Hopeless sightreading

[rikea24]

Hi guys!!! (My first post!)

I'm doing my grade 4 exam and well not everything's going great but my sight reading is atrocious. My teacher always leaves it till late so i always forget that i need to learn how to do it. My exam is next month so i've started practising but i'm honestly getting nowhere I've looked on the internet for help but i keep on getting the same advice. "Look ahead and never stop", both of which i can't do. I always stop for atleast 5 seconds in the middle of the piece because i get stuck, and i can't even though God know i've tried to look ahead. My eyes just wont do it. Soo is there any hope for me and has anyone been in my shoes before and have gotten better?

[pianoplayjl]

Maybe ready your hand position. I was in your shoes once but I still also need practice. just practice everyday. remember, the examiner might give you 30sec-1 minute to examine the piece. in that time, try to play it on your laps. hope this helps.

[ethure]

I can't give any real help as I'm still not that high level.. but secretly speaking i feel some video games may help improve the certain abilities you need for sight reading  ^o^

[Derek]

I'm an amateur, but took 3 years of lessons from a top piano professor at my university. One of the best things he left me with was a solid foundation for sight reading. He had me do exercises from this book.

And, during a lesson, he pushed and pushed and pushed for me to keep my eyes on the page for a piece I was learning.

If you combine that book with a teacher who knows how to coach for sight reading, you can definitely learn it. And, I'm certainly not a great sight reader yet, but for most fairly easy pieces I can sight read them with 80-90% accuracy, and I can read more advanced pieces comfortably enough that it is not agonizing. Which means, as an amateur, I can read music like I'm reading a book and just enjoy it instead of painstakingly decode it.

One important thing for sight reading is keyboard orientation. That book has exercises that are only about finding the groups of 3 and groups of 2 accidentals with your fingers instead of your eyes. It really helps!

Another important thing is learning to read intervals and phrases rather than decoding individual notes. This book will help you to learn that as well. It also breaks it into pieces, some exercises are just for pitches, some are for rhythms that you just tap out. It really works! Good luck.

[rikea24]

Maybe ready your hand position. I was in your shoes once but I still also need practice. just practice everyday. remember, the examiner might give you 30sec-1 minute to examine the piece. in that time, try to play it on your laps. hope this helps.

Yeah I've started practising everyday and i'm seeing small improvements but i just can't stop stopping! Thanks anyways

[rikea24]

I can't give any real help as I'm still not that high level.. but secretly speaking i feel some video games may help improve the certain abilities you need for sight reading  ^o^

Hehehe
More reason to play video games although i'm not sure how that will help

[rikea24]

I'm an amateur, but took 3 years of lessons from a top piano professor at my university. One of the best things he left me with was a solid foundation for sight reading. He had me do exercises from this book.

And, during a lesson, he pushed and pushed and pushed for me to keep my eyes on the page for a piece I was learning.

If you combine that book with a teacher who knows how to coach for sight reading, you can definitely learn it. And, I'm certainly not a great sight reader yet, but for most fairly easy pieces I can sight read them with 80-90% accuracy, and I can read more advanced pieces comfortably enough that it is not agonizing. Which means, as an amateur, I can read music like I'm reading a book and just enjoy it instead of painstakingly decode it.

One important thing for sight reading is keyboard orientation. That book has exercises that are only about finding the groups of 3 and groups of 2 accidentals with your fingers instead of your eyes. It really helps!

Another important thing is learning to read intervals and phrases rather than decoding individual notes. This book will help you to learn that as well. It also breaks it into pieces, some exercises are just for pitches, some are for rhythms that you just tap out. It really works! Good luck.

Thanks for the help, i'm going to check in a bookstore if they sell it because I live in London. I wish i had a teacher like yours because although mine is good, we don't spend enough time sightreading so when it comes to the exam and i get a low score on sight reading she acts all surpried. Anyways thanks again!

[megadodd]

I was hopeless at sightreading a while back.
But all it takes for me to get better is just...reading ALOT of music.
It's obviously going to take alot of time and be unpleasant. But just hang in there buddy, everything's gonna work out real nicely if you want to improve.

[pianoplayjl]

Just like megadodd said, read alot of music. try to tap the music with your fingers as you go along. I sometimes do that.