Example sight reading exersises for ocarina

The general idea in practising sight reading is to create a gradual progression in difficulty, allowing the subconscious mind to internalise notation patterns and connect them to the actions required to perform them on an instrument.

These exercises demonstrate how one can create a difficulty progression appropriate for a complete beginner, but the principle applies to any level. Each subsequent exercise should be slightly harder than the previous one.

Start with something extremely basic, with notes of just one pitch. We are using some notes from the middle of the range because higher notes have there is less chance of mis-covering a finger hole with fewer holes to cover.

First, clap the rhythm, look up how to finger the notes, and perform the melody using tonguing to separate the notes:

Then start introducing notes of different pitches, staying within a three-note range and using only intervals of a second. Create exercises at this level and practice them until they become easy.

Then you introduce more variation in the rhythms, clapping them first and then playing.

Continue to increase the complexity of the melody by introducing leaps of a diatonic third. Create exercises at this complexity level and practice them until they become easy.

Introducing figures

Once you can read notation reliably in a range of three notes with a variety of rhythms, it's a good point to start introducing common melodic figures such as scale runs and arpeggios, reading over a larger range of notes.

And so on.