Advice for inability to sight read -- 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, Mozart Sonata K. 311, 309 extremely 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.

[jeffkonkol]

I think you have touched on the solution already by listing what you dont do well.... it does sound like you have developed a tremendous memory though, and that will serve you well going forward.

Sight reading, in my experience, works off of an ability to guess or predict where things will move.  A familiarity with the composer is helpful, but barring that, scales are essential.

If you are needing to circle your accidentals throughout a piece... this is the deficiency that you should correct.... and with all crutches or bad habits, it is going to require going back a few steps and working yourself back up to your skill level.  Ultimately though... once you have the scales ingrained into your fingers, sight reading will become much easier for you.  Just like speed readers can look at a full sentence at a time and take it all in.... you will be able to see the movement on the page, and knowing your scales and how they work, be able to follow the movements more than slowly sounding out each individual note.

[je_piano]

I have a few ideas for you to try.  First, get hold of an excellent sight-reading series, such as the Sight Reading and Rhythm Every Day series by Helen Marlais and Kevin Olson (published by FJH).  The earlier levels might be on the simple side, but the higher levels can be more challenging.  It is well-organized, with a short sight-reading and rhythm passage to work on every day of the week.  It is a multi-key approach, so there is an increasing number of sharps and flats introduced at each level.  It is sophisticated: the exercises have a variety of rhythmic, tonal, and textural settings, and aren't locked in to any particular position or style.

Second, try to develop some sight-reading ability at an intermediate level (say Clementi sonatas or pieces by Bartok, Tcherepnin, Khatchaturian, Kabalevsky) where you start at a slow tempo, focusing on a short rhythmic period (say a quarter note or half note interval) which remains absolutely steady with no hesitations or back-tracking.  Try to finish an entire section or short piece without stopping at all, but at a very slow tempo.  Build confidence this way, and then go back and try the same piece at a faster tempo focusing on a larger rhythmic interval.  While doing this, try to see patterns emerging (repeated rhythmic motives, similarities in chord patterns, likenesses between phrases, etc).

Jon

[arturgajewski]

I would say learn scales or better yet circle of fifths. If you know how many sharps or flats there are in certain key, you will not have to circle the accidentals.

In the scale of G there is one sharp, in the scale of D there are two sharps...

In the scale of G the one sharp is F, in the scale of D the sharps are F, and C and so on...

Fat Cats Go Down Alley Eating Birds

[mcdiddy1]

Wow, I think that is a very unique problem considering your accomplishments.

It sounds like you would greatly benefit by going over the fundamental scales  and thoroughly learn them because these are the building blocks of music. For me when I look at music I see the harmony and the scales even in the melodic lines and that greatly helps me. It creates a feeling of anticipation rather than actually reading each note. Therefore when playing a piece in D major you your fingers naturally gravitate to the F #keys based on the kinesthetic feel of playing in the key. You expect to play an F# and are quickly adjust when it is not.

I do not see any harm in circling sharps and flats unless you rely on doing it to every note that is changed by the key signature. I think if that is truly your reality it is going to be a process to unlearn that but after working on your weakness than you will improve greatly in your sight reading process. I think following the suggestions of the other posters will also aid you.

[fleetfingers]

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  

Hi, Kevinli123.

Sight reading is being able to "read at sight". You are NOT sight reading your advanced pieces, you are "deciphering". I would advise you to continue circling and do whatever else helps you to decipher the music.

If you wish to improve your sight reading ability, it will be more efficient to separate your goals into two categories: (1) The advanced pieces that you want to learn and (2) The beginner- to intermediate-level pieces you can sight read reasonably well.

For sight reading, start with a level at which you can learn a short piece after playing through it only a few times (at a steady and reasonable tempo). With your memory, you will not be sight reading anymore after a few times through, so any further playing of the piece will do little to advance your reading ability. Read new things everyday. And for pieces in your sight reading category . . . do NOT circle sharps and flats.

Hymns are great for sight reading. You might still be a few steps away from this, but by reading hymns, you can learn a lot about key signatures and chords.

[allthumbspiano]

Quick question a little off topic but what is circling?

[jeffkonkol]

physically circling, or highlighting accidentals on the sheet music

[allthumbspiano]

Oh, ha.  I thought it was some sort of exercise    I was way off.

[fourthnation]

Unfortunatley, there is no easy fix and it's a real shame that previous teachers haven't trained you more thoroughly in sight reading so far. Sight reading requires 2 main things in my opinion: an understanding of scales, keys and chords and HEAPS of practice, starting with lots of very easy pieces. A method book such as suggested above may be a good start.

I've taken on a number of teenage students who, like you, can play at a reasonable level but cannot even sight read beginner-level music. As well as teaching the them about keys and chords, the other other thing I do is get them to play a minimum of 5-10 "easy" pieces a week (while continuing on a couple of harder ones if they want) just to practise sight reading. It's a bit of a pain, but it has worked for every student who has been dedicated enough to do it.

Best of all, if you commit to it and focus, you improve really quite quickly. Not to Appasionata-level reading, but you will see improvements every week. Just start with the simple stuff on the side