Your phone rings on Monday afternoon. A pro orchestra needs a sub for a Wednesday rehearsal of a contemporary symphony you have never heard. This is the moment freelancers either build their reputation or quietly stop getting calls. Here is the system I use to sight read anything at the pro level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have two days, prioritize ruthlessly. Find a recording. Listen with the part in front of you, twice through. Mark every passage that scares you, every time signature change, every divisi, and every solo or exposed entrance. Do not try to learn everything \u2014 try to identify the danger zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key signatures and their changes. Time signature changes and any metric modulations. Tempo markings and their relationships. Rehearsal letter density (a passage with letters every two bars is usually a fast-changing texture you need to count carefully). And finally, any boxed solos or ‘I’ markings \u2014 these are entrances you absolutely cannot miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the piece has frequent meter changes, write the conducting pattern above each bar in pencil: 2-3, 3-2, 2-2-3, and so on. In passages where the conductor will subdivide, mark a small s. This takes ten minutes per movement and saves your bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arrive forty minutes early. Tune carefully. Introduce yourself to your stand partner with your name and ‘thanks for having me’. During rehearsal, defer to your stand partner on bowings, page turns, and divisi assignments. If you make a mistake, do not flinch \u2014 the worst thing a sub can do is broadcast nervousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stop playing immediately. Find the next rehearsal letter, count to it, and come back in cleanly. Faking it through a contemporary score makes things worse for the section and for the conductor. Pros respect honest counting more than they respect bluffing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Build a personal library of recordings of standard and non-standard repertoire. Every time you sight read a new piece in a rehearsal, listen to it again that night. Within a few seasons, almost nothing will be truly cold for you, and the calls keep coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Join 31,000+ string players leveling up their orchestral career.<\/p>\nGet the Free Guide<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Ethan Kim is the founder of Orchestra Kingdom<\/a>, helping string players win auditions and move up in their sections. Follow him on Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a> for daily tips.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A field-tested system for sight reading unfamiliar repertoire at a pro rehearsal \u2014 what to scan, what to ignore, and how to look like a regular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sight-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.orchestrakingdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}