Sight reading

[classicalmusic]

Are there any good ways to improve my sight-reading? I can read easy pieces easily, but when it gets to harder ones, I have a lot of trouble!
Thanks in advance

[popdog]

This question has been asked many times before.  I suggest you do a forum search, using the function near the top of the page.  There's plenty to go through. 

Happy sight reading,

popdog.

[pianochick93]

You beat me to it, popdog.

[nia_kurniati]

I got the same problem too. But if it simple I try to see if there is a pattern (repeating form). For the bass key they usually in chord. So I think we must know chord alot.

[dan101]

Here are some tips without searching:

1) Remember that sight reading is temporary memorizing.

2) Look ahead

3) Take pieces slower to avoid rhythmic fluctuations

4) Temporary memorizing means temporary fingering

5) Scan the key and time signature, as well as any harder spots in the given work

6) A good technique makes sight reading a lot easier

Happy reading.

[nanabush]

Bach Fugues...

I'm learning a new fugue right now, and to be honest those pieces are excellent sight reading material (preferably 2 or 3 voice fugues)... Each hand has about an equal amount of notes, and about the same difficulty...

Also you'll find if you finish a set of pieces you're playing, for example an exa prep... when the exam is through, try sight reading other stuff at that level, and you'll find it relatively easier.  I only trained sight reading when I'd know I would be given a short passage to sight read for an examiner, but you'll found that just with the more pieces you play, and the constant increase in difficulty, you'll naturally become better at sight reading.

[rc]

Besides the boatloads of practical advice that can be searched up in old threads, my quick reply would be: patience.  Take your time in developing sightreading, don't try and jump too far too quickly.

[popdog]

True, it does take a long time.  I've started teaching recently which provides plenty of sight reading material. 

nanabush, I think you'd have to be a decent sight reader to have to tackle Bach fugues in the first place.  For me anyway, they would be a real workout.

I'm going for a coffee. 

popdog

[cdw]

I would suggest B. Bartòks Microcosmos. I heard that would be great to excercise your sight reading-skills. It starts very easy, unisono, and then it builds up, step by step. The last pieces are at conservatory-level
I'm planning to do it (together with my other hundreds of plans  )

good luck!

[chun]

Sight reading is not difficult. You try those simple pieces and later try harder pieces. If you are taking exams, there is this book called "Improve your sight-reading" and I think it is quite useful. there are some pieces there that are difficult and some easy.

[michael_langlois]

Dandelot books!

[rc]

After talking to a lady at work about classical music for a while, she generously gave me her hymnbook when I mentioned that I had troubles with sightreading.  Such a cool thing to do!  I've been steadily going through them, and I'm starting to get more fluent with it.

I have to say what a great skill it is to develop sightreading!  They're not the most complicated pieces but it's very enjoyable to be able to sit down and play some hymns off the bat and actually have it come out as music...  To be able to play music without having to study and memorize.

[lostinidlewonder]

For the developed sight reader you should aim to improve Speed and Accuracy of your sight reading separately. Aim to use a combination of memory/sight reading when learning your music. Do Bach's Well Tempered Clavier daily and work on the key signatures you find most difficult. Also Shostakovich Prelude and Fugues are excellent for the more developed sight reader to study with.

For the beginner sight reader you have to learn to read groups at a time, memorize all the chord patterns, scale patterns, progression, arpeggio etc. Know how to find pattern and direction of pattern just by looking at a group of notes at a time. i think the most essential part for beginners is to know which part of the hard starts a group of notes. I've have kids using their Rh thumb on the starting note when they have to go down! So getting a sense for fingering is essential, how to know what fingers to use just by looking at small parts of the music. This requires that you know how to play basic building blocks on the piano and relate how this pattern in the music relates to it.

Sight reading is really no different to reading words. When you learned to read words in school you did countless repetition, you did countless pattern recognition of different combination of letters. The same applies to music you are working out how to read a group of notes at once, not sound out every single dot to get the picture.

The problem with practicing to improve your tools to read music is that most people ignore doing it in the first place! It is so much easier for weak sight readers to simply read a little then immediately memorize. This is not bad, in fact I have to admit this was me for a good 15 years of my early piano playing. You become very good at memorizing but the rate at which you can absorb new material is inefficient.

However there is a strong connection between memory work and sight reading. Memory work aims to understand groups of notes with conscious or muscular relationships, this allows us to identify which groups of notes we read on the page can be played without moving our hands unnessesarily. I think this is an essential part of sight reading, knowing how to read chunks of notes at a time and know you can play that with a particular fingering controlling the notes without moving the position of the hand.  Good sight readers know exactly when the hand has to move because the dots show the need to move the hand. Poor sight readers work on a note to note basis unable to connect the group of notes with one position of the hand.

You will also find that the more music you can play and memorise the easier it is for you to read new music. This is because you cannot help but relate the new music to what you have played before. So beginners should not aim to improve their sight reading  in leaps and bounds but quietly build repertoire.

[popdog]

I completely agree with your comments about memorisation and sight reading.  Though for me the golden question is about a book containing hundreds (even thousands?) of easy pieces which get slowly more difficult.  I just don't have enough stuff to sight read.  I have dozens of pieces from various different sources, but it doesn't take long until these become too familiar to be genuine sight reading. 

Anyone have any suggestions which fit the bill? 

thanks

[theodore]

To lostinidlewonder:

My sight reading skills are developing slowly with much reading of easy pieces. However, I come to a difficulty when the hands must travel in different directions or when larger skips have to be reached.

Is there any way to achieve a tactile familiarity with the piano keyboard and acquire the ability to strike a definite pitch while keeping my eyes on the score. ??

Any helpful hints would be appreciated...

Theodore

[lostinidlewonder]

To lostinidlewonder:

My sight reading skills are developing slowly with much reading of easy pieces. However, I come to a difficulty when the hands must travel in different directions or when larger skips have to be reached.

Is there any way to achieve a tactile familiarity with the piano keyboard and acquire the ability to strike a definite pitch while keeping my eyes on the score. ??

Any helpful hints would be appreciated...

Theodore

I just stumbled across this while looking at past posts, so excuse the lateness of reply

A lot of my students who read tricky music find it difficult to keep their eyes on the music. This is fine so long you know how to recover from it. I always highlight the need for "Controlled Pausing" while practicing the piano, whether it is sight reading or technical work. Controlled pauses are where you completely freeze your hands, do not move at all, it is as if you pressed pause on a video. Do not search for notes with finger movements, look where you have to go, measure it, then move immediately precisely as you would move if you have the piece mastered. There is a very small difference between controlled pausing and no controlled pause, you have to be very careful that you are indeed totally freezing your position, and when you unfreeze you do not allow any cheating (individual fingers positioning themselves etc) to get to your notes, you must have an immediate movement which replicates what you will do when you have the piece mastered. With repetitions you aim to reduce the amount of time you are pausing for.

The leaps in reading can also be controlled if you have a good sense of the keyboard layout. I use to teach people who first try sight reading with a blindfold. I ask them to find the black notes just by touch and tell me is it a group of 2 or 3 blacks. They often begin this journey by using their whole hand to find these black notes and take a few seconds to discover what it is. Eventually you can sense where you are at the keyboard by the note that you are playing.
    I ask students to initially understand the keyboard in 2 parts, C C# D D# E and F F# G G# A A# B (as you get better you can portion the keyboard in scalar forms). They must have a good sense as to where they are at they keyboard when they play. So without looking they should know if they play a D because they can sense the 2 black notes surrounding it, you might not have to touch the black notes but your other fingers surrounding the D that you are playing can almost sense the black notes around it, and they act as springs to the hand (as Chopin suggests). They should know they play C or F or B or E because of the black notes but also the adjacent whites cause a feel of a hole in the keyboard. This is tough stuff to describe without a piano for me.

We also notice that many leaps or intervals can be found in many pieces. For instance look at the LH leaps of a Chopin Waltz and compare it to the LH of a Joplin Ragtime. There are similarities in the distances you move and the patterns you face even though these two composers are totally different in style. Arpeggio patterns, Chords, scale, these type of patterns all exist and can be made more tricky with greater leaps on the keyboard, however we treat the leaps separately with those controlled pauses if required. Have a good sense of when your hand does not have to move, when it is playing a group of notes where you do not really have to make much change in the position of your hand. You have all the right in the world to take your time to move to a new position, but when you move to the new position make sure the group of notes that you play are played confidently and without hesitation. Control your pauses for leaps and difficult intervals, but be careful not to cheat and make individual movements of the fingers, everything should be done at once.

[birba]

I think sight-reading is basically innate though you can improve it, I guess.  I saw a method once using flash cards progected on the wall in front of the piano.  Beginning with one note, then 2, then small chords,  etc.  But when you read that Brendel says he isnt much of a sight reader, is it that important?  I sight read alright, but its part of my job.