Learning to sight read - fingering

[ggpianogg]

Hi guys,

Complete beginner here (around 3 months under my belt). Around 1,5 months ago I started learning sight reading from Howard Richman's "Sight Reading Secrets" book.

One issue I'm having is that of fingering. Most of the sheet music I train on (and which I was able to find on the internet) does not have fingering included, so I often find myself needing to do an awkward finger shift (one which will never work if I want to play properly) simply because I cannot yet look 'forward' to anticipate the next note and adjust my fingering accordingly. I'm afraid this might ingrain some bad habits. So my question is:

Should I continue practicing as I am now, and adjust fingering later on once I'm able to "look ahead" to anticipate the proper fingering, or should I search for sheet music that explicitly shows fingering for each note? Or perhaps there is another solution?

Thanks in advance.

[stevebob]

I'm not familiar with Richman's book.  Does he say anything about this?

So far as I'm aware, fingering isn't considered to be important at all when you're doing sightreading practice.  The whole point is to build and reinforce the process of seeing notes on the score and playing them in an automatic, reflexive manner.  See it, play it.  In the eyes, out the fingers.  Don't pause to identify notes, and press onward without correcting yourself when you make mistakes.  Don't think about it.

Sightreading exercises are intended for this very specific purpose—developing an unconscious and instinctive connection between the printed notes and the keyboard—and the material you use should be played through only once.  In the event you inadvertently employ "bad" fingering, it won't become ingrained because you're not doing the kind of repetitive practice necessary for learning a piece of music.

Over time, you will become more adept at "looking ahead" and anticipating what comes next.  As you become a more skilled pianist, the sound fingering principles that you absorb from the repertoire you learn will tend more and more to prevail naturally when you sightread.  My advice is don't worry about it.  In fact, don't even think about it!

[Edit:  csharp minor posted at the same time I did.  Of course, you should look over what you're going to sightread beforehand and think about what it entails.  When I say "don't think," I mean don't stop to think once you've commenced; just press onward.]

[csharp_minor]

Well heres my opinion on it...

That’s great that you are starting to learn sight reading from the very beginning, I had been playing about a year before I started to learn it.

I strongly suggest a book I use to develop my sight reading: Improve your sight reading! By Paul Harris. The books are in order of grade difficulty from pre grade 1 to grade 8. They were made to help students with the sight reading tests in the ABRSM exams. The earlier grade books like grades 1-2 help you with fingering by including some on the scores. It also asks you questions before some pieces like: what key is it in? Play the scale and arpeggio, what is the chord in bar 2 in the right hand? This helps you to work out the best fingering for it as scale practice and sight reading go together.

I’m working on More Improve your sight reading! Grade 3 at the moment, and the fingering given on some of the pieces is becoming more sparse or is not included at all. So it’s encouraging you to think about it before playing. As well as the books get some very easy beginner books to sight read too. The key is to practice every day, sight read very slowly so you can give yourself time to read it, and look through the music before you play. It’s all about recognising patterns (intervals) quickly.

But if you are a complete newbie, then you should start off with very easy music to sight read, and it should include some fingering on it too. I’m finding it a very hard skill to develop but just keep trying you will improve!

If you are still unsure then always ask your teacher (if you have one!)

[csharp_minor]

So far as I'm aware, fingering isn't considered to be important at all when you're doing sightreading practice.

Really? I have found that knowing the scale of the key the piece is in helps, but sometimes the fingering given on the score seems not to correspond to the scale as well. Thats where I get confused, do you need to use a mix of scale recondition and use whatever finger is available at the time? Even if it’s not a great fingering or part of the scale? Because you don’t want to find yourself in a position where you have run out of fingers, and can’t smoothly play the rest of the notes.  

I'm quite new to sight reading myself...

[peterjmathis]

Yeah, you can do sight-reading for sight-reading's sake alone. In many ways it's alot faster and more focused that way, though if you really want to know the fingering there's no harm in finding out.