Teaching sightreading

[stokes]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to teach sight reading. I want my students to practice and improve their sight reading and I have excercises that I think are good for them. I try to make them focusing on only one hand and get going without stopping, and things like that, but they are improving slowly. I assume it requires that they practice by themself also and I don't think they do so. Should I urge them to do more of it in their practicing or should I spend more of their lesson time doing sight reading. I don't think it is a good idea to spend too much of the lesson time doing sight reading, but in the other hand I don't think they can do a lot by themselfes.

[artist]

I also struggled personally with the problem of sightreading when I was a young student. I started studying piano late at age 14 and was frustrated that other piano students my age could sight read relatively well and I couldn't sight read at all!

Subsequently, I discovered over the years that the key to sight reading quickly and effectively is theory and sol-feg.
While not all good sight readers practiced sol-feg, I found that it helped me immensely! One reads it only one musical line at a time and it helps one master intervals and think much quicker visually.
Theory allows one to understand a composer's music as groups of notes that make harmonic sense, not as reading a large and overwhelming number of individual notes. Once a student sees patterns of notes, and understands how the pattern of the notes are linked together, their sightreading speeds up and improves drastically. Music analysis is key at the more advanced levels. Today I not only sightread proficiently but can improvise on chords, including 7th and 9th chords very well.

I hope these suggestions help.

[princess]

the best way to teach sight-reading is to constantly remind your students what they're looking for. ask them what they're looking for before playing.  don't tell them the answer and promote "independent learning".  the way i see it, sight-reading separate hands is not too great of an idea because once they get to the higher grades, sight-reading is done w/ two hands at the exam. if they get used to only reading one hand at a time, it could be more difficult for the student to read two after developing a habit of only looking at one line at a time.  you could also make your students read really difficult pieces like prelude and fugue in C minor by bach.  this will help them develop their attention for details when sight-reading easier songs.  depending on how advanced your students are, stress that they should name each note you point to within 2 seconds.  then they wouldn't have to "count up" and find out what each note is while they're playing it.  

i'm not sure if these methods will help you but they've helped me.

[princess]

oh yah, having a student read pieces with four voices is also another great way to help develop the speed of reading

[TicTacDuck]

One way to promote sight reading at the younger ages is when you assign a new song have them play through it for you a tthe lesson. This way they can attemp a song for that week and you can catch any huge mistakes beore they begin.

[verwel]

I don't want to be a bore/ reactionary/negativist, but wat is the use/pleasure/importance of sightreading? I never understood that. (So be sure that this is a friendly question)

[tosca1]

Mmmm....I believe that good sight-reading ability,  especially for amateur pianists is essential.  The cold truth is that very very few pianists are soloists and much of piano playing for ordinary pianists involves accompanying work.  I do not mean that disparagingly either as accompanying is in itself an art form.
To be an effective accompanist you must be a fluent sight reader and it is always the pianist who has the most notes to read compared to the singers or string players who mostly have a single line of notes.
Sight-reading is a pre-requisite of good musicianship and surely a good sight-reader will learn notes and grasp the music more quickly when studying new pieces.  Good sight-reading is also the key to the treasure chest of piano music.  Reading through the works of the great composers is certainly an immense musical joy.
We should be sight-reading something new each day.  

[verwel]

Ow well, English is not my language, maybe I misunderstood. Sightreading is it *reading a score without being in front of the intrument* or is it *trying to play a piece at first sight*? I thought it was the latter: if I was mistaken, i'm very sorry and a little ashamed.

[tosca1]

Never mind, verwel and thank you for your comments. Sight reading is playing a piece for first time by reading the music from the score.  You were right.  
On a forum like this it is indeed helpful to be provocative and challenging.
Regards,
Robert.

[verwel]

As it wasn't intended to be provocative (we apparently have an other approach to learning a new piece, wich of course is totally acceptable and fine by me), to make it up: sometimes I do it too (I mean sightreading) and I have experienced that it can work *only the first time*  (meaning that you can get a pretty good result just the first time (unless the score is very simple it always works then), when you try it again for the second time the quality of the result strangely diminishes). Does anyone share my experience, or am I to blame, and if so, what could be the problem?
Ps. Anyone tried to sightread one of the sonata's 6-8 by Scriabin? Seems impossible to me.
Greetings.

[teacher]

I have some fun suggestions to get students to practice more sight reading:

1) This is my favorite:
I get 3 envelopes and label them: Bronze, Silver, Gold (you can use your imagination on the labels).  I cut up little excerpts (e.g. first 2 lines from The Wild Horseman by Schumann) based on their sight-reading level and put an excerpt in each envelope.  Bronze is the easiest to read, Silver a little more difficult and Gold is the most challenging.  The kids take home these envelopes each week and learn the excerpts at home.  It is a lot more interesting for them then just sight reading from a book.  I also include rhythms in each envelope for them to clap at home.


2)  Quick Studies -  I assign each student an appealing piece to learn.  They have 1 week to learn it which is why it's called a "Quick Study".    This also exposes them to more repertoire and makes Sight Reading fun.  If they learn the whole piece with proper counting and notes etc...they are rewarded with "fake piano money" which they save up to buy a prize from my prize box.

[Jo]

Take the clef away and teach your students to read the intervals between the notes. First a step (2nd), then a skip (3rd) a Jump (5th) and a skip + 1(4th).

It makes for excellent sight readers. It takes a little practise, but once they can read intervals quickly you'll never look back.

[fermata_88]

most teachers do when they do sight-reading with their students is to cover up the next note or measure with a paper. In this way the student will look ahead on the next measure.

[pianochick93]

[a-sharp]

Good suggestions (above) ...

Perhaps have a library of easy and intermediate level popular music (varied styles - whatever) & let students borrow something each week just for sightreading purposes. One of my colleagues' teacher did this and he attributes his good sightreading ability to that. I think that - in order to be good at sightreading, you have to sightread a lot. Sounds simplistic  but that's pretty much it.

Verwel - a lot of music (I don't think) is intended to be 'sightreading' material... But, as teachers, we have to realize that most of our students are not going to be performers, and largely, what we aim to do is "raise" students who will be able to enjoy music for a lifetime - this means (to me), that those kids will eventually become adults who will have the skills to be able to go pick up easy(ish) music at the music store and be able to play it pretty well without hours and hours of practice - for *enjoyment.* This is hard to do if one's sightreading skills are poor. And, for more advanced students, it just means being able to more quickly absorb the music - learn the notes quicker so they can move on to 'polishing' the piece. In short - it's a good skill to have for the well-rounded musician on any level. This is the way I see it anyway... HTH. ?

[anna_crusis]

I think it depends greatly on their level. A student who can sight read a bit already might be best off with actual pieces to practice from, but if you give pieces to a beginner sightreader it doesn't work. They've got to learn all the fundamentals first, like how to clap rhythms, how to read intervals etc before moving onto one line exercises and so on.

[alraydo]

I feel the need to chime in... I was going to start a thread on the very same topic and I found this thread, dragged from the depths of the forum.

Thanks for resurrecting it!

Anyway -- I just got a new student who had been taking lessons from another teacher.  His first question for me was, "can you teach me to sightread?"  He said that he wants it to be his main focus, and his previous teacher wasn't willing to teach him.  All she said was "practice practice practice."  So I accepted him as a student and thought all week about how to tackle it. 

In his first lesson we established that he knew all his intervals, chords, solfeggio, etc.  He was good with rhythm and had a good musical sense.  He played Fantasie Impromptu for me and I was pleasantly suprised.  Being that he is a Junior in high school, I would say that we are at a good starting point (although we need to work on his technique some). 

During this process I noticed that although he was demonstrating knowledge of all of the above, it was more academic rather than practical.  He needs to make the transition from knowing what everything means to KNOWING what it all means.  Like knowing it so well that you don't have to think about it anymore, your body just knows what to do... make it second nature.  In other words... not only practice practice practice, but mindful practicing.  You have to have a goal in mind... a "target" to aim for.

Which leads me to my point (sorry).  If sightreading is what you want to learn, then SIGHTREADING is what you need to practice.  Outside of practicing the minutiae, what needs to be practiced is the actual act of sightreading.  Just take a piece you've never seen, plop it in front of you, and plow through it.  Don't stop.  Don't fret about missed notes.  Just keep an even tempo and play.  Don't repeat measures to get them "just right".  JUST PLAY TO THE END.

Next tune.

Play through to the end.

Next tune.

Play through.

a-sharp had it right -- if you want to learn to sightread, you have to sightread a lot.

I have a more organized plan for this particular student, which starts easy and gets progressively more difficult, but you get the general idea.

[icilkovich]

just like alraydo, I was just about to ask the same topic.

anyway, I have two new students (given from other teacher) who are not experienced enough for certain examination grades but are really willing (and somehow being forced by their parents as well) to do the examination. They really have difficulties in reading the examination pieces. They aren't yet fluent in reading the notes (they can't say directly what notes I'm pointing at or where to play it), and they can't even read the rhythm. They definitely don't use to sight-read, while there's a sight-reading part in the examination as well.

At this point, as the examination is getting near and with this short amount of time, I'm really concern about what I can do to boost their sight-reading ability. I've tried giving them as many new pieces to sight-read as possible, giving rhythm reading and have them memorize the notes, but it's not really making a big deal since the examination material is really beyond their current ability.

have any idea?

thank you

[slobone]

icilkovich, if I read your post correctly, it's not about sightreading at all -- it's about just plain reading. If you can't identify a note on the staff, or how to play a rhythm, you don't know how to read music. Sightreading would come later, when you already know how to read.

[icilkovich]

should be working with the reading first then. thanks

what I point is that they even can't read so they can't start sight-reading anything. while there's a sight-reading section in the examination. get my point?

[slobone]

They may be taking the wrong level exam?

[icilkovich]

yeah.

I have two new students (given from other teacher) who are not experienced enough for certain examination grades but are really willing (and somehow being forced by their parents as well) to do the examination.

[horizontal]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to teach sight reading. I want my students to practice and improve their sight reading and I have excercises that I think are good for them. I try to make them focusing on only one hand and get going without stopping, and things like that, but they are improving slowly. I assume it requires that they practice by themself also and I don't think they do so. Should I urge them to do more of it in their practicing or should I spend more of their lesson time doing sight reading. I don't think it is a good idea to spend too much of the lesson time doing sight reading, but in the other hand I don't think they can do a lot by themselfes.

I feel the concept of exercises for sight-reading is a bit unnecessary; students learn to read by reading. The method my teacher used for me, and which I find rather effective for my students (if they actually do it, that is) is simply to keep a large crate of music ranging from absolute beginner to mid-intermediate.  Every week the student is given a (rather large) stack of music well below their current technical level (so that the music is simple to sight read), with instructions to read through that stack for the week. No practicing, no memorizing, simply read a piece, put it away, move on to the next piece.  This can be done, for example, for the first twenty minutes of practice in lieu of technical work.  Lo and behold, people will learn to sight read rather quickly if they in fact practice sight reading every day.

[theodore]

My sight reading skills are developing slowly with much reading of easy pieces. However, I come to a difficulty when the hands must travel in different directions or when larger skips have to be reached.

Is there any way to achieve a tactile familiarity with the piano keyboard and acquire the ability to strike a definite pitch while keeping my eyes on the score. ??

Any helpful hints would be appreciated...

Theodore

[anna_crusis]

My sight reading skills are developing slowly with much reading of easy pieces. However, I come to a difficulty when the hands must travel in different directions or when larger skips have to be reached.

Is there any way to achieve a tactile familiarity with the piano keyboard and acquire the ability to strike a definite pitch while keeping my eyes on the score. ??

Any helpful hints would be appreciated...

Theodore

You could practice memorised pieces with your eyes closed. Practicing octaves and arpeggios helps a lot too.

Really though I think it's just a matter of getting used to what 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and octaves feel like.

[musicrebel4u]

[keypeg]

Musicrebel4U, I liked the fact that he was singing - that makes sense.  I noticed that the low "so" was too low for his voice.  Also wondered about a note like C# which he called "do".  Do you give them a name for the sharped and flatted notes, or would that cause confusion (A# Bb)?

[musicrebel4u]

Musicrebel4U, I liked the fact that he was singing - that makes sense.  I noticed that the low "so" was too low for his voice.  Also wondered about a note like C# which he called "do".  Do you give them a name for the sharped and flatted notes, or would that cause confusion (A# Bb)?

They sing Solfeggio with no movable Do. They start feeling sharps and flats after a lot of practice

[keypeg]

I am curious though - whether or not the feel a sharped do or flatted re, do you give it a name for them?

(I can't imagine not feeling a sharped note like C# because a pitch is a pitch is a pitch, isn't it?  mi-fa is a semitone, just like C C# is a semitone -- that's out of my rhealm, I guess.  I have always heard pitch to be able to produce it.)

[musicrebel4u]

I am curious though - whether or not the feel a sharped do or flatted re, do you give it a name for them?

(I can't imagine not feeling a sharped note like C# because a pitch is a pitch is a pitch, isn't it?  mi-fa is a semitone, just like C C# is a semitone -- that's out of my rhealm, I guess.  I have always heard pitch to be able to produce it.)

When students sing many pieces and scales Solfeggio, they learn that in G major, for example, mi fa is a step - not a half step.

They just learn music alphabet and sing ecerything they play

For example, here I am singing a piece in E-Minor. I don't sing Fa sharp, but the boy is 'getting it' by practice:

[keypeg]

Very interesting.  I think you meant to say that you teach them at first simply that the notes are two or three notes apart, but not the quality (semitone or tone).  If you say "half step" in English, this means "semitone".  I don't think you meant to say that you teach them that mi fa is a whole tone apart, only that they are two different notes side by side, an interval of 2, but not what kind of 2. [Sorry - I'm a trained linguist, and people often have misunderstandings this way.]

I am still curious - when you do finally teach them about C# etc, what, in solfege, do you CALL it?  I think I remember hearing chromatics being something like do di re ri mi (mihi??) but I didn't learn that.

I actually did not find it too hard to switch to fixed do solfege with you as you were singing it (I know this piece).  I might have mentioned that for most of my life the only notes I knew were movable do solfege, and essentialy I did not know how to read - but could still play from notes - until a few years ago.  I then got ear training in which I could sing the notes as A B C at will from memory, as you do, while thinking movable do solfege, do re mi, for the qualities (mi and fa of movable do hugging closer etc.).  Essentially what I was taught was a system that "split in half" what you are doing all in one.  That is to say, you are singing both the intervals and the pitches - I am thinking, why not?  It would be interesting to be "bilingual".

Thank you for explaining.

KP