Sight Reading (beginners) - help with sheet music

[ggpianogg]

Hey,

I'm following the drills outlined in Howard Richman's "Super Sight-Reading Secrets". What would help me a great deal is if I had some set of sheet music with pieces that only have one melody line per hand. So far I've been looking up random pieces and printing them out, but this is getting quite tiring. It would be a great help if I could just buy / download some sort of compilation (or book) of sheet music where I could find a large set of such pieces (50+ would be great, although if it's a bit less then that's fine too).

Any suggestions?

[liordavid]

what got me into sight reading was I remeber years ago in second grade school music class we were taught this song "E G B D F are the notes on the treble clef" and then it went "Every Good Boy Does Fine etc. the space notes spell out the word face so that will stick in your head. this song was my main inspiration for sight reading. Find something for the bass clef and you will be allright

[ggpianogg]

Thanks, but I'm already past the phase of trying to figure out which note is which. I can already sight read simple things (extremely slowly though), and just need more simple pieces to practice and do my drills on (simple = one melody line per hand).

I'm guessing most sheet music books with pieces for beginners will have one melody line per hand, although I would like to make sure and perhaps get some recommendations before I buy something.

[csharp_minor]

I think I’m in the same situation as you; I would like to find a good book with lots of easy pieces in too, to sight read.

What I have been doing is going to second-hand shops to get old grade 1-2 exam books, they are cheap too! You could also buy yourself one of those books with easy arrangements of well known pieces in; I have one called ‘I can play that! Classical Masterpieces’ there’s loads others with names like 'It’s easy to play’...(insert composers name here). I recently got a new sight reading book called ‘Right at sight’, they have about 70? easy pieces or dills in there, worth a look.

[ggpianogg]

Thanks a lot, I'll look into all of your suggestions good luck with your sight reading! How are you progressing?

[csharp_minor]

You’re welcome . Sight reading is definitely my weaker area, but it’s slowly progressing. I didn’t pay any attention to it at first, but since doing my first piano exam last year I have been trying to do some everyday.  I’m trying to read through grade 1 exam pieces, and pick any pieces I think are easy. I’m also using the books I suggested for you.

It’s definitely helping; I’m able to browse through some music now to see if I like the sound of it. I’m also finding it longer to memorise pieces I’m learning as I’m now relying on reading the music more, rather than learning the notes. But it’s still painfully hard for me...

[bananafingers]

Hi, I had some lessons with a music teacher and at the moment am on my own devices.  When reading music, I write the notes above in pencil and find that it helps me with site reading.  The more I do it, the easier it is to remember the notes and their place on the music.  I started late in life, wishing I had done it in my youth, but it is something I want to do, not forced to do it, so the drive is there.  I just keep prodding away at it.  Something has to stick. 

[csharp_minor]

I write the notes above in pencil and find that it helps me with site reading.

Personally I wouldn’t advise you to write the letter names above the notes. It’s actually more damaging then you might think, but I can see it’s a nice quick fix for beginners that don’t know the notes yet.

The problem with that is you are not actually sight reading, you are looking at the letters not the notes, and it’s the notes you want to be able to read, not letters (you already know them!) Besides you won’t have any room for any fingering you decide to write in above or below the notes, let alone any personal marks for dynamics etc.

There’s no easy way out of it, you just have to recite the letter names of the notes in the lines and spaces, in both clefs every day until you can recognise them, that’s how I did it...

Or there are a number of fun ways you can associate the lines and spaces with the notes, for example (reading up the staff) in the treble clef think of the notes in the spaces spelling F A C E. For the lines think Every Good Boy Deserves Females (ha-ha I remember that from school! )

[julianthegreat]

I am also looking for sheet music to improve my sight reading. Can anyone show me a link to some intermediate sheet music? I don't have the money to go out and buy books but if it comes down to that I will start saving =/

[shadowzerg]

Most of the sheet music on these sites are intermediate level and they sound good but they're from video games and anime. If you don't mind that they should be great.

https://www.squaresound.com/

https://josh.agarrado.net/music/anime/

[shadowzerg]

Sorry I forgot about this site. It will probably help you the most out of any site you can find as it has THOUSANDS of sheets from the periods of old for FREE.

https://imslp.org/wiki/

Enjoy