In today’s episode, we unpack Nathan Petitpas’ sight-reading resource called Dots and Beams. Nathan is a percussionist, drummer, composer and music educator based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Understand how this versatile resource works and how different it is from the rest.

Nathan shows us how we can use this in our lessons by putting me under the pressure of doing some live sight-reading and rhythmic & melodic exercises.

We use excerpts from his book, which you can download here before listening to the show you can follow along on the exercises we try.

Transcript of the show about teaching sight reading

If you’d like to download a PDF transcript of this episode, please click below.

In this episode, you’ll get a glimpse of teaching sight reading the gamified way:

• [04:04] Tim shares about his experience about playing percussion.
• [05:57] Nathan’s current studio.
• [07:06] Teaching percussion online.
• [08:14] The story of how Tim came about interviewing Nathan.
• [09:18] Nathan tells us about his resource, Dots and Beams.
• [11:22] How his books are different from other sight-reading books.
• [18:35] Going through some sight reading exercises with Tim.
• [36:18] Instructions for teachers in the books.
• [38:28] Rhythm exercises.
• [49:08] Rhythm and Pitch Exercises.
• [57:10] Incorporating the sightreading exercises into your lessons.

Links Mentioned

• TopMusicTeaching Facebook Group

About our Guest

Nathan Petitpas is a percussionist, drummer, composer and music educator based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As an educator, Nathan has taught drum set, percussion, Western music theory, composition and piano. He currently teaches private drum set and music theory lessons in his private studio as well as theory and percussion through the Regent Park School of Music in Toronto.

Nathan holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Acadia University and a Master of Music Degree from the University of Toronto both with a concentration in Percussion Performance. Connect with Nathan at NathanPepitas.com

Today’s Sponsor

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