Hi there, i'm currently a grade 5/6 pianist but i really need help with my sight reading because its awful. Can anyone give me some tips or books to look at to help me improve?

TRy sight reading some sonatinas? Just flip to any page and start sight reading...This should help you in the long run! Or you could also sight read anything that you enjoy playing...It'll help too!

if you want to improve you sight reading do more of it. that was the advise that i was gien when i started and it works. you can also try doing grade 6/7 sight reading but closer to the grade 7 mark because then you will improve your sight reading quicker if you push yourself. i'm only just doing my grade one exam after 9months but i do grade 2 sight reading because then i find grade 1 easy.
good luck with improving and let me know how you are doing.
millie

My teacher said that rhythm is just as important as notes. Try not to go back and correct wrong notes, it's better than getting all the notes but with no rhythm attached.

Yes, it is best to do as much sight-reading as you can. If you are really finding it hard, I suggest that you find some books at grade 2 level and build up your confidence with those, then progress onto grade 3 until you feel you can manage those and so on up the grades. Make it easy for yourself to start with so that you can enjoy what you are doing.

Hi,

Go back to your previous books and attempt all of the pieces that you didn't do. Some teachers only give 3 pieces from a book and skip the rest - so go back and play the other pieces.

Start with just 4 bars a day and progress to 6 or 8 bars. Your sight reading will improve dramatically if you just find those 5 minutes a day to look at new music.

Hope you find this helpful,

Narelle

Find a friend and start playing duets. Microjazz by Christopher Norton are good (he has published solos too - also worth a look). The pieces are catchy and have interesting rhythms. The advantage of duets is that you are forced to keep going. It helps if your partner is a more advanced pianist than you!

Sight read every piece of music you can........in as many irregular time signatures and complex keys as possible. Even if it's really slow at first it will come with practice.

Hi
I think the best way to sight read is to pick the sort of pieces you enjoy playing so its not as boring.
My teacher gave me some hader sight-reading than the grade I'm at so then my own grade wasn't as difficult. The only thing to do is keep on practising until you get it, and I mean piecs you like, not stuff that bores you.
Let me know how you get on

Improve your sightreading 5 or 6 by Paul Harris is a good book.

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Hi, I myself also encounter such a problem. Teachers will only ask you to practise more as "Practise make perfect". It is really tough. My advice will be try to sight read daily, make it a habit to read a bar ahead. Don't ever stop or pause to find the note. Just carry on playing even if you make a mistake. Let work hard and conquer this problem.

I have one question here about sight reading as well. I had tried reading one bar ahead, which really helped. My problem is the co-ordination of the mind and the fingers, I read the notes but the fingers takes time to take form and reach for the notes, is this the fingering problem? Do any of you encounter the same problem as well ?

I find a nice little exercise to improve your coordination, especially when sight-reading, is to find a piece you haven't played it before and attempt it really slowly, and here's the catch - without looking at the keys! See if you can feel where the notes are, eventually with a spot of work on this particular technique you should be able to rely totally on the music and this allows to you read ahead and achieve better sight reading results! Good luck! xx

You really need to practise for your sight reading actually. If you are not really good at it, why not try a simpler one instead first, then slowly increase the difficulty.

Hi,
To improve sight readng---- do more !!! Just get out loads of books, past exam books or general music, and play !!! Enjoy doing it, and don't stress !!!
You'll also improve your performance playing too, as you'll learn to keep going and not stop if you go wrong !!
Put in dynamics, and expression !!!
Sight reading- most people hate it- but I now love it !!!

Hi, basically, as I'm sure you've been told, just pick up any music and play through it. It really does help. My sight reading used to be awful, but its ok now.

Hi,
I think my major problem in sight-reading is that I cannot differentiate what key I'm playing it in... e.g what key signature this piece is on... the only method I use it to listen out as I try playing to know whether I've hit the right note to make a nice melody (which is not risky). The next problem would be the rythm. My teacher has asked me to keep practising on my sight reading but I just can't find any interest to start at all. How?

I get my students to work out the rhythm first. Don't touch the keyboard at this stage. You can tap it out with right hand on right knee, left hand on left knee (or both hands on the closed lid), just as the two hands' rhythm appears in the music. Some teachers recommend doing this a second time with the dynamics added. (Don't worry for the moment if you need to do each stage more than once - as you get better at it, the whole process will become more condensed.) Make sure you do this at a steady pace - it's much more useful if you do this at exactly the speed you are going to play the piece.

Now the rhythm is in your head, and it's easier to hear it along with the notes later.

Next work out the key. Play an octave of the scale to fix the note patterns.

Then play through the piece. Don't stop to put things right. If you find you are playing a lot of wrong notes, go back and play the scale again before trying again. If you have a feel for the key, the notes will happen more naturally.

This all sounds very dry and academic - I can only say that I find it works with a lot of students. Do everything really slowly until it starts to get easier. It won't be instant, but having a more systematic approach might help.

Be patient and good luck.
Maggie

Maggie, how many pupils can do that in such a short period of time?!

QUOTE

how many pupils can do that in such a short period of time?!

What period of time are you referring to ?


This is a starting point. If you do it regularly you'll get more proficient and therefore quicker at working out.

M

Sorry Maggie - I meant AB exam sight reading - how many pupils can do everything you listed in 30 seconds.

Oh I see

I know, that 30 secs is a bit of a bugbear.

However, I think having a "plan of action" does help. The idea is that over a period of a few months all that systematic practice helps you to better hear an unfamiliar piece of music in your head. I practise reducing their preparation time in the run up to an exam, and eventually it's a quick tap through the rhythm, check of the key-sign, look through one or two awkward bars, and off you go.

I found sight-reading relatively easy when I was a student, and have had to find ways of helping less able pupils to improve.
Maggie

Oh I see

I know, that 30 secs is a bit of a bugbear.

However, I think having a "plan of action" does help. The idea is that over a period of a few months all that systematic practice helps you to better hear an unfamiliar piece of music in your head. I practise reducing their preparation time in the run up to an exam, and eventually it's a quick tap through the rhythm, check of the key-sign, look through one or two awkward bars, and off you go.

I found sight-reading relatively easy when I was a student, and have had to find ways of helping less able pupils to improve.
Maggie

You're very lucky Maggie, that you found sightreading easy

I always found sightreading difficult and now find it simple. I think the difference is not my performance standard but my knowledge of theory - have you ever given a pupil similar standard sight reading before and after they've done their grade 5 theory? They're often better after.

Erm.... I got distinction at grades 6, 7 and 8 theory and my sight reading is not any better.

I know it in my head... it's just getting the fingers in the right place at the right time

When I first began learning piano my sight reading was pretty good.
I could read quite well pieces of the level I was at. (up to maybe about gr 2 level)

I agree with everything that has been said. I used to find playing hymns very helpful and sight reading is something that i rarely have a problem with. Good luck.

TO IMPROVE SIGHTEREADING BUY STRONGER LENSES. HA HA (ONLY JOKING)

everybody is soooo serious about this sight reading thing. what i tend to do is try and feel where the music should progress to, and 'hear' the notes before i play them. By doing this you will not only improve sight reading, but aural aswell.

keep playing, i find scales hardest, but we all have our problems don't we??

keep the peace !!

jaime

QUOTE (jaime @ Feb 25 2004, 08:17 PM)

keep playing, i find scales hardest, but we all have our problems don't we??

You know, in my grades 1-8 on the saxophone, I never ever passed the scales section. I know exactly how you feel!

Maggiemay has absolutely the right idea - if you do not have the beat in your head before you start you have no hope of playing the piece and you do need a plan of attack.

The thirty seconds is long enough to establish beat and key signature, skim the piece for awkward rhythms and check those and check any ledger lines, but little else in the higher grades.

The problem with sight reading exercises in exams is that they tend to be quite 'quirky' pieces, not the sort of thing that you could put a period lable on so I have found some great books to use as general practise are the studio 21 series as they have some very bizarre rhythms and in the 2nd book (1st edition) there is a great 2 against 3 piece.

You have to buy:
SUPER SIGHT-READING SECRETS by howard Richman, its fantastic. It talks you through the psychology of sight reading, the process your brain goes through, how to recognise notes, how to jump long distances, how to put rhythms and melody together, it isn't a quick fix and you'll be surprised how little actual printed music there is in this book, it is for pianists of any standard and really help you, because as you say, practise won't always make perfect, this book however will! I know because in ym exams (grade 2 being the highest coz i h8 exam pressure, imabout grade 7/8 standard now) i got 28/30 in my pieces, 17/18 in my aural, 22/24 in my scales but a whopping 11/24 for my sight-readings!

Daniel, Was that sight reading score a misprint or your score before the book helped you to improve?

That was the score before,and i've just realised its 21 because i was loking over my old exam analysis sheet things n i got 20/21 for scales and 11/21 for my sight reading, i cant compare coz i aint dun an exam since (i h8 the pressure) ive got gcse's etc. But i can now sit at a relatively hard grade 6/7 piece and work out a page in about 5-10 minutes where as before it'd take me upto 45 minutes for a much simpler piece. I was being sarcastic with the "whopping" lol btw.

Thanks Daniel for clarifying ! I had wondered the same thing as sbhoa.

Sounds as if that book really worked for you. I'll look out for it.

Maggie

Should be getting the message by now!! I used to practise playing hymns and found that really worked. did my grade 8 recently and found the sight reading easy peasy. messed up the 3 pieces though!!

CZAIRE I like your last sentence. I find it encouraging and it has a sense of real empathy. Having posted in 2003, you must be really good at it now. I started working on it earnestly in January and have seen real improvement.