Sight reading VS. Memorizing

[zantetsukenn]

Im a bad sight reader so i memorize the pieces i play. Since i never got opportunity to take piano lessons i have studied everything myself, but sight reading is something that is just too hard for me to learn. So here are some questions;D :

Is sight reading essential to all pianists?
Which is better sight reading or memorizing?
What do you like to do sight read or memorize?

Any help with how to practise/improve sight reading or memorizing is greatly appriciated
lastly sorry for my bad english.

[j_menz]

Is sight reading essential to all pianists?

No, but it is very useful. It allows you to get through a much wider range of repertoire which is beneficial in itself, and allows you to get into knowing whether you like or can reasonably study a particular piece more efficiently.

Which is better sight reading or memorizing?

They both have their uses. If you are looking to formally study piano at college, enter competitions or be a solo concert performer, memorisation is required.

What do you like to do sight read or memorize?

I read.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Im a bad sight reader so i memorize the pieces i play.

That's pretty much what most people do. 

All of these top flight pianists are amazing sight readers, but when they're on stage, you don't see them with the score often.  So they memorize it as well.

With the exception of chamber music.

[ajspiano]

You can memorise faster if you're a better reader..  cos you can initially read it faster, yo...   and because you can absorb (partially memorise) masses of music just sight-reading all day and all night, until you feel.. alright.

[outin]

... just sight-reading all day and all night, until you feel.. alright.

Hmm...?
That was not quite what I thought sight-reading is about 

[ajspiano]

Hmm...?
That was not quite what I thought sight-reading is about 

I don't necessarily do it ALL day/night..  but I tend to feel a little unsatisfied these days if I don't sight read something on a given day.

[pianoplunker]

Im a bad sight reader so i memorize the pieces i play. Since i never got opportunity to take piano lessons i have studied everything myself, but sight reading is something that is just too hard for me to learn. So here are some questions;D :

Is sight reading essential to all pianists?
Which is better sight reading or memorizing?
What do you like to do sight read or memorize?

Any help with how to practise/improve sight reading or memorizing is greatly appriciated
lastly sorry for my bad english.

I dont think sight reading and memorization are mutually exclusive. They actually go hand in hand.  Being able to memorize something after reading one time is certainly good for me, although I am not great at sight reading either. The advantage to memorization is that if the sheet of music cannot be found, one can still play from memory. Dont need a music stand. Sight reading skill is great but not essential. However I think you can enjoy so much more music if you are at at least a good enough reader to play through a piece even if not completely correctly. 

[lostinidlewonder]

Hire a teacher and ask them to solely teach you sight reading.

Good sight reading uses a great deal of Memory. If you sight read without any memory work then you are a poor sight reader. They are not separate but together when it comes to reading.

The question how to get good at sight reading could be asked of you, "how do you read words at a time and stop thinking about the individual letters?". Musical sight reading is obviously more difficult than reading words because often we can speak the words for many years before we learn to read it. This has a connection with laying foundation for sight reading, that you should first play a lot of music then once you have the experience of general procedure at the piano reading it makes more sense. People who learn new technique and expect to be able to sight read it for the first time are wishful thinkers.

[outin]

I don't necessarily do it ALL day/night..  but I tend to feel a little unsatisfied these days if I don't sight read something on a given day.

Ok, you just make it sound like...I'm not sure I can use the m-word here 

I actually tried to sight-read quite a few pieces on the weekend looking for something new to start and I noticed that I can do pretty well with a certain type of music. But on some sheets my mind just goes blank and my head literally starts hurting when I try to decipher what's written on the page. They just seem too messy. And it is not related to the difficulty level, some level 2 sheets are impossible while some level 5 sheets are ok. I would need to find some ways to get over that feeling of disgust I get from the notes...

[hfmadopter]

Ok, you just make it sound like...I'm not sure I can use the m-word here 

I actually tried to sight-read quite a few pieces on the weekend looking for something new to start and I noticed that I can do pretty well with a certain type of music. But on some sheets my mind just goes blank and my head literally starts hurting when I try to decipher what's written on the page. They just seem too messy. And it is not related to the difficulty level, some level 2 sheets are impossible while some level 5 sheets are ok. I would need to find some ways to get over that feeling of disgust I get from the notes...

Sometimes you just have to put your hands to the keys and that mess straightens out. Other times it gets worse. But when your mind sees the note on the page and also feels the keys then you might be able to just read the score on it's own and stomach it a little better. I'm not really good at sight reading the score alone though, I'm far better off studying it applied to the key board in a deliberate way.

The next thing I do is work on pop music and make my own accompaniment and or bass line to go with it. So this is half read and half made up on the run sort to speak. If it were a written score it would probably be a mess too. It's not tough though it's just chords, broken chords and arpeggiated chordal progressions. The problem is remembering what I did last time, say a month down the road !

[zantetsukenn]

You can memorise faster if you're a better reader..  cos you can initially read it faster, yo...   and because you can absorb (partially memorise) masses of music just sight-reading all day and all night, until you feel.. alright.

I always thought that when you sight read its hard to memorize pieces because you can always just sight read it again so there is no need to memorize. it seems that i was wrong all time

i guess i will just go and buy some very basic and random sheet music and start practising.

EDIT:

Hire a teacher and ask them to solely teach you sight reading.

I actually took piano lessons for couple weeks before military service and asked my teacher. how to practise or could she teach me sight reading. She said that it will come with time.

[lostinidlewonder]

.... I actually took piano lessons for couple weeks before military service and asked my teacher. how to practise or could she teach me sight reading. She said that it will come with time.

This is an excuse that some teachers give because 1) they don't know how to teach sight reading or 2) they actually believe that "giving it time it will come" is the only solution.

Sight reading is certainly a teachable skill but most teachers out there are repertoire teachers. My students I teach only sight reading to we go through at least 200+ pieces a year, unlike those that study repertoire who do few by comparison. We do not master pieces but we study how to read.

We also choose pieces they can easily sight read, find a challenge and are difficult. We try to work out what separates them and treat each of these levels differently. For example we may study how to read ahead when reading pieces that are easy, where with difficult pieces we may try to work out how to dissect  tricky rhythmic patterns or understand the reasons behind complicated fingering. The art of Fingering plays a large role in good sight reading, if you read well but play with incorrect fingers you will always have a problem. Often we learn fingering via repertoire but we can also learn the method behind determining the fingerings for ourselves in any given situations.

I'd keep searching until you find a teacher that will do sight reading for you. Before you even sign on with them you tell them you want to learn sight reading only. If they do not want to teach you then go for another teacher, you will find one that can focus only on sight reading. You know you have a proper sight reading teacher if you clearly understand how to practice to improve your sight reading, if they give you no tools and just say "give it time" they are not helping you.

[zantetsukenn]

The art of Fingering plays a large role in good sight reading, if you read well but play with incorrect fingers you will always have a problem

Is there a way to learn play with right fingering? any advice? some material to read about "The art of Fingering"?
How do i know when im not doing it right?

There are many pieces that does not show fingering at all. I always struggle with them