Tips for sucessful sightreading

[pianojems]

 High everybody, I am finishing my Bachelors in piano in college. Through the years I have had many great teachers who showed me some great tips. Also I explored a lot on my own. Here are some of them:
- analyze the music first away from the piano ( note key signatures, tempos, and so on)
- when you sit down and play, play hands separately first, and it is crucial  to make a minimum number of mistakes, because they get ingrained in you and hard to break.
- you will eliminate mistakes by what I call pause playing.
- you find the notes in both hands or ( separate if you choose) and don't try to play the right rhythm at first. ----You hold those first notes intil you find the next notes and play them.
- this way it will be mostly mistakeproof.
Also to helo sightreading, you need to do it every day that you practice.
- instead of playing mindless excersises, I take any music that I did not play and try to play segments ( don't have to play consecutively)
-when you get better you could play larger segments.
- one common mistake that I see is that student's practice only the musis that their teacher assigns and nothing else. You don't get too far with that because you only sight read a few times and then play the same thing over and over.
- It is a good idea to buy more sheet music when you can, and of different genres. If you can't afford it, there is a huge collection of free sheet classical music on the web.
- and finally don't be afraid to explore on your own, and expand the boundaries. Everyone's physiology is different. Even a small alloted time of dedication to sightreading will provide astounding results. I know because it happened to me. I learned most of the first movement of Beethoven concerto in 3 weeks. I know that you all can do it.