Advice

[teenagepiano]

Hello; this is my first post.

Anyway, I've been learning the piano now for around 9 months. My problem I have is that I want to be able to play many different pieces by Michael Nyman, Yann Tiersen, Beethoven, Debussy and Mozart however while (for the pieces I want to learn) my technical ability is there, but my sight reading is pathetic.

This is my main problem, it takes me forever to figure out the notes on the sheet music, so occasionally I will look at online tutorials to learn pieces, but then as the notes are memorised it is hard to correct them or pick parts to play individually. This then makes it difficult when my teacher corrects me in a lesson.

Currently I'm learning Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata(1st Movement and possibly 2nd after I've finished the 1st) and The Heart asks for pleasure first by Michael Nyman.

I think I'll leave the 3rd Movement of Moonlight alone for a few years 
Do you have any advice on how to improve my sight reading or any advice in general? Also I would appreciate it if you could recommend me pieces around the grade level I posted above

[outin]

I guess I would advice you to start practicing your sight-reading with something much easier than the classical pieces you mention.

[teenagepiano]

I guess I would advice you to start practicing your sight-reading with something much easier than the classical pieces you mention.

Can you think of any simpler pieces I can use? The pieces in the book I use with my teacher is very simple and while useful for learning piano concepts, they are mostly boring to play. I don't mind if they are contemporary or classical.

[teenagepiano]

Oh, I just found this: Chopin op28 no4

It looks like I will be able to play it It's very beautiful as well!

https://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=293

[outin]

Can you think of any simpler pieces I can use? The pieces in the book I use with my teacher is very simple and while useful for learning piano concepts, they are mostly boring to play. I don't mind if they are contemporary or classical.

Well... easy stuff tends to be more boring...but sometimes there are gems among the grade 1-3 material. If you want to practice sight reading you should just play through a lot of pieces without trying to perfect/memorize them. Or you could use some systematic approach to sight reading, but those tend to be very tedious and boring IMO... There are loads of grade 1-2 pieces listed on the sheet music section of this site, that's where I started when I got back to piano. Most of them are also available free on imslp.org. I have also used some methods books in early grades to practice my sight-reading.

 

[outin]

Oh, I just found this: Chopin op28 no4

It looks like I will be able to play it It's very beautiful as well!

https://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=293

That's one of my favorites among the preludes, but I don't think it's something to practice sight-reading with, too nice for that

[ranniks]

Try some Bach......I love my Minuet 114 Anh.

I shouldn't really express my opinion until at least a few years, but.....Bach is just excellent!

Btw, 9 months!? Fur Elize, Moonlight Sonata? That means you're pretty darn fast learner? Nice!

[pianoplunker]

Hello; this is my first post.

Anyway, I've been learning the piano now for around 9 months. My problem I have is that I want to be able to play many different pieces by Michael Nyman, Yann Tiersen, Beethoven, Debussy and Mozart however while (for the pieces I want to learn) my technical ability is there, but my sight reading is pathetic.

This is my main problem, it takes me forever to figure out the notes on the sheet music, so occasionally I will look at online tutorials to learn pieces, but then as the notes are memorised it is hard to correct them or pick parts to play individually. This then makes it difficult when my teacher corrects me in a lesson.

I have always been weak at sight reading, but I did get much better when I learned basic music theory.  If you are trying to read individual note by note without understanding the flow, then it gets very difficult with music that has many notes. For instance if you are reading G#-C#-E and dont understand that is C#minor, and dont understand other elements of the Key of C#minor, then it makes it more difficult to comprehend all those notes that modulate to F#minor eventually. Understanding the theory can make you understand the entire keyboard at any given time and you might even figure out you can make up your own music. Although it requires some book study, it can make playing your pieces much more enjoyable as you wont be stuck in frustration trying to learn note by note.
Those online tutorials will be far more useful to you if you can see the hand position is playing a particular chord in a particular key rather than a bunch of notes that you are struggling to remember. I am impressed you are doing Moonlight Sonata after only nine months. That is a big piece of music .  Other music suggestions could be Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, JS Bach Minuets, Inventions, Chopin Preludes. 

[sucom]

Wow, you're learning fast! Well done!  If you want to improve your note and sight reading, the very best advice I would give would be to allocate some of your practice time playing from as many 'easy' music sheets, tutors, early graded stuff, pop music, anything, as you can.  Start with really easy stuff and gradually work your way up, but make sure you do it a lot, regularly.  When you are sight reading something (easy) for the first time, don't worry about wrong notes, even if this means that 99% are wrong.  Then play it again, and again, and again, and again, and you will find that you gradually increase the number of correct notes you play.

This will give your note reading a chance to catch up on your playing, especially if you are learning more difficult pieces by ear or rote.  Reading frequently from easy music will help to bridge the gap between your playing ability of more difficult music, and your lower note reading ability.