a quick question

[carazymcmahon]

many of the videos I've seen on youtube lately have people turning pages during playing. I've never really had a problem with remembering notes (until some performances) and I quickly learn the shape of a piece, but I have A LOT of trouble with sight reading and when I'm first learning a piece it takes me so much time to go through the notes. I tried looking at the music while i was playing recently and I started to question my place in the piece and it wasn't smooth at all.
Should I develop my sight reading more or just keep doing what I'm doing?

[opus57]

Well... If I were you (and I'm not) I would keep doing what I do AND improve my sight reading. So you can learn faster and you have more fun when learning a new piece...

[gyzzzmo]

Just keep playing piano. To my opinion people put too much value on sight reading. Maybe its easier to start with a new piece, but thats like all the advantage i can immagine.
If you want to learn sightreading anyway, sight read alot

[mcgillcomposer]

Just keep playing piano. To my opinion people put too much value on sight reading. Maybe its easier to start with a new piece, but thats like all the advantage i can immagine.
If you want to learn sightreading anyway, sight read alot

One advantage to good sight-reading is that it allows one to learn a large portion of a piece @ sight. Thus, it takes A LOT less time to learn and submit to memory.

[chopininov]

One advantage to good sight-reading is that it allows one to learn a large portion of a piece @ sight. Thus, it takes A LOT less time to learn and submit to memory.

And it's also an invaluable skill to possess when playing for a church.

[gyzzzmo]

Still, playing piano itself is alot more important and i dont think you have to 'train' sightreading. If you start playing alot of different pieces your sightreading will increase automaticly.
Also, for some (amateur) people sightreading is even a disadvantage. They just play the pieces and dont study them wich usually is required to perform them good. I had that problem too. Because i started earning money by playing in choirs/accompaning solo's pretty young, i became a good sightreader. When performing, i noticed i could played the easier pieces actually worse than the hard ones!

gyzzzmo