Eighth Note Madness is a GROUP sight reading series designed for band and orchestra! It also works well independently by increasing the speed of note recognition! Since all of the rhythmic values are the same, the student can easily focus on identifying the letter names of the staff while making the connection on their instrument.
Great warm-up activity
Easily learn other pieces
Strengthens uncommon accidentals like A#, D# and Gb
Learn new vocabulary applied over popular chord progressions
The first thirteen exercises drill the various accidentals with no key signature but labels each accidental next to the note. The remaining exercises continue in the same fashion and are improvisations around standard chord progressions like Autumn Leaves, What Is This Thing Called Love and Cherokee.
Each part has been transposed so that everyone is playing in unison, occasionally changing octaves to fit within each instruments range. Drummers can keep time by playing in various styles (swing, funk, rock, bossa nova) and hitting a percussive sound (cow bell, kick drum, etc...) on the rests. Expect to see noticeable improvement after just a few readings!