Sight-Reading Issue

[melodicprophet]

Hello, friends!

I consider myself a beginning intermediate skill level. It's hard for me to pinpoint this exactly however, because I'm a bit of a rare case. I have very extensive knowledge of music theory and I do a lot of writing/composing. A lot of things I have written aren't notated, they are created from scratch on the piano.

Just recently, I decided that I wanted to improve again. I feel like my abilities have plateaued and thus stalled my composing as well. So I've been working out of a lesson book and I have made quality progress in a short time. But one thing is really bothering me, and has bothered me for awhile:

I can read music quite well, but I don't sight read. Even if I want to, my brain refuses to let me do it. I take a new piece, and I decipher it off the page. My immediate inclination is to never look at the notes on the page again. I have a very good memory and I tend to only use the music as a reference.

It obviously doesn't need saying, but this causes problems. Sometimes I'll make a certain mistake over and over again because I am trying to "hear" the piece as I want to play it, rather than as it's written. Has anyone ever struggled with this? How can teach myself to keep my eyes on the page?

Thank you very much. This place looks like a wonderful resource and I'll be asking lots of questions!

Patrick

[gleeok]

I'm not experienced, but sharing my approach to sight-reading might help you, I guess.

Once I have built enough confidence to play a piece at full, the sheet is there but I use it more as a reference, you know, after practicing so much the same piece, most of it comes from memory. Yet, taking the eyes off the sheet might ruin the whole thing because there is nothing my eyes "hit" and say "Thats where you are and you should do this after this...etc". I find it much easier to play anything with the music sheet right there, than playing 100% from memory (maybe because I haven't tried to do this with seriousness?).

"Sometimes I'll make a certain mistake over and over again because I am trying to "hear" the piece as I want to play it" - Thats why even If I am not actually "reading", because in fact I know from memory what is coming next, I am always following the notes in the sheet, because I never know where I will go lost. When I go lost but I am concentrated in the sheet, I don't even notice I went lost, because I was already following the lines anyways. See where it goes?

[ajspiano]

I wouldnt want to discourage you from "hearing" the music the way you want too, don't lose that.

for your sight-reading - read this short book, follow its instructions well and see how you go.
https://www.wenatcheemusic.com/phocadownload/Super_Sight_Reading_Secrets.pdf

Also note, while the early exercises and chapters may seem a little trivial, and as though you know them already. Be sure to go over them and make sure you understand them thoroughly and in the ways that the book is suggesting, rather than how you may have learnt them previously.