More interesting sight-reading stuff

[maxim3]

This is interesting, it's a free-of-charge set of 354 short sight-reading exercises in C position. They start out simple but become stranger and more challenging.

https://michaelkravchuk.com/sight-reading-354-reading-exercises-in-c-position-by-michael-kravchuk/

[dogperson]

I would stay away from these.  It would be ok if these were all in the key of C but with different hand positions.  I would avoid these because they are all in the same hand position. The preference now is to get out of the C hand position as soon as possible

[maxim3]

Good point. As a quick experiment I've just converted the first 20 pages into MusicXML. You can open it in an appropriate prog and transpose it to any other key. I've just been trying it in Sibelius and, at first glance, it works well because the original file was so clean.

attached is a JPEG but it's really a MusicXML file. Change the .jpg ending to .xml

[dogperson]

Good point. As a quick experiment I've just converted the first 20 pages into MusicXML. You can open it in an appropriate prog and transpose it to any other key. I've just been trying it in Sibelius and, at first glance, it works well because the original file was so clean.

attached is a JPEG but it's really a MusicXML file. Change the .jpg ending to .xml

This doesn’t address the problem with the original exercises.  It is not that the exercises were in the key of C, but the exercises never ventured past the first five /degrees of the scale.  If you transpose this to another key, you are still only using the first five notes in that key scale. 

Go back and look at the original and you will find no notes higher than the fifth scale degree, which is G. When you transpose, you are still only sightreading five notes. Not a good exercise IMHO.  Too limited within the key and your hands never leave the dominant position.

[klavieronin]

I like the idea or it and appreciate the effort they've gone to but I agree with dogperson. It is a little strange that they never go beyond the fifth degree. Something like Czerny's Op.599 would make a better free sight reading resource (available on IMSLP), although you would need to supplement that with some other volumes of easy pieces as it progresses to more difficult pieces quite quickly.

There is this also, but again it progresses rather quickly;
https://imslp.org/wiki/Sight_Reading_Exercises%2C_Op.45_(Sartorio%2C_Arnoldo)

And there is this also. It's a sight singing book but each exercise has a piano part so you could easily use that for piano sight reading practice;
https://imslp.org/wiki/The_School_of_Sight_Singing_(Concone%2C_Giuseppe)

[maxim3]

I suspect that the composer, Michael Kravchuk, did not intend these exercises to be seen as the One and Only Solution to Learning Sightreading. You're just supposed to include a few of them every day as part of your overall sight-reading training material.

Instantly transposing them into any key (thanks to MusicXML) at least gets you all over the keyboard, in seconds. As for limited position, you can pretend that each new exercise starts at a different tetrachord, if you like. Whatever. It's just a little extra new material. There is no such thing as a SINGLE EXERCISE that can teach all of sight-reading. The point is to see the widest variety of material, no single example of which can possibly include all aspects of possible reading.

By the way, I tried converting the entire book into MusicXML, but the result was riddled with errors. What I ended up with is of some personal use perhaps, but certainly not fit for sharing. Music scanning and MusicXML and all that stuff is technology which is still in its infancy, and it's shaping up to be a LOOOOOONG infancy. Clearly the technical challenges of digitizing music notation are not yet within human capacity to fully master.

[dogperson]

You are better off spending your few minutes per day sight reading music that encompasses more than five notes. There is nothing you can do about moving your hand that makes up for this weakness. ... it is still five notes in each exercise.... and only the first five notes in the scale.

You can find better exercises to use. Klavieronin offered several you should look at

[lostinidlewonder]

A fine resource to use for training reading if one wants to isolate away from positional changing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying this in depth, it will help the developing reader and also those who are insecure with accidentals, rhythmic and coordination applications.

[wkmt]

Alvaro, my colleague and I, Juan Rezzuto have created this article on piano sight-reading. We added a chart to clarify the entire process.
Take a look and let us know. We are eager to answer any comments
https://www.piano-composer-teacher-london.co.uk/post/how-to-sight-read-piano