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Tyler Cameron Bragg
This book is dedicated to all my teachers, not just in music but in life. In particular, Robert Presley, Jeffery Vogie, Joel Bluestone, Stephen Martin, Hamilton Cheifetz, Lisa Marsh, Andrew Spencer, and Keith Clifton. I would also like to thank all my students, who have been my greatest teachers.
INTRODUCTION
Throughout my years of teaching, I often found myself wishing I had spent more time developing my students’ ability to sight-read, especially on mallet instruments. I also wished there was a single resource that contained a broad range of melodic content with a healthy amount of musical variety. Something inviting to beginners but also engaging for more advanced players. This book is an attempt to do just that — provide instructors, students, and freelance players with raw material to develop their sight-reading ability while broadly fostering greater enthusiasm for mallet playing and producing more well-rounded musicians.
It’s unfortunate but understandable why sight-reading has a grim reputation. It takes courage and vulnerability to put oneself in uncomfortable positions. However, with consistent and focused practice, the benefits of becoming a proficient sight-reader are numerous. The main benefit is the ability to learn a wider variety of music at a faster pace. This benefit also touches on my guiding philosophy in music education: It is more musically fulfilling and advantageous to learn to play music rather than simply learning a few difficult pieces on a given instrument.
As percussionists, so much of our practice time is dedicated to technical development, especially given the number of different instruments we play. It’s important to remember, however, that technical development is only one aspect of musicianship, and in the case of mallet playing, switching from one instrument to another requires minimal technical adjustments. When engaged in the process of sight-reading, the musical substance of a piece is the primary concern, not its inherent technical difficulties. It requires the player to just play the music. Given this fact, a percussionist benefits most by focusing on the one skill which will enable them to learn the most amount of repertoire in the shortest amount of time.
Sight-reading also develops a greater sensitivity and awarness of music theory and the musical content itself. Rather than looking at each individual note, proficient sight-readers rely on identifying things like scales, harmonies, form, voice leading, and chord structures to help guide their reading. All this fosters a greater sense of confidence in their musical abilities and a more prosperous musical future. This is my sincere hope for every player who uses this book.
—Tyler Cameron Bragg
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My deepest gratitude goes to everyone who helped me during the process of creating this book. To name a few: Courtney Goslin, John and Kathy Bragg, David Abraham, and Michael McLaughlin. Thank you for inspiring me and for suffering my neurosis.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
These melodies are not meant to be learned, rehearsed, or used for performance, though I won’t be offended if you do. Developing the skill of sight-reading is the focus here. Ideally, regular use of this book should be incorporated into a player’s practice sessions by reading a variety of melodies from day to day.
Key Signatures
This book contains exactly 240 melodies, 10 in each major key and 10 in each minor key. C# Major, F # Major, A b Minor, and D # Minor have all been intentionally omitted in favor of their (in my opinion) friendlier enharmonic equivalents D b Major, G b Major, G # Minor, and E b Minor. Each major key signature is paired with its relative minor key and progesses through the circle of fifths, starting in C Major/A Minor and continuing with G Major/E Minor, D Major/B Minor, et cetera, and ending in F Major/D Minor.
Difficulty
As the melodies progress within each set, they also progress in difficulty: Rhythms become more dense, dynamics become more spontaneous, accidentals increase in frequency, and intervals become wider and more varied. If a player is unsure where to start in the book, begin with easier melodies (numbers 1–5) in a simpler key and move to more difficult ones (6–10).
Reference Recordings
Recordings of each melody are included with this book and have been provided solely for reference. They should be used sparingly and only listened to after attempting to play a melodynot as a way to learn it.
Rests, Dots, and Ties
Rests, dots, and ties have been used to expose readers to multiple ways of reading the same rhythm (see below), particularly on marimba and xylophone. If playing on vibraphone, pedaling should match the written durations.
Clefs
Given that percussionists are often required to read both treble and bass clef, each set of 10 melodies alternates between these two clefs. Odd numbers are in treble; even numbers are in bass.
Ranges of the Melodies
All 240 melodies are intended to be played on a 4.3-octave (low A) marimba. However, all melodies in treble clef can be played on a standard 3-octave vibraphone or a standard 3.5-octave xylophone. If desired, melodies in bass clef can be transposed up an octave to be played on a vibraphone, xylophone, or 4-octave marimba.
Tempo & Expression Markings
In each key, later melodies contain a metronome marking, which is simply an indication of my musical intentions at the time. Some melodies are also given an expression marking (e.g., Joyous, Spiritoso, Leidenschaft). To further the reader’s exposure to a wide variety of musical content, these have been given in French, German, and Italian with translations to English provided. No tempo or expression markings are given for the first few melodies in each key, as they are simpler and can be played at a wider variety of tempi. Ultimately, players should read each melody at whatever tempo will render the most accuracy.
Players may also choose to add further musical expression by performing a tasteful ritardando at the end of some melodies.
Stickings
There are no suggested stickings written in any of the melodies. These have been intentionally omitted so that players and instructors have the freedom to explore as many different stickings as possible.
Rolls
Because of their technical implications, rolls have been intentionally omitted. If a player needs to develop their roll technique, rolls can be applied to larger rhythmic values. For example, if a melody only contains half, quarter, and eighth notes, try rolling all half notes. Below is an example of melody No. 3 from the E b Minor set, with all half and dotted half notes rolled. Rolls should always be played unmetered (without any rhythmic structuring) and at an appropriate speed for the register of the instrument, with higher pitches generally requiring faster roll speeds than lower pitches.
Music Theory and Musical Concepts
As mentioned in the Introduction, a major benefit to consistent sight-reading is exposure to different theoretical concepts. If using this book as an instructor, it is important that your students are aware of these, especially to help them digest parts of a given melody. Rather than having students read each note as it passes by, point out the fact that, for example, a certain passage may be entirely comprised of an ascending B Major scale or that a measure of music simply outlines all the notes in a C Minor chord. Here are some suggested topics to identify: intervals, scales, arpeggios, modes, motives (rhythmic and melodic), chord structures, modulations/tonicizations, sequences, and melodic inversions. Here is melody No. 10 from the E Minor set with multiple theoretical concepts highlighted:
SIX PRINCIPLES OF MALLET SIGHT-READING
The principles listed below should be applied immediately and consistently so they become second nature. In other words, it should feel uncomfortable NOT to observe them. These principles are not listed in order of importance and should be weighted equally.
1 Place the music in the middle of a melody’s range
Scan the melody for the highest and lowest pitch. These and all notes in between constitute a melody’s range.
Next, find the note that is melodically equidistant from these two, as noted above. Then adjust the music so it is centered directly on this note (in this instance D b). Though it may seem simple, this process prevents the reader from having to adjust their body unnecessarily while reading, which is a particular issue when a part spans multiple octaves.
2 Scan the melody before attempting to play it
Readers should look for anything that stands out to them, such as accidentals, tuplets, modulations, time signature changes, dynamics, et cetera. This process should take less than 30 seconds, depending on the level of the reader and the length of the melody. With repeated use of this step, the ability to quickly scan longer and more complex pieces will develop rapidly.
3 Prioritize rhythm above all else
When sight-reading, players should prioritize the following elements in this order: 1) Rhythm, 2) Pitch, 3) Dynamics, and 4) Expression. These priorities are based on the simple fact that in performance an error in rhythm is more noticeable than an error in pitch. This is true especially with ensemble playing. When starting out, players should feel free to miss as many pitches as they want, so long as the rhythm is not compromised. As they develop, more of the musical elements should be achieved.
Players may also choose to start out reading only the rhythms on a single pitch without any dynamics or expression. Once comfortable with the rhythm, they can begin to incorporate the pitches, dynamics, and expression in turn.
4 Do not look down at the keyboard
As a matter of efficiency, players should keep their eyes on the page at all times. With such large physical distances to cover (particularly on marimba), it is inefficient to look down at each passing note and then back up at the music. Instead, players should use their peripheral vision to see both the music and the keyboard simultaneously. Developing this spatial awareness is essential to being a proficient sight-reader.
5 Keep your eyes ahead of your hands
As they read through the melodies, players should try to achieve the feeling of independence between their eyes and their hands. The eyes should be scanning ahead of the hands, anticipating the content in subsequent measures. If done correctly, the player enters a kind of flow state where there’s a strong sense of trust in their hands’ ability to interpret what the eyes are seeing and what the brain is processing. Keep in mind, this can only be achieved if principles 3 and 4 are followed.
6 If you make a mistake, keep going!
No matter how egregious the error, keep playing! Principles 3, 4, and 5 will help with this. Players should feel free to use a metronome to help them play through their mistakes.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF TEMPO AND EXPRESSION MARKINGS
French
Animé = animated; lively
Dans trois = in three
Douce = gentle
Emporté = carried away
En deux = in two
Énergique = energetic
Flottant = floating
Gracieux = gracious
Bewegt = emotional
Charmant = charming
Etwas langsam = slightly slow
Fliessend = fluidly
Glücklich = happy, gleefully
In zwei = in two
Langsam = slow
Lebhaft = lively
Leidenschaft = with passion
Légèrement = lightly
Lointain = distant
Modéré = moderate
Noblement = nobly
Passionné = passionate
Trés vif = very fast
Vif = fast
Vivement = lively
German
Mässig = moderate
Mit empfindung = with feeling
Schwer = heavy
Stattlich = stately
Stetig = steady
Traurig = sad, sorrowful
Ziemlich = moderately
Zart = delicate
Italian
Adagietto = slightly slow
Adagio = slow
Agitato = agitated
Alla breve = felt in half notes (breve)
Alla marcia = like a march
Allegretto = at a fairly brisk tempo
Allegro = at a brisk tempo
Andante = at a walking tempo
Appassionato = passionately
Con brio = with panache, flair
Espressivo = expressively
Grave = serious
Maestoso = majestically, stately
Moderato = moderately
Molto grazioso = very graceful
Perpetuo = perpetual
Presto = very fast
Scherzando = vigorous and playful, scherzo-like
Semplice = simple
Spiritoswo = energetic
Vivace = lively
THE MELODIES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tyler Cameron Bragg started his musical journey at the age of 8 by learning to play the guitar. After gravitating toward drums and percussion, he moved from California to Portland in 2006 and earned his Bachelor of Music degree in percussion from Portland State University, studying under Dr. Joel Bluestone. He then earned his Master’s of Music degree in percussion as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from Central Michigan University, studying under Dr. Andrew Spencer. Upon graduating from CMU, Tyler moved back to the Pacific Northwest and began teaching award-winning concert and marching percussion ensembles at Lincoln High School (Portland, OR), Skyview High School (Vancouver, WA), Beaverton High School (Beaverton, OR), and Evergreen High School (Vancouver, WA). In 2017, Tyler joined the music publishing team at Tapspace Publications in Portland, OR, working under Jim Casella and Murray Gusseck. After leaving Tapspace, he began working for the Oregon Symphony as an artistic administrator and now works for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as Director of Artistic Planning. Outside of music, Tyler can be found reading about Anglo Saxon poetry and American history, perfecting his golf swing, or in his kitchen trying to refine his favorite Italian and Szechuan recipes.
