Sight-reading?

since I'm working on Jazz, my sight-reading improved somehow without realy practicing it at the instrument.
Melodies are easy but I have a hard time memorizing the changes of all these standarts. Therefore often I read the changes out of the real book while I practice soloing. That trains to find your way around without looking to the keyboard.
Ear training has a great effect on sight reading too. The more you train your ears, the better your reading will get because the written notes will be connected to your inner sound- or pitch-imagination.
Those two things (working with the real book and eartraining) are mostly part of a jazz musicans daily program.
How much time? I can't tell. But the best time might be, when you don't have your vibes. Then you will practice sight singing. Anytime, anywhere, with any sheetmusic. I belive that this is the best exercise to become a better sight reader on what ever instrument.
Cheers,
W.

Thanks for your helpful suggestions

One practical problem I have with sight reading is that if I look up from the instrument to follow the page, I can easily hit the wrong bar or screw up my sticking. Or, if I look away from the sheet music to look at the instrument, I lose my place on the page. This happens to me alot. Any suggestions on how to solve these problems?

Peter

Being slightly far sighted, and mildly dyslexic (honest) sight reading has and will continue to be a challenge. I think the most important thing is to do it every day. As my reading has gotten better, I am beginning to recognize patterns e.g. ascending/descending lines.

There was a lot of discussion at the Aebersold camp about Real Books. They were really big on memorizing tunes and using the Real Books for Practice tools rather than performance tools; especially the chord progressions. There are a lot of tunes that have similar changes. Did you know that the tune Girl From Ipanama has the very similar changes as take the A Train?

Since I am a lousy reader, on progressions here's what I do.
Take Lady Bird Fist line CM7 CM7 F-7 Bb-7 those 4 bars are repeated. Ok I now have half the tune memorized. The bride AM7 AM7, A-7, D7 folowed by a ii, V, I, and then the turn around, C, Eb, Ab, Db.

Finally knowing the chords helps reading too. If a chord changes, you'll get a clue to what the melody is doing. Like the F minor chord, in the third bar. You'll be hitting a Ab, Eb, and C, all chord tones and the Bb starts it all out.

It certainly doesn't hurt to have great reading skills, and as a pro, I would assume today it would be mandatory. Maybe Tony can chip in here, but if you are getting paid in the studio, they want you in and out. I am pretty sure Joe Locke and Gary Burton are excellent readers, Milt couldn't read well. Milt came from a different era, and he compensated with having perfect pitch and a near photographic memory.