Joining the Dots – New Sight Reading Material

ABRSM Presents a New Book Series for Students:

Joining the Dots offers pianists lots of material to help build confidence and skill in sight-reading. The series brings together a range of activities to help students improve their sense of keyboard geography, helping them to read new music more quickly and easily. The five books cover the requirements for ABRSM’s sight-reading tests at each of Grades 1 to 5, and include:

– many short, characterful pieces to sight-read, in a range of approachable musical styles
– warm-up and technical exercises, to establish basic hand shapes and finger patterns within each key
– simple improvisation exercises in which students can explore musical ideas and familiarise themselves further with the ‘feel’ of each key
– longer solo pieces and a duet, for additional sight-reading practice or to learn quickly and play through for fun

ABRSM (the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is an educational body and charity that provides examinations in music. The organisation is based in London but runs exams in centres all over the world. In addition, ABRSM provides a publishing house for music that produces syllabuses, sheet music and exam papers and runs professional development courses and seminars for teachers. Over 620,000 candidates take ABRSM examinations each year in over ninety countries. ABRSM offers graded music exams as well as more advanced diploma qualifications.