Has anyone read/used Super Sight-Reading Secrets by Howard Richman? Was it of any use? I find sight-reading very hard and am always on the look-out for anything that may help. Cheers.

My advice would be to start with really basic piaces that you can sightread easily and then move up wards, it depends on what grade you are in the first place i suppose. i always find the sight reading books the exam board publish are quite helpful.


Sam

I don't know if they do these books for your instrument, but I bought a copy of Improve your sightreading a couple of weeks before my grade. My sightreading improved 10 fold and i got almost full marks in it in the exam, so if they do them in our instrument (I play clarinet) i would definetly recomend them!

My advice would be look for the scale that your sight reading piece is in, (so you've got a basic Idea of how the piece is going to sound) and the see if there are any patterns (it always helps). I used to have problems with sight reading as well, don't worry you'll grow out of them ...Good luck!

I used that book to improve my sight reading for LRSM level (piano performance). I had not been particularly confident at sight reading, and was particularly out of practice at reading ahead while playing. This book allows you to practice specific aspects such as this and in the end I got 10/15 for the sight reading part of my diploma exam last year (I was pleased).

While it may not work for everyone, this book helped me a great deal and I can definitely recommend it. There are a few places where the wording is confusing, e.g. "hands apart" turned out to mean "play using the left hand alone, and then the right hand alone", but this doesn't detract from the good ideas expressed within the book.

PS The book recommends you get the Bach Chorales to practice with. I borrowed them from the library.

gosh, lots of useful replies, thanks everyone. I was so worried about going on to Grade 2 after 1 and being able to read 2 things happening at the same time. It's not that hard in an easy key-it's the change of hand position and finger extensions that add to the general trickiness! Just as you think you've mastered one aspect something else rears it's ugly head..........

I started learning sight reading two years ago and I found that the most effective way (and most boring) was get serialism scores. I started by playing through Berg's violin concerto. It took days but the benefits were remarkable. Just make sure you have understanding housemates. There are no easy ways or shortcuts to sight reading. Also, something that I've never heard being mentioned, is that once you learn for one instrument switching to another is made a lot easier.

i have never had a problem with sight reading i find the scales and that hard
but if u get a book or sheet music then u can just choose a piece at random and try and play it
if u ask ur teacher to help they should give u a piece of sight reading to do at the start of a lesson
it gets u use to sight reading and then when u go in to the exam it feels as if it is just a lesson
all of my mates which play instruments have had to do sight reading with out having th choice i asked my teacher if she would be able to do some with me and now i find it easy and get really high marks on my sight reading in the exam

give it a go, what could be worse than going in to an exam and not being able to play a piece because u have not had the practise