great percentage of
the music education community as it relates to band instruction, it is no wonder that some
students only are coached on this important skill only during Festival/Large Group
Performance Evaluation season. Subsequently, it is the aim of this action research project
to offer several concrete teaching practices companioned with sound methodological and
pedagogical practices which should encourage and energize the music educator as well as
engage the developing student musician to sequentially practice toward mastery of the
skill of sight-reading.