How do I improve sight read?

[jayshen97]

Im 18 years old and learned piano since age of 6 and im currently grade 8 but im sight read are bad. i can only sight read easy piano pieces around grade 3-4 (with minor mistake). So how do I improve my sight read?.. I've tried playing it slowly without repeating it but things just dont work..

[visitor]

Slow steady yes
Don't repeat yes
over and over and over again

[briansaddleback]

One word , "Scott Joplin"

Go through each of his pieces slowly but in rythm and go through his whole book. Then start over. You will begin to recognize certain chord groupings immediately where your fingers will go to them like a computer keyboard. These chords appear everywhere in classical repertory. 
I have worked on Scott Joplin for about half a year primarily in my return to piano several years ago.

[briansaddleback]

And you get to learn real lively charismatic music while your are at it. Everyone loves hearing a Joplin tune. If I can only be a great Joplin pianist and no other, I can still die a happy man.

[shostglass]

One word , "Scott Joplin"

Go through each of his pieces slowly but in rythm and go through his whole book. Then start over. You will begin to recognize certain chord groupings immediately where your fingers will go to them like a computer keyboard. These chords appear everywhere in classical repertory. 
I have worked on Scott Joplin for about half a year primarily in my return to piano several years ago.

Joplin is perfect for when you want to impress the musically ignorant at parties.

-Shost

[briansaddleback]

Lot of these musically ignorant are people I love. Glad you take note of these things.

[jimroof]

Do what I did when a sophomore in college.  Take a job as a church musician and make sure they have a Sunday night service that is 'request night' from an old shaped-note Cokesbury Hymnal.  After about 6 months my sight reading was tremendously improved.  Nothing was technically difficult at all, but having to turn at a moment's notice to an unknown hymn really helped my reading a lot.

And, for the first 5-6 weeks, the congregation got to practice forgiveness.

[pencilart3]

What you do is you play slow and steady and don't repeat

[deandeblock]

And, for the first 5-6 weeks, the congregation got to practice forgiveness.

 

[boxjuice]

You could buy an easybook with classic pieces in easy arrangements. Im about the same level as you at sightreading and heres the book i use:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0711976627/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452781585&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=all+the+tunes+youve+ever+wanted+to+play&dpPl=1&dpID=51%2Bma%2BLRC0L&ref=plSrch

If you want, i could post a picture of the contents page for the pieces in it

[xdjuicebox]

Lol at the similarity in my name and person before me

Anyway,

1. New material, all the time
2. Pick a path for your eyes, vertical is better; I go bottom to top for each beat
3. Don't look at your hands, learn to play blind/feel the keys to know where you are. I drag my fingers across the black keys sometimes to feel where I am
4. Look for structures, familiar rhythms. Maybe practice reading only rhythms, only tones, and then combine?
5. Identify chords. This helps SO much. You have no idea.
6. Play Bach chorales to practice identifying chords
7. Play easy stuff you like
8. DON'T STOP NO MATTER WHAT. Keep going, if you can't read everything, MAKE SOMETHING UP based on theory. Keep the melody going, maybe improvise if it gets too crazy. Know your scales.
9. Play musically.

[timothy42b]

Lol at the similarity in my name and person before me

Anyway,

1. New material, all the time

That doesn't always work though it's part of it. 

Im 18 years old and learned piano since age of 6 and im currently grade 8 but im sight read are bad. i can only sight read easy piano pieces around grade 3-4 (with minor mistake).

Get to grade 10, then you'll be sightreading at grade 5-6. 

That's partly humor, but it's surprising how many people think they should be able to sightread at their level, when their level is low.  Most people can only sightread way below what they can prepare.  If you're a level 1 or 2 player, there IS no way below.

It's time to do some focused sightreading practice and bring this skill where it needs to be.  So you do have to read new pieces, BUT you also have to master the patterns specific to that genre.  Reading Joplin does not prepare you for reading all types of material.  (Mastering Joplin would be a good step though, because it means you put in the time to get those patterns in the memory banks for retrieval.) 

Sightreading novel material should be partly used for diagnosis.  What did you miss?  What was hard?  Separate that skill out and work on it. 

[boxjuice]

Are there any exercises i can do that specifically improve spacial awareness with "feeling" big intervals without having to look

[lustercrush]

xdjuicebox has the most common advice that you will find.
Especially to use Bach chorales as sight reading material and to read each chord going from the lowest to highest note.
I have done this and it helped improve my sight reading.

[dcstudio]

it's surprising how many people think they should be able to sightread at their level, when their level is low.  Most people can only sightread way below what they can prepare.  If you're a level 1 or 2 player, there IS no way below.

 

it's shocking how many parents believe that as well... they think achieving grade 4 certification means that their child should be able to sight-read all grade 4 pieces.  Parents have complained that I moved their child ahead too quickly and then given that as the reason they think that. 


hilarious

[timothy42b]

xdjuicebox has the most common advice that you will find.
Especially to use Bach chorales as sight reading material and to read each chord going from the lowest to highest note.
I have done this and it helped improve my sight reading.

Bach chorales.  The single most common sightreading recommendation.

Two problems with it.

It's beyond beginner level.  You have to be pretty advanced to sightread Bach chorales.  What do you do for about 3 years waiting to get to that level? 

Secondly, and this is commonly misunderstood, reading Bach chorales really prepares you well for sightreading Bach chorales.  There is some transfer to other genres but it is less than you think.  You need to specifically practice the type of music you will sightread. 

[timothy42b]

Are there any exercises i can do that specifically improve spacial awareness with "feeling" big intervals without having to look

Yes.  At very beginner levels, sightreading pretty much IS spatial awareness.  Once past that sightreading starts to have much less to do with it, but spatial awareness is a "necessary but not sufficient" condition.

Check the Bernhard links, I think he had an exercise for developing keyboard geography quickly.

[dcstudio]

harmonic analysis will improve your sight-reading but you have to do tons of it.  If you don't know how to do harmonic analysis I strongly recommend you learn that first

[isaach]

What's with all this grade this & that- is there some kind of standard I'm not aware of? Are you all using the same books or something?

Anyway, sll the advice here is spot-on. If you csn find the complete book of schubert dances, thst is sn excellent plsce to start. I'm also not sure if anyone mentioned that you should try and not look back at what you've already read, but to always move your eyes forward. In order to do this you need to play something technically easy for you, at a tempp you can easily maintain st your level. It might take some humility to play so slowly but, with daily practice, you can eventually go as far as you want with it.

[xdjuicebox]

Something I've been trying as a weird exercise, I don't know if it works or not, but just sharing:

Whether at or away the piano, read music, and try to immediately see those notes being played in your mind. That's made my reading slightly better. Let me know if it works for you!

[dcstudio]

Something I've been trying as a weird exercise, I don't know if it works or not, but just sharing:

Whether at or away the piano, read music, and try to immediately see those notes being played in your mind. That's made my reading slightly better. Let me know if it works for you!

this is not weird... in addition to seeing them in your mind -- feel them being played in your fingers--and hear them in your ears.  If no one is around...sing them, too. 

sight-reading is about training the eyes, too and it is essential to spend at least some time focusing on that aspect of it. 

this is great advice!

[boxjuice]

Hey, dumb question: ive been told i could be getting work accompanying a choir on keyboard and i want to practice sightreading the type of stuff ill be playing. Only problem is, i have no idea what sort of stuff choir accompaniment consists of. Will it just be chords and will Bach chorales be the best pracrice material?

[dcstudio]

Depends on the choir you are accompanying.  Church gigs are now more often modern praise music and rarely traditional hymns.  Bach chorales are great to practice sight-reading but I doubt any choir that sings that type of music is going to have a keyboard player for an accompanist.  Praise music is mind-numbingly easy to play and is almost always a chord chart... sometimes a leadsheet if the director can read music.  (Yes there are many guitar players who are worship leaders and don't read a thing.)  Find out what choirs are in your area and if any need an accompanist.   Look into what music these choirs sing and go from there.  Some high schools will employ outside accompanists for their instrumentalists--this is very lucrative if you can take on huge amounts of music and not have to spend hours preparing it.

Starting out as an accompanist is pretty rough, even if you are a good player and sight-reader.  You are likely unaccustomed to being told what to play, how to play, when to play... oooh...this can be tough to swallow sometimes...lol...  a lot of "grin and bear it" when you start out.  Hint: it is far more important that you be easy going and professional than to play perfectly. You also can also reduce harder scores into easier arrangements to make your life easier...it's not cheating.  After you are established you can begin choosing your gigs instead of feeling you have to take every single one offered.


Best of luck

[timothy42b]

Hey, dumb question: ive been told i could be getting work accompanying a choir on keyboard and i want to practice sightreading the type of stuff ill be playing. Only problem is, i have no idea what sort of stuff choir accompaniment consists of. Will it just be chords and will Bach chorales be the best pracrice material?

I sing with a traditional choir in a liturgical denomination.  (if you don't know what that means you'll have trouble fitting in.  but it can be worse) Bach chorales would be excellent prep.  You CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT go at your own speed.  You need a metronome ticking in your brain - you have to be flexible, but no singer can follow your rubato.  If you stutter while playing, leave out as many notes as you need. 

You will also need simple transposition skills, and the ability to fit chord progressions in on the fly between verses. 

Praise and Worship music is easier, but they don't usually call it "accompanying."  If you're doing that, work on lead sheet playing, octave melodies, left hand bass, lots of triplet fills.

[mjames]

Joplin is perfect for when you want to impress the musically ignorant at parties.

-Shost

You say that but you aren't even capable of writing anything that's half as good as what Joplin wrote, even if you spent the rest of your life trying to do so.

-James

[dcstudio]

no singer can follow your rubato.
 

but you will be expected to follow theirs.    


wise words Timothy.

[timothy42b]

but you will be expected to follow theirs.    


wise words Timothy.

I will probably never understand how the accompanist can play an 8 bar intro perfectly at 96 BPM only to have the soprano enter at 72 BPM. 

Me on bass?  I'm already in the second measure, getting glared at.

[boxjuice]

Thanks guys. I actually do have a problem with stuttering and pausing, maybe i should spend some time practicing with a metronome

[dcstudio]

I will probably never understand how the accompanist can play an 8 bar intro perfectly at 96 BPM only to have the soprano enter at 72 BPM. 

Me on bass?  I'm already in the second measure, getting glared at.

oh my friend you are preaching to the choir... pardon the pun    I have been onstage listening to the soloist sing a complete verse one half step away from the band oblivious that she is seriously out.   Sopranos are the freaking worst, too.

how do you know there is a soprano knocking at your door?

she never has her key and you always have to tell her it's ok to come in!

[ulven87]

Though a learner myself, I asked a friend once how he gained his high level sight-reading skills—he did a pure sight-reading of Grieg's Piano Concerto at about the age of 17 or 18—and he said he simply got as much material as he could get and try to order it in terms of difficulty, read up about good practice in how one approaches sight reading like reading the score a couple of times and note any parts where big changes will be occurring, or awkward sections and make a little mental note—then just kept going through piece after piece. His parents were professional classical vocalsts, so had a lot of music around.

He said he thought it was ok to read a piece more than once if you had cycled through everything you had and it had been at least a month since you last read it, and it is something you are not that familiar with, but ideally, always new material.

Another thing was knowing your scales, chords, arpeggios, and many different voicings of different chords already and properly know the notes so if asked you could just say what they are. That helped him a lot with more difficult music.

And all I had to deal with was sight reading for bass guitar when asking for advice!

[lostinidlewonder]

Most people I meet who have problems with sight reading will admit they don't practice to read easy music every day. It needs to become a habit to read successfully and not treat every reading experience as a struggle riddled with hesitation and error. Once reading practice regime begins you will always get better, often you need a teacher to show you how to visualise the piano patterns and read more at once, learn proper fingering options and how to apply them etc etc this all will further push your skills. Most importantly though is to go through a lot of successful reading routines with pieces easy enough for you to manage but still give you a little to think about.

[dcstudio]

It needs to become a habit to read successfully and not treat every reading experience as a struggle riddled with hesitation and error. .

Well said!     

[boxjuice]

Realistically, how good can one expect to get at sightreading? I mean, at what level does the average pianist peak at sightreading?