All-East/All-State Auditions
Sight-Reading Policy and Procedure

In an ongoing effort to encourage basic musicianship and literacy, sightreading will be included as an added component of the All-East audition process. Each student will sightread a brief melodic excerpt which will be evaluated for correct pitch and rhythm. Students may perform the excerpt using a system of their choice, which may include solfege, numbers, or some neutral syllable.

The 2010 auditions will serve as a pilot year for the sightreading procedure, with the sightreading component carrying no weight in the student’s overall score. Beginning with the 2011 auditions, the sightreading component will comprise 10 percent of a student's overall audition score. As a courtesy, 2010 students will be provided their total score with and without the sightreading element to allow them to see how their score would have been impacted by the sightreading component.

Excerpt Description

Three or four different excerpts of equal difficulty will be used in each judging room. Students will be instructed which excerpt they are to perform.

• Rhythmic Aspect
  • The excerpt to be read will consist of six (6) measures in 3/4 or 4/4 meter. The rhythmic content can include quarter notes, half notes, dotted-half notes, whole notes, eighth notes in pairs, and the dotted-quarter/eighth combination. There will not be any syncopations.
• Melodic Aspect
  • The melody will be composed of stepwise motion within the major scale, as well as skips within the tonic triad. It will be in a major key and use a key signature of up to 2 sharps or 2 flats (i.e, C, F, B-flat, G or D major). All exercises will start on the tonic pitch (“Do” or “1”).

Procedure

• Following their prepared piece audition, a student will proceed immediately to their designated sightreading room.
• Upon entering the sightreading room, judges will indicate the excerpt to be performed by the student.
• Students will then be given a starting pitch, followed by a 30-second silent study period.
• At the conclusion of the study period, the starting pitch will be given a second time. From that point, students will be given 60 seconds to complete the sightreading excerpt.
• The excerpt may be restarted once, but still must be completed within the 60-second timeframe.

Adjudication Procedure

• The sightreading component will be adjudicated by two (2) judges. One judge will evaluate pitch; the other will evaluate rhythm.
• Both pitch and rhythm will be evaluated using a 10-point scale according to this rubric
  • Melodic Accuracy - the student performs
    • 10 - all pitches/notes accurately
    • 8 - all but 1 or 2 pitches/notes accurately
    • 6 - all but 3 or 4 pitches/notes accurately
    • 4 - a number of inaccurate pitches/notes
    • 2 - few pitches/notes accurately
    • 0 - no pitches accurately
  • Rhythmic Accuracy - the student performs
    • 10 - all rhythms accurately
    • 8 - nearly accurate rhythms with a minimal amount of imprecision
    • 6 - with a consistent tempo and recognizable meter throughout, but with short, continuous sections of imprecise rhythms
    • 4 - with both recognizable and unrecognizable meter with imprecise rhythms
    • 2 - with unrecognizable meter as a result of imprecise rhythm
    • 0 - no rhythms accurately
• Judges will use only one scantron form, marking line 1 (for pitch) or line 2 (for rhythm) of the form using only the first ten marks on each row. To indicate a score of zero, the judge will not make a mark on their line. Marks 11-50 on the scantron row will not be used.
• Judges should NOT consult with each other on their respective scores.
• The pitch and rhythm score will be added to determine the total score for sightreading.
• The total sightreading score is to count as 10% of the student's combined score of sightreading and prepared performance excerpts. The equation to combine the two scores is as follows:

(.9X)+(1.5Y)=T

where X=Performance score, Y=Sightreading Score, and T=Final Score

Note: Some people will think that the formula should be (.9X)+(.1Y)=T. This is mathematically inaccurate. Ten percent of 300 points equals 30 points. Ten percent of 20 points equals 2 points. Two is not equal to thirty, obviously. One has to recall that in reality the two scores are fractions, X out of 300 and X out of 20 respectively. In order to add these two fractions one must utilize the least common multiple, (300), and then the equation may be simplified to the above form.