Good books to improve sight reading?

[ranjit]

I'm at a stage where I can sight read maybe grade 2-3 music. I have access to a music library at the university, and should be able to get hold of a bunch of books to practice with. Any suggestions on good books to improve sight reading would be appreciated. They could be books which methodically improve sight reading, anthologies of pieces, easy sonatas or other sets of pieces good to read through, etc.

[brogers70]

I like reading through (1) Music For Millions, they have two volumes for beginners, lots of nice, simple sight reading material (2) Kuhlau Sonatinas, a bit harder than the Music for Millions beginner stuff, but still lots of simple Alberti Bass and scalar melodies, and musically pretty interesting (3) the early Haydn Sonatas are very approachable for sight reading (4) pieces from the Anna Magdalena Notebook (5) Czerny Opus 599 - Practical Method for Beginners - other more advanced Czerny is also pretty good for sight reading practice if you just go slowly enough, since the patterns are repetitive (6) I think you can find anthologies of easier Scarlatti sonatas that are also good for this. By the time you've gotten through all of this, you'll probably be at a level where lots of real music is useful for sight reading practice, at a slower than performance tempo, lots of movements from Bach suites and partitas, Mozart and Haydn sonatas Chopin Mazurkas. I think you have to balance between sometimes being very rigorous (ie no looking at the hands, no stopping for mistakes) and sometimes just having fun (ie a bit more interesting music and you don't beat yourself up if you have to look at your hands sometimes or slow down a lot for a hard bit). I was always awful at sight reading, but after working at it 30 minutes a day for a couple of years it feels a lot easier and now I can read through interesting music for fun, so it's no longer a chore.

[ogdred]

I have tried a number of the series for sightreading ("Joining the dots", RCM "Four Star", etc.), but their purpose is mostly oriented towards succeeding at piano exams, rather than sight reading new music.

I have taken the approach of sight reading daily from a large volume of material is the best way to improve, so the challenge is to find a large enough volume of material at that level. You don't find a lot of thick books, and anthologies do repeat pieces a lot. These are some of the thicker volumes that I have sight read through in the last year, that are around the level you are looking for:

• Denis Agay has a number of volumes in The Joy of... series, like the Joy of First Year Piano.
• The publisher Piangere has a large set called The New Piano Anthology, their four "Novitiate" level books covering Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modernity are about the level you're looking for, and do not overlap with other anthologies much.
• Hal Leonard has a two volume anthology The Library of Easy Piano Classics, which is about 550 pages total.
• The Everybody's Favorite Series has titles like Easy Pieces for Children, Easy Pieces for Children, Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners.
• The series The World's Great Classical Music has a number of books at  level Easy to Intermediate Piano Solo, including, I like "The Baroque Era" book.
• Anthology of Easier Classical PIano, published by Hal Lonards
• The Music for Millions series, Easy Classics to Moderns and More Easy Classics to Moderns
• Jennifer Linn's series Journey Through the Classics, which has less overlap than some of the others.

Some other things that may be accessible:

• Clementi's Sonatinas Opus 36
• Burgmüller 25 Progressive Studies Opus 100
• The Fitwilliam Virginal Book (2 vols, around 1000 pages), which is a constant stream of 16th notes, but is not hard one you lock in the style.

While I do some sightreading of Bach's 4-voice chorales, more pedestrian hymn books are very good for a fairly standard, thick pile of music to sightread through. There are regular challenges rebalancing hands, and even dropping mid voices out, which adds to the challenge.

Finally, the Hal Leonard "Easy Piano" songbooks provide an enormous quantity of pop/rock/other genre pieces. Though I am primarily focused on classical, I find these Useful to play through, especially getting used to sightreading different syncopations than are familiar through my main areas of focus. I tend to pick up the thicker ones somewhat indiscriminately, like Easy Piano White Pages, or Jumbo Easy Piano Songbook. Many of these are available with a subscription on Scribd, and you will never run out.

[transitional]

If you need a song to sight read, some of the Mozarts work perfectly. Try K 332 mvt. 1 or any second movement. Not a book but I think these are definitely useful.

[ammyvl1]

There's a few good choices. Church chorale books are generally not too hard to get your hands on, and 4 part chorales make great sightreading exercises (especially the extra challenge when the hands are far apart). Most of my sightreading ability was gained through sightreading Bach, however. The Bach inventions are great because no matter how slowly you play them, they still sound good. Right now when I feel like doing some more challenging sightreading I try out a sinfonia or maybe even a fugue (though rather infrequently). Finally, don't worry about being able to sightread at speed. Your sightreading still improves if you're pausing frequently to determine notes, don't worry. The best is just to sightread as much as possible, without worrying about what in particular you're sightreading. One time I decided to sightread one of the harder beethoven sonatas randomly (I think the appasionata?), and it went terribly as you'd expect, but it was still a good workout for my sightreading muscles. Have fun!

[anacrusis]

There's a few good choices. Church chorale books are generally not too hard to get your hands on, and 4 part chorales make great sightreading exercises (especially the extra challenge when the hands are far apart). Most of my sightreading ability was gained through sightreading Bach, however. The Bach inventions are great because no matter how slowly you play them, they still sound good. Right now when I feel like doing some more challenging sightreading I try out a sinfonia or maybe even a fugue (though rather infrequently). Finally, don't worry about being able to sightread at speed. Your sightreading still improves if you're pausing frequently to determine notes, don't worry. The best is just to sightread as much as possible, without worrying about what in particular you're sightreading. One time I decided to sightread one of the harder beethoven sonatas randomly (I think the appasionata?), and it went terribly as you'd expect, but it was still a good workout for my sightreading muscles. Have fun!

Excellent advice, I fully agree!