Advice needed on my lack of sight reading skills --- Please help :)

[kevinli123]

Hi Piano Forum,

 

I've been practicing piano for 9 years now and I have absolutely no ability to sight read. When I began piano (6 years old), I was told to circle the sharps and flats of my pieces. I've never really detached myself from doing that and have been playing my pieces with circling until two years ago. I decided to stop circling accidentals and realized my inability to sight read.

I have no fundamentals (such as scales or key signatures, rhythm, major/minor accidentals). However, I play thoroughly advanced pieces such as Ballade No. 1, Rondo Capriccioso, Grande Valse Brillante, Mozart Sonata K. 311, 309 well. My technical and interpretational ability is superb and makes up for my lack of reading. Funny thing is I've won several competitions and played at Carnegie Hall without being able to read music.  

This is the problem. Each piece that I play without sight reading takes a HUGE amount of time to understand. I have trouble reading anything above 1 sharp and 1 flat and all of the higher notes and lower notes. For example, each page of Ballade No. 1 took about 1 hour to get the notes.

I've tried practicing sight reading but I just DON'T get it.

Should I continue to circle my pieces instead of "trying" to sight read them?

I am in the process of learning Appassionata and it is giving me a hell of a time with 4 flats  

Any tips would be greatly appreciated Piano Forum.

Thanks.

[melancholy]

If you didn't have the fundamentals or as you stated "no ability to sight read", you wouldn't be able to play such pieces as the ones you've mentioned.

My approach to becoming a better sight reader has always been to do just that, sight read. Returning to elementary and intermediate level books that I have kept over the years and sight reading through them has been my solution.

[dblomd]

Start completely over. If you can't sight read start at the very beginning. I would grab some beginner method books and "sight read" pieces until you can't do it anymore. This gives you an idea of where your sight reading ability is. Just keep working at it. It takes lots of practice.

[radmilaj]

Sight-reading is a learned skill and I believe all learned skills have a lot of practice behind them. Try sight-reading pieces that seem easy for you and then work your way up. See if you understand any harmonic structure in the music. Do you recognize basic chords? Do you know how they look arpeggiated?  Do you know how the inversions look? Recognizing those musical ideas , and more, help make sight-reading smoother.

rada