Sight Reading

[jchen]

Hi, I'm new to these forums.  I've had piano lessons for about four years however I wasn't really dedicated into it until just recently (about this year).  So my skill isn't exactly up to level, especially my sight reading.  My sight reading is pretty pathetic, I often have a tendency to play things twice when reading them or until it's right.  My reading speed is about a note every second per hand (ugh).  What ways is there to improve?  How well can you speed read?  Are there any resources I can purchase to help?

[ludwig]

Sight Reading is indeed very scary at times. There are some points that you need to think about, thinking ahead is a crucial point, think before you play, looking closely at the time signature, the key, and how fast or slow you can play it to manage correct playing, and last of all, practice, there are heaps of books out there with all sorts of sight reading pieces, or even easier piano pieces, have the habit to sight read often. There are also good pointers in another sight reading thread
https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=perf;action=display;num=1022360780

[MikeThePianist]

I used to suck at sightreading, I really did.  Though I'm not excellent at it, I've improved a ton thanx to this class I took at Eastman.  First, like Diabolos said, just get some books, sit down, and do it.  It will be a little frustrating at first, but just get over that, and sightread your but off.  Take things slow at first, be musical, and above all: DO NOT STOP!  Sightreading isn't about being note perfect.  It's about getting through the music.  The sooner you stop worrying about perfect notes, the sooner you will improve.

I hope that helps.  :-)

Mike

[dinosaurtales]

Boy!  What is it about sight reading?  I used to be great at it - I didn't appreciate that till now.  I accompanied choirs and instrumental solos a lot in high school, and could sight read almost anything like crazy.  I used to pull out my Beethoven sonata book and just play some of them -you guys are right - doesn't have to be note perfect, just get through it somewhat musically.  Anyway, in my 15 year "break" from playing, I lost the ability sight read - COMPLETELY!  ACK!  I have been practicing like crazy and feel a lot like my old self for playing, but I still can't sight read a darned thing.  I'm wondering if it'll ever come back.  Anyway, I will for sure try some of your suggestions, 'cause at this point I'll try anything!  

[mahavishnu]

Sight reading! Yay! My best musical strength!  I love it..love it..love it..Like Dinosaur tales I can sight read through almost anything note wise (I do have to be careful about timing however..hehe: I even entered a sight reading class at a local festival to shock and amaze the judges  ) I believe that I am the sight reader I am because of one composer: Bach.  Every since I was like 10, I would read through this Partitas, Inventions, Sinfonias, English and French Suites...After playing these day after day your mind starts getting used to observing patterns in music and it is like brain training more than anything.  It takes practice!  That is all!  lol

Pat  

[Diabolos]

Hi all.

Sightreading is, just as Pat said, just a matter of practise; I started of sightreading Chopin and Bach, and now just, whenever I bought new sheetmusic, may it be Gershwin, Scriabin or schostakovitch, sit down and sightread them.

However, there are several things that might help you improve your abiltiy: In France, it is still common to learn sight singing (that do, re, mi..stuff), I didn't think of it as so important until I met a Frenchman who sight sang the left hand part of Choipin's revolutionary in nearly original tempo..you should also start off with easy pieces, sometimes maybe not even classical piano literature but song arrangements.

By the way: Mike, what did I say?  

However, I don't know it it's of any help to you, but don't care if you hit wrong notes - there are some pieces that you won't play perfectly while sightreading (Liszt's Rhapsodys and etudes d'execution transcendente, e.g.)

Regards

[xelnar]

Sight Reading is indeed very scary at times. ...etc.... There are also good pointers in another sight reading thread
https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=perf;action=display;num=1022360780

The above link isn't working.  Would you please check it for accuracy?  Thanks.

[lostinidlewonder]

Like others have already said, you simply must practice it. Unfortunately there is no magic information to give you that will make you immediately read at a high level, there are a huge amount of posts on piano forum about sight reading to set you in the right direction.

I think it is important to know what is easy music to read, what is medium and what is hard. Make sure you know which you are attempting to read and what exactly in the sheet music causes the music to be easy, moderate or hard for you. There is a lot of categorizing what you read, remembering patterns which you have seen before, understanding scale and chord form etc.

Strong memorizers should not start out completely diving into 100% sight reading. You should aim to maintain your memory techniques but use sight reading to fill in the little gaps that escapes your memory. This requires that you learn a larger section of music than you would usually do with your 100% memory and use sight reading to guide you to increase the amount you attempt to memorize. This will produce holes in your memory which you maintain with sight reading instead of brute force repetitive memory work.