Sight reading help

[steveb48]

Any tips on how to help with sight reading, 4 weeks 'til my grade 1 and it's my achilles heel! Free recital to the best top tip

[nanabush]

Try making a 'quick study' out of a piece from your grade 1.  See if you can learn one in a day or two, and take note of your progress.  Or even print off a few pages of Bartok's 'mikrokosmos'.  Just find short pieces either your level or a bit lower, and look for diverse writing.  Find some pieces with some chords, longer held notes, and some pieces with some small scales, some more intricate fingering.  The more you practice pieces covering techniques like those, the better you be at sight reading a harder piece that may have one of those techniques in it.

I'm at a point now where sometimes I'll find a really crazy scale passage in a piece, and I'll automatically know how to prepare my fingers; this is because I've worked on x number of pieces similar, and have done some sight reading involving 'crazy scales' 

Do some really basic analysis as you look through the piece for sight reading.  If you are doing any theory on the side (maybe not yet with grade 1), you might be able to identify WHAT scales or chords you will have to be playing in your sight reading.

Also, successfully finding patterns is ideal.  Something that may look very difficult could actually be a repetition of the exact same passage, but descending down a scale for example.

It's hard to 'teach' how to sight reading without actually being in person, but if you have the chance at picking up a sight reading book (in Canada, the 4 star is very common), for each example the book will usually ask you questions, or ask you to look for things while sight reading.    It could be something like:  "circle all of the major triads for the left hand" or "put a slur over every pentascale that comes up".  Soon enough, you will be doing this mentally, as you will no longer JUST be reading a sequence of random notes.

My long posts have zero structure, and I may have contradicted myself somewhere by accident; but, this is generally what I do when I'm sight reading, and I'm pretty comfortable sight reading a lot of stuff.

[ara9100]

I used to have a HUGE problem with sight reading. Just grab a unknown piece of music of the shelf and just read. It doesnt matter if you make mistakes, just carry on reading. if you do that for half an hour a day it should realy help. 

[pianoladywong]

Before you sight-read a piece of music, make sure you know what key and time signature you are in. Also scan for accidentals. Also try not to miss any articulation or dynamic markings. Stay relax and remember no one is judging you.

When you are practicing sight-reading, you should consider not perfecting the piece or practicing it over and over again. Once you start trying to perfect a piece of music or playing it consecutively, you are no longer sight-reading it. I would suggest sight-reading a piece once regardless how well or badly you did, you should then move on to another piece and come back to it the next day.

Piano Sight Reading Tip #1- Eyes are always a step ahead of hands

When your hands are playing the first beat of a measure, the eyes are already glancing at the second beat of the same measure.

Piano Sight Reading Tip #2 - Keeping a steady tempo
It is important to keep counting a steady tempo even if you miss a few notes here and there. It you are not used to counting rhythm out loud, you can start practicing by clapping. Watch for the smallest values of the piece. If the piece has eighth notes, then count 1& 2 & etc. Keep the tempo really slow in the beginning.

Watch for keys - Always start a piece by knowing the key signatures. Check for the beginning and the last note/chord. They are usually the same chord. The chord of the last note will tell you what key it is. Once you know the key you can anticipate the black keys (sharps or flats of the key).

 
Interval Observation

- Once you master the first three steps, this last step is crucial for precise note playing. Remember there are five lines and four spaces in any sheet music. Notes are written within lines and spaces.


A. The distance between two notes are called interval. For example: C to D is a 2nd; C to E is a third; C to F is a fourth. 

B. When you have two notes that are on different lines, their interval are either 3rd, 5th, 7th, or 9th.
If the lines are next to each other, (from line 1 to line 2, from line 2 to line 3, etc), the interval is a third.
If the notes are skipping one lines (from line 1 to line 3, from line 2 to line 4, etc), the interval is a fifth.

C. When you have two notes that are on different spaces, their interval are also 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.
This is because they are skipping a line note. If the space are next to each other (from space 1 to space 2, from space 2 to space 3), the interval is a 3rd. If the notes are skipping one space (from space 1 to space 3, from space 2 to space 4), the interval is a fifth.

D. When you have two notes where one is a space note and the other one is a line note or vice versa, then the interval is 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th.

E. When you have two notes where one note is a space note (1st space) and the other note is a line note right above the space note (2nd line), then it is a 2nd.
When you have two notes where one note is a space note (1st space), and the other note is a line note (3rd line, skip the 2nd line), it is a 4th.

Keep eyes on the music. Use your peripheral vision to your fingers. Your fingers can learn to find their notes without your eyes. A good typist can type well without looking at the keyboard. A good pianist can read the music without looking at the piano keys.

5. If you combine the above steps and start paying attentions to interval of any sheet music you come across, I can almost guarantee your sight reading skills will improve within a short period of time.