sight reading

[rebby]

Hey

I have started music lessons at school and i am learning to read music. Can any one help me because i find it really difficult, like remembering the notes, and my teacher is trying to get me to sight read, but i get embarressed like when i get stuck and then he asks me aquestion and i say i don't know and the answer is really obvious. So has any one got any tips that i can follow to help me get better and to help me find it easier.

Thank you

[shortyshort]

Hi Rebby,

Try these. Courtesy of "Bernhard"

*SIGHT READING

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)

Shorty

[rebby]

thanks those are really great, has anyone any more tips please.

[rc]

All I can think of off the top of my head is to have patience and don't feel embarassed about not knowing something, it's the way to learn!

The names of the notes and which key they represent on the keyboard is something that will be memorized.  If you're at the stage where you have to painstakingly translate each note, then that's what you must do.  As you practice sightreading day by day, you'll see the same notes again and again, and you'll begin to know them by heart.

You could sit down and read sheetmusic note to note, not playing but just saying aloud what the note is (C, Bb, A, F...), taking as long as you need.  It wouldn't take much of this before you have a good grasp of the written notes, where you can see a note and immediately know what it is.

Practice reading every day, be patient with yourself, take small steps and you will be there before you know it.  Remember kids first learning how to read?  everybody had to go through the stage of slowly sounding out each word, making mistakes, mispronouncing, learning new vocabulary...

[ramseytheii]

thanks those are really great, has anyone any more tips please.

My goodness you want a lot of tips!  That dozen posts wasn't enough?!

If you have ever seen an American folk music conert, the way the performers get the audience to sing  along is also a good approach to sight-reading.  If you haven't, what they do is start the song, and then before the words are sung, they shout them out.  The audience sings along right back.  WHen sight-reading, you have to look ahead, be it one beat, or two beats, or a full bar, or whatever; you make the visual connection of what is to be played, you try your best to hear it before you play it, and then you play back what you see and hear. 

The key is playback: in order to play something back, you have to get the information first.  It takes a certain amount of confidence to be playing one thing and reading another, and confidence comes from practice and success.

Walter Ramsey

[rebby]

thanks guys those two tips have really helped i am not demanding more, but any one has anything, please help

[ramseytheii]

thanks guys those two tips have really helped i am not demanding more, but any one has anything, please help

Do you mean all that wasn't a help?!?!?!?!?!               

Walter Ramsey

[rc]

Do you mean all that wasn't a help?!?!?!?!?!               

I think one could try and condense all the pages of knowledge in the forum into a more digestable piece specific to the scenario.

[steve jones]

I must admit, I do find Bernhards post to be among the most valuable resources on the net!

There are one or two things that Im 110% in agreement with, but on the most part, I think the man has shared absolute gold dust here.

SJ

[overscore]

Hey

I have started music lessons at school and i am learning to read music. Can any one help me because i find it really difficult, like remembering the notes, and my teacher is trying to get me to sight read, but i get embarressed like when i get stuck and then he asks me aquestion and i say i don't know and the answer is really obvious. So has any one got any tips that i can follow to help me get better and to help me find it easier.

Thank you

I would buy some flash cards. They cost practically nothing, and you can get someone in your family to run through them with you every night for five minutes. Or, better still, grab a friend and turn it into a competition.