Super Sightreading Secret Practice

[Daniel_piano]

I've bought the "Super Sight Reading Secret" book by Richman
Unfortunately "sightreading" is never learned at school, we are being always told that we will learn it somewhay and yet many students at the 9 grade can't still sightread
I'm too a good memorizer to be a good sightreader (even though I'm not that bad) so I bought this book to try to improve my sightreading
The goal is to be able to sightread all the BachChorales

What I wanted to know if you've already used this book is how the dealy sightread practice should be organized
Should I spend 30 minutes each day on the book exercises? Or more? Or less?
Is it better to have a unique sightreading session or more in a day?
Better in the morning or in the evening?
Better before practicing my piece or after?
Should I alredy sightread on my own while still utilizing the book? If so what do you suggest as a sightreading material other than Bach Chorales?

How do you think is an ideal/realistic amount of time necessary to complete the book exercises? Three months? Four months?

Thanks
Daniel

[faulty_damper]

I bought the book too.
I have no idea what these drills are for as it doesn't mention what to do with them exactly.  I just sightread it though.

So far:

15 minutes everyday sn easy things.

Practice just the beating.
Practice just playing the correct notes and with correct fingering regardless of time.

And this is as far as I've gotten.  It says to be fluent in both before going on.

[Liween]

  Hi one question here ... when people talked about sightreading does it mean that as you see the notes on both the treble & bass clef both your hands play the keys at the same time ?

For a fresh beginner, my teacher has recommended the Czerny ops 599 and I was told to work on the first 4.  The very first one is quite ok but still I've to try a couple of times before I really can play HT as I go thru the notes.  The rest I will have to simply find note by note, hand by hand and then combine together.  Is it right for me to do so or should I try to see the note (both left & right hand) and play at the same time the very first time I see the notes ?

[Brian Healey]

I'm familiar with the book by Howard Richman, but I haven't used it. It was my impression that the book severely lacked in helping students develope rhythm recognition. Reading the correct rhythm of a piece when sight-reading is just as important as the notes. Richman seems to focus only on note recognition. I don't really know anyone who has used the book, so maybe anyone in this forum who has experience with it can offer their comments.

BTW, if the point of the book is to sight-read Bach chorales, why don't you save yourself some money and just buy a book of Bach chorales instead of Richman's book?

[lostinidlewonder]

I have found this pretty helpful in boosting your sight reading.

Target improving Sight reading in two ways, Speed and Accuracy.  To increase speed of reading, we take music that is relatively easy for us, and sight read it at tempo, neglecting rhythm and dynamics. It should sound nothing like the piece, you just play notes. Very important not to correct yoruself or go back, just keep going and dont look at your hands, and just don't stop if you make mistakes.

Improving Accuracy, take out hard music, play at pathetic super slow tempo, play with 100% note accuracy and finger accuracy.

I think this is the broad way to improve your reading. Then you have to learn not to read the black dots as we first do, but spaces made with them instead., that way increases your efficiency of absorbing what you see.

[Daniel_piano]

Hi one question here ... when people talked about sightreading does it mean that as you see the notes on both the treble & bass clef both your hands play the keys at the same time ?

Not exactly
To sightread you must read faster than you play
So you see first the bass cleff and then the treble cleff and play them at the same time while reading the next notes
So, basically you readu down to up all the time but with a little delay
It's impossible to read both note at the same time (unless you're so far from the keayboard that you can't play it) but the delay between each cleff reading and the eye movements may be so short that you might believe that you're reading them at the same time

Daniel

[Liween]

  Thanks I think I've got a wrong conception on sight reading whereby I thought that your eyes will be glue at both the staves together and fingers move instantly on the notes you read. 

Basing on what you say that you will read the bass clef first,  does it mean that you have to train your left hand more than the right hand in order to react fast enough to absorb the notes.

Another question here - I am a fresh beginner for 2 months and I've memorised almost alll the treble & bass clef notes and now working on both ledger lines.  Do I start sight-reading right now or later ?  By the way, I can play simple tunes instantly without looking at the keys. 

[Brian Healey]

For good sight-readers, they play what they  already read. That is, by the time a good sight-reader plays a note or a chord, they are already reading a few beats (or measures in some cases) ahead with their eyes, beyond the point that they're playing. Sight-reading is something you should work at from the beginning (to answer your question Liween), but I've found the hinderance in sight-reading to be mostly mental. You have to allow your body to be a conduit, and sometimes your brain gets in the way. You have to be comfortable enough to allow the music to enter your eyes and come out your fingers with as little interference as possible. Sometimes you get so wrapped in trying to get everything right that it all falls apart as soon as you make the first mistake. Basically, unless your name is Franz Liszt or Bill Evans, you're not going to be able to sight read a difficult piece perfectly, but one of the signs of a good sight-reader is the ability to plow through mistakes and come out on both feet. Believe me, sight-reading is something that many of the great players work on a lot. The sooner you get used to doing it, the better.

[galonia]

Reading music is like reading words - you do not read each and every letter of each word that forms this sentence, yet you grasp the meaning.  So when sight-reading, there is no need to read every note.

I find that scanning the piece initially for rhythmic patterns is helpful, and then when I play, I simply look for note patterns that I'm familiar with e.g. chords and their inversions, melodic shapes, etc.

Ultimately, the only way to get good at sight-reading is to just read heaps of new music all the time.  And yes, don't get hung up about the occasional wrong note - remember, "A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note.  A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation."   

[Brian Healey]

A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note.  A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation.

I like that.

[julie391]

hehe, sounds as though horowitz must be the greatest interpreter then!

[lostinidlewonder]

Quote
A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note.  A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation.

ahahah. I should get my 4 yr old cousin to play at my concerts then. Thats a 5 star for interpretation, can't say much about the quality though lol

[bernhard]

Have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1871.msg14384.html#msg14384
(Reading notation – Richmann’s book – Cambridge word scramble example)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1976.msg15962.html#msg15962
(Sight reading – discussion of Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2713.msg23282.html#msg23282
(full explanation for the grand staff)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2751.msg23710.html#msg23710
(detailed explanation of the sight-reading process)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2757.msg23890.html#msg23890
(Sight reading techniques)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2763.msg25148.html#msg25148
(music to develop sight reading from scratch)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3205.msg28255.html#msg28255
(how not to look at the keys – discussion of Richmann’s reviews)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3334.msg29381.html#msg29381
(Detailed discussion of Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4461.msg41580.html#msg41580
(Looking at the keys: Good or bad?  exercises to help finding notes by touch. Good contributions by Chang).

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4506.msg42967.html#msg42967
(accompanying as the best way to teach/learn sightreading)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5090.msg48850.html#msg48850
(the score is tabs for piano)

(Sight reading is a very popular subject on PF – this is just the tip of the iceberg )

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[weebeed]

Daniel, I am currently working throught this book and I think that it is excellent.  It will not address all aspects of sightreading but it does address 1 large aspect that most teachers are not aware of or capable of teaching: spatial and tactile awareness of the piano.  Playing the piano is 95% mental and 5% physical.  Why can blind pianists like Ray Charles play the piano so well?  They have an internal memory of the keyboard.  This method will also teach you how to play the chorales with legato fingering - a fundamental tool to sightreading.  The less time you have to figure out how to move to the next chord or note, the better reader you will be.

For myself, I decided on 30minutes a day everyday first thing in the morning.  As for a realistic time period, take as much time as you need to master anything you work on.  The more you explore all aspects of music yourself the more you will teach yourself and become more self reliant.  (Einstein wasn't considered brilliant until he published his first theory at the age of 23.)  I would also suggest getting a progressive rhythm studies book to work through simultaneously to improve your rhythm pattern recognition.

Hope this helps

"to experience the divine you must explore the ordinary".  Edna Golandsky
Darrin

[goalevan]

if you can get into the exercises that use the bach chorales, I really recommend that... I would do those for an hour a day last summer and the results are amazing. And not only for sight reading, for a load of other things, such as playing without looking at your hands, feeling the keyboard, confidence with your playing and hitting less wrong notes, chord positioning (drastic improvement for me), octave displacements, etc etc etc...

Enjoy