sight reading, sight reding, SIGHT READING

[pee-a-nist]

Hi, i am an 18 year old amateur pianist who is interested in studying music in post secondary school, however theres only one problem, i cant sight read very well, in fact  i can barely sight read anything at all it unless its extremley easy. i can play difficult songs by memory, i can play libestraume no.3 and Rachmaninoff's c# minor prelude, and im currently learning Bachs WTC book 1 prelude in c minor. Unfortunatley however im not a good sight reader. Anyhow i was just wandering, how important is the sight reading component of an audition, and what if u cant sight read but your good at playing the peices you know and you can improvise?  Is there any possible way i could become a decent sight reader before march 18 2007 wich is the date of my audition?

[little_pianist]

Uhmm... actually, I'm not a good sight-reader, too, but I'm currently practising my sight-reading. One thing, you should be relax and don't afraid to make mistakes. Before you play, pay attention to some changing time-signatures in the middle of your song, and some notes which you think you can't play immediately (you have to know their positions!)

When you sight read, you don't have to know what notes they are. If the next note is written lower than the first, just move you finger down by a note. You don't have to know wheter it is a C or D#...

Maybe you can sight read from hymn songs everyday...  It helps me alot!!!

[gonzalo]

Here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1871.msg14384.html#msg14384
(Reading notation – Richmann’s book – Cambridge word scramble example)

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1976.msg16072.html#msg16072
(Sight reading – Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2406.msg20820.html#msg20820
(the grand staff)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2577.msg22247.html#msg22247
(Keyboard topography – how to find notes by touch)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2713.msg23282.html#msg23282
(Teaching bass clef – the full explanation for the grand staff)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2751.msg23710.html#msg23710
(detailed explanation of the sight-reading process)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2757.msg23890.html#msg23890
(Sight reading techniques – Good post by faulty on the folly of pedagogues)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2763.msg25148.html#msg25148
(music to develop sight reading from scratch)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3205.msg28255.html#msg28255
(how not to look at the keys – Richmann’s reviews)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3334.msg29381.html#msg29381
(Reading both staffs as a single grand staff - Reasons for working on scales - Detailed discussion of Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4461.msg41580.html#msg41580
(Looking at the keys: Good or bad? exercises to help finding notes by touch. Good contributions by Chang).

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4506.msg42967.html#msg42967
(accompanying as a way to teach sightreading)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5090.msg48850.html#msg48850
(the score is tabs for piano)

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,7466.msg74462.html#msg74462
(Sightreading – Comparison with reading – St Augustine reading skills)

Take care,
Gonzalo

[discturtle]

hey - I have the same problem, an audition in three weeks and I can barely sight read, but I've reached the highest level in the state for performance. I can't read rhythms quickly, so what I've been doing is reading single lines from Brahms' pieces with really difficult rhythms to develop that skill. Otherwise I've just been learning to sightread slowly by playing easier music.

The other thing that I've found really helpful is to play simplifications of pieces. For example, if you have chords in both hands, I've just been playing octaves in one hand and the chords in the other. While it's not the best practice for fully sightreading, it helps me develop speed.

And just try to never go back to correct mistakes, cause then you'll mess up the rhythm and the pitch! That was difficult for me to get used to - I usually try to correct the pitch.

[le_chat]

Seems you are a little lost my friend

Let me guide you the right way

---------------> www.dasdc.net <------------------

Hahahahah that's right, but I cummah to spread the truth amongst the people of pianostreet.

Also I heard I get banned for talking the enlightened way?

Very well, I will put on a mask of naivety for the sake of the true WAY.

 

[pianistimo]

what does the sdc say that we can't say here? 

join a chorale as an accompanist.  you HAVE to practice sightreading a lot.  play for church.  you HAVE to play hymns every week.  i would say that my practice time sightreading was 3x the amount with those things - plus, you can start with a children's chorus and not put yourself under a tremendous amount of stress to start.  often, the instructor can go over things ahead of time with you, too.  it's good to have something to motivate you to practice sightreading.  the more you do it, the better you get.

i'll try to keep giving you some tips, ok.  the best one i've found is to try to look farther and farther ahead.  the first few days, look one note or chord ahead.  put an index card at the end of the measure and one beat more.  scan the entire amount.  play it.  do it again.  scan  it. play it.  do it again.  scan it. play it. 

tommorrow...add two beats beyond the measure.  put the index card there to cover up the remaining phrase.  when you scan - you are first reading each of the chords (and you can also mark them if you wish - with chord number and inversions) up the the point of destination. 

the goal is to be able to scan an entire page fairly quickly.  then, play it without stopping.  what you are trying to do is to learn to sightread overnight.  it will not happen.  you have to take it slow and easy and train your eyes and mind together. some can see much more.  like chord colors.  or things that remind them of the progressions - so all they really focus on is the melody.  i'm not at that stage, even yet.  i mean - i generally know the key and chords - but i often forget the harmonies and always scan both staves.

[loops]

gonzalo, what's the point giving links to boards that don't exist? your "detailed advice
on sightreading" link points to a post of bernard whose only content is links to other
discussions -- **none** of which exist. 

speaking as someone whose weekly lesson consists of playing stuff like bach inventions
totally from memory and then failing miserably to sightread my part of a duet  based on "twinkle twinkle little star", I want to say that most of the advice people give on how to sightread is completely and utterly unhelpful ---- unless you can already sightread
 
Useless advice No 1)  keep sightreading.
If you can read Enid Blyton and want to read Jane Austen, then yes, keep reading. But if the letters move by themselves on the page and you struggle to put  letters into words, this is a recipe for despair, because it's based on the assumption that the basic sightreading processes are so obvious that there is nothing to say.

Useless advice No 2) look at a bar of music, cover it up and then play it
Oh great! If the inner image of the bar is a jumble, this is worse than pointless

Useless advice No 3) sightread in public (eg hymns in church)
Total confidence booster that one, I don't think.

Useless advice No 4) work through the Paul Harris books.
I think I did the first 3 at least three times each. My *reading* of music is OK, provided I can take
my time. But not my **sight*reading*.

I've never actually cried in a lesson but I did used to wonder if maybe I had a neurological disorder
or had a growing brain tumour.  However, in my day job I operate at such a high level that there is no way
I have left brain lesions (associated with alexia), and I definitely don't have dyslexia (although I
can disorient to think multi-dimensionally as described in R Davis' book Gift of Dyslexia)

So I started paying attention, close attention, to what exactly was going wrong during my
duets with my teacher.  For example, if I hadn't used a particular finger for a while, then
I couldn't feel it any more to move it, not without looking at it.  Or, if I did manage to see that
I needed a G, I couldn't remember which finger was sitting over the G to move it. I would mix up
B, D and F routinely on both staves. And if the hands had to do anything different from each other,
it just didn't happen in the "heat of the moment". I would keep going, but whole bits would be made up.

Currently I'm working through Richman's book. I'm up to VP5 and I think whatever neurones need to
be built for sightreading to happen are slowly forming. His advice to read by thirds definitely helped the notes stay still on the page. I think the constant shifting from line to space to line to work out the intervals
between notes was a big source of problems, as after about 2 changes of line to space I would hear
a mental "twang" in the back of my brain and that would be that. Also, the way the visual perception
exercises are set out, you gradually get to widen your focal field so that the whole 2 staves are in focus,
not just the note you are reading at that second. As for not feeling my fingers, I'm now keeping my fingers
feeling the keys all the time so that the kinaesthetic link to a finger isn't broken.

The real test will come in a few months when I'll have finished working through Richman's book.
According to various websites I've read, a child always starts reading with the right hemisphere
which is very very slow, and at some point enough information has been accumulated for the
powerful symbolic processes in the left hemisphere to kick in, at which point reading takes off.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will happen for my music reading.

[pianistimo]

good points about the kinesthetic link - and even to start a few steps before the index card thing.  on this thread i did not say 'cover up the measure'  but cover up the notes AFTER the chord that comes after that measure.  that way you are reading one measure and one chord.  then gradually add more.  but, you are right.  to get to that point - you might need to start reading one stave - then the other - then put them together (practicing the kinesthetic idea of not looking at the hands so much).  that's the other part of sightreading because you can  quickly glance - but no time to just stare at each chord.  and, what's going to help also, is scanning just one chord at a time and working your way gradually up to a scan of the whole page BEFORE playing.

i am a good sightreader - but there were MANY years of flubbing in public.  all i'm saying is that it motivated me to practice every week.  most students don't put in the same amount of time practicing sightreading as they do playing.  it's difficult work for some.  and, as you say - some process information differently and may never learn to sightread really really fast - but they CAN improve a bit.  perhaps the book you suggested would be of great help.  i've not used method books - but hymnals, children's choir music, swing choir music, and concert choir music (later on).  you practice a lot more every day because you have to know the pieces to perform.  so you make mistakes.  that's how we learn.  i made a lot of mistakes at first and then gradually got better.  i don't know any accompanist who hasn't gone throught the frustration of a fast tempo conducted when they cannot play at that speed.  that is where you drop a few notes if necessary or simply tell the director that you can only play at such and such speed right now.  but, it does help you realize that even if you tell the director - i can only read one part at a time - you can start there.  reading rhythms and notes by feel.