sight reading

[sonata76]

hi,i have been learning piano for a couple of years now and find sight reading is a problem.i have recently tried to not look at my hands while sight reading but find this a slow process.but surely sight reading is all about finding the notes by being guided by the black keys.if you look at your hands while sight reading then you are more likely to lose your place in the music.i dont know but any suggestions would be nice.thanx

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

Read slowly. Of course look at your hands, but have enough time to look at the music. Don't rush. Do it as slow as possible while still making sense of playing. This should bring an anodyne to your problems.

[leucippus]

i have recently tried to not look at my hands while sight reading but find this a slow process.but surely sight reading is all about finding the notes by being guided by the black keys.

Learning to sight-read is a slow process.   It's like anything else.  You need to learn to walk before you can run.   The biggest problem that people have with learning to sight-read is that they aren't willing to start at square one.

Moreover, there are two aspect to sight-reading.  There is the intellectual aspect of it - the actual ability to read the score.  That's the easy part. 

But even when you can do that you can't really "sight-read", because sight-reading requires being able to just play what you see on the score.   In other words, your fingers need to automatically jump on the notes.  I see this as more of a reflex type of learning than having anything to do with intellectually understanding or reading written music.

I can read music to some very slow degree.  Most of that is "intellectual" reading where I look at the score, realize what notes need to be played, think about where those notes are on the keyboard, and then go about finding them with my fingers.  This often requires looking at the keyboard.  Especially when the notes are far apart.

Even this limited very-slow method of sight-reading is useful for learning pieces, and can even help with playing hands together.  The idea being that I've actually practiced the piece from memory so that my fingers already know how to play it, then by looking back at the score when I play I can help to "sew" the two hands together with the proper timings.  Albeit much slower than the piece would normally be played.

However, I am also learning what I call "real" sight-reading.  To do this I have actually acquired a computer program that I use with a midi keyboard.  This electronic aid is not necessary, but I find it useful none-the-less.  It instantly tells me whether I'm hitting the correct notes AND whether or not I am playing them correctly in time including durations.

The sight-reading lessons that come with this program begin at the very beginning.  In other words, they just start out with having you play just a couple of notes at a time in a very limited range (maybe only a step or skip).  Each lesson adds a few more notes and rests of various timings, etc.   It's Kindergarten for sure!

In my mind this is the only way to really learn sight-reading proper. You simply need to start at the beginning.  If you work up from here you should increasingly learn a feel for a wider and wider range of notes until you can jump octaves without a problem.    How long it will take to learn it I don't know.  But I am completely convinced that the fastest way to learn it is to start at the beginning.

Of course, I'm still learning advanced pieces too in my old way of doing it.  The sight-reading lessons are almost a completely separate thing for me.   

I've been playing the piano for a year now (without the benefit of sight-reading) and I've finally decided that it's time to bite the bullet and go back to square one and do it right.  It will be a pain for sure.  But it should prove to be well worth the effort.

For me the computer software and midi interface to the keyboard makes it fun.  It's more interesting, plus I have the added advantage of the computer telling me precisely what I'm doing wrong.  And there is a really great sense of accomplishment when I play through a lesson and all the notes turn green at the end.  That means that I've hit them all correctly, not just the correct notes, but I got the timing and duration correct for all of them too.  That's a great feeling that you'll never get from using a piece of printed music on a piano.   

This program has already helped me immensely because I can instantly see what I'm doing wrong (i.e. hitting wrong notes, or hitting them too early, too late, or for an incorrect duration).  The computer can correct me and show me my mistake with a detailed accuracy that no human teacher could ever dream of doing.  Plus, I can use it whenever I want at my convenience.  I can move at my one pace.

Sorry for the long post, but since I too am frustrated with not being able to sight-read I thought I'd post what I'm doing to correct this lack of sight-reading for myself.

[sonata76]

hi leucippus,i think your right.i need to go back to basics im sure.that computer programme sounds good,where could i get that?thanks for the reply.sonata76

[leucippus]

hi leucippus,i think your right.i need to go back to basics im sure.that computer programme sounds good,where could i get that?thanks for the reply.sonata76

I'm currently using Etude Sight Reader although, I actually got the program as part of a 4 CD package called Instant Play Piano.  It was actually cheaper that way.

If you buy Instant Play Piano, you will get an earlier version of the software, but just send an email to the Etude Software people and they will allow you to download the latest updated version.  You just need to give them your proof of purchase barcode number from Instant Play Piano.

I'm only just starting with it so I can't say how great it is in the long haul.  It took me a while to get onto it in the early going.  But now it's coming along pretty good and I'm able to score 100% on the elementary beginning lessons.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to do these lessons right now.  I'm hoping to get into this more intensely once I'm settled in for winter.

You do need a MIDI keyboard and a cable to connect it to the computer.  I'm using a 61-key Yamaha PSR-275 for this and I bought an Edirol USB cable for the connection. So far it's working just fine.

The program actually records your input as you do the lesson so that you can listen to what you've done.  That part of the program doesn't seem to be working for me.  When I play it back it isn't timed correctly at all and I'm sure that's not the way I played it.  But I really don't need that feature to learn sight-reading so I'm not worried about that. 

It works like this,…

You are presented with a piece (or lesson) to play.  A metronome starts ahead of time to get you set and indicators appear above each measure.  A yellow indicator means that measure is next, a green indicator means the measure is the current measure.  That's really the only way you can tell if you are in time while you are playing other than the metronome itself (i.e. if you find yourself playing a measures that doesn't have a green indicator above it then you are way out of time).

Other than this, nothing appears to be happening while you are playing the piece (or lesson).   But upon completion, all of the notes that you hit correctly turn green, and all of the ones you hit incorrectly turn red.  Also there are timing and duration marks that show you which notes you hit early, or late, or right on time and whether or not you held them for the correct duration.  So you can see precisely what you are doing wrong.

Of course, you can do the lesson over again as many times as you like.  But there's a catch!  Most lessons are generated randomly so that every time you play the lesson it's slightly different.  This is done to prevent you from memorizing a lesson.

It's a great feeling when you finish and all you see are clean green notes.  That means you've played it perfectly.

The program also has the added feature that you use your own lessons (or pieces).  The only problem there is that you need to write them yourself using a MIDI sequencer program.  I actually did that already.   I simply used a Bach prelude as a lesson.  I already knew how to play the prelude from having practiced it so I did very well.   But I wasn't sight-reading as much as I was playing from memory with that.  But the idea is that you could potentially put in phrases or entire pieces that you'd like to learn, and you can see how well you do with them because of the analytical functions of the program.

I'm sold on it so far.

It's not all that expensive if you already have a MIDI keyboard.  In fact, the Edirol USB cable was my biggest expense.  The software was pretty reasonable if you buy it in the Instant Play Piano package.

[pianowelsh]

I do agree the less you have to lookat your hands the better it allows you to devote more attention to the music. Im mean - I get my students to do note finding exercises up and down the piano and random order ones throughout their first year of study and once they are secure I get them to do it with their eyes closed or watching something in the corner of the room. that way the are really able to judge spaces and distances well. I sometimes get them to do this in rep too if there is a tricky bar. I get them to analyse it . Practice finding the key notes of the passage with the correct fingers then play it through first slowly looking away, then grad up to tempo...it also helps memorise music.
I found it very usefull for quick studying accompaniment too as often you get repeats and if you have automated the awkard couple of bars (really quickly) then you can actually listen more and take a fraction longer to glance at your ensemble.

[phdezra]

I get my students to do note finding exercises up and down the piano and random order ones throughout their first year of study and once they are secure I get them to do it with their eyes closed or watching something in the corner of the room.

This reminds me of some of the Keyboard Orientation ("KO") drills in Howard Richman's "Super Sight Reading Secrets" book.  These KO practice drills along with he Visual Perception ("VP") drills are an excellent way to improve sight reading over time on the way to thorough sight reading proficiency (though mastery could take anywhere from 3 months to several years).

[loops]

I am up to VP5 in Richmann's book. I'm thinking I might have to wait until they isolate the relevant gene and then get some stem cells transplanted. The computer program looks intriguing but scary. Right now I have to pretend I didn't too bad for fear of giving up through depression. If I look at the notes and not the keyboard, I disorient....is there 1 keyboard or 2 (one for each hand, moving about.....), is that a B, D or F?  (I can read music if I take my time, but not sight read.)

 Interestingly, I can play my scales and Bach Invention in the dark...on muscle memory
If anyone has experienced this and found the key, PLEASE let me know about it.