Improving sight reading

[peikwilhelm]

Hi,
would anyone have tips on how to improve sight reading? I realize that the best way to do this is the same as learning to read: to just do it, a lot. But are there specific techniques or ways to think out there when it comes to improving your sight reading?

I just think it's really frustrating how bad my prima vista is, and how long it takes for me to learn new pieces because of my bad sight reading, that's why I ask.

[becky8898]

Hi peikwilhelm: Try this. When you look at a new piece fix the key signature in your mind. Like if its E flat - that is 3 flats - (Eb, Ab, Bb) really make sure you have that locked in. Then picture the E Flat scale. Then The Basic Arpegios if you know them.  It really helps once you start playing.

Ok there are four things to look for in the music. What note, how long to hold it , how loud or soft to play it and what finger to use.  Decide on an order of how your going to look for each of these that works for you. Me , the last thing I look at is fingering.  Its just something normally it takes along time to work out really good fingering so when I sight read I concentrate on the first three categories. 

Ok - two skills.  One learn not to be bobbing your head between looking at the music and looking at your hands.  Look at the music as much as possible.  Learn to feel where you are on the piano. Next skill. When you do have to look at your hands you must practice getting your eyes back to just ahead of where you were when you looked down. Again it takes practice , but everyone can do it.  Work on these skills. Its how my teacher works on sight reading with me and some people think im pretty good at it. Best of luck with this.

Cheers, Becky

[Derek]

My piano teacher in college had me doing "You Can Sight Read" by Lorina Havill. It has some excellent exercises in it which made me a far better sight reader.

In addition, some advice he gave me which I think actually reinforces itself over time even if you don't practice every day, is to actually practice finding the notes you're reading on the page with your fingers. At first this is quite painstaking. I recall feeling for the groups of 3 and groups of 2 black keys with my hands in order to find the right notes. However, this seems to have entered my subconscious over time, as I'm currently practicing the Ocean Etude and largely do not have to look at the keyboard to play it. It's challenging---not easy, but I can tell that guidance has really helped me with sight reading.

[bleicher]

The best way to improve sight reading is to join an orchestra, band or ensemble - or anything that requires to you play in time with other people, preferably following a conductor. This forces you to play something in time, even if you're only playing 10% of the notes and making most of it up.

I was always a very bad sight reader: I failed the sight reading section of all my grade exams and always had to learn every piece I was to accompany, which is time-consuming. I tried books aimed at improving sight reading, but nothing helped until I joined an orchestra as a pianist. The knack is learning not to worry about the notes, but play something that's the right rhythm, at the right time, at the right dynamic. This is very difficult to force yourself to do at home, but if you're following a conductor you have no choice but to make sure you don't get lost even if it means just playing one hand a lot of the time. Once I could sight read the rhythm in time it became easier to play the right notes too. After about a year of playing in an orchestra once a week my sight reading was transformed and now I'm reasonably competent.

[quantum]

The best way to improve sight reading is to join an orchestra, band or ensemble - or anything that requires to you play in time with other people, preferably following a conductor. This forces you to play something in time, even if you're only playing 10% of the notes and making most of it up.

Excellent advice.  I can vouch for its effectiveness.

[fleetfingers]

I agree that collaborating with others almost forces you to become a good sightreader. It requires you to think quickly and to 'decipher the code', if you will, at a rate that is out of your comfort zone. Such a challenge stretches your ability, and trains your mind to analyze the score (as a whole and in groups of measures, lines, and sections) swiftly and efficiently. Not sure if that makes sense, but it does to me.  I have done a lot of accompanying and  attribute my decent sightreading skills to my experience in that area.

When you're NOT playing with others, but instead practicing sightreading by yourself, accuracy is important. Rhythm is, too, but it's OK to pause a little to make sure you're getting the right notes and using reasonable fingering.

[peikwilhelm]

Thanks for all the good advice!

I am actually starting to notice a bit of an improvement in my sight reading, since I'm right now playing in... the band in a musical production! So it's true what you guys said, I've been literally bombarded with sheets and forced to learn them at a speed I've never done before, and at first I thought of it as a near-impossible task but having practised with the band quite extensively now (premiere in a week) I feel I'm finally starting to learn the language of sheets.

Turns out you might just need to step out of your comfort zone and suck at it for a while, and the improvement comes naturally. At least that's my experience right now!