Would love to be able to pick up any Christmas carol and play it without bleeps and pauses with people singing along!

It seems that every year I spend so much time rehearsing them. I mean, of course, the standard and not the simplified versions. It seems the piano (organ?) versions that I have are all written in 4 parts (a bit like voices in score) and I find them soooo difficult to sightread as the chord intervals between the parts in each hand change subtly with almost every note.

Any comments, ideas...? It's not as though they are pieces that you can keep on the boil during the year and I hate starting them too near Christmas...

Maybe think of them as accompaniments - you don't have to get every note in every chord for a start .
Make sure you get the melody line & as much of the rest as you easily can. Simplify chords as necessary - & keep going...

Good advice

Thanks. You are right.

SP

(Would be wonderful to be allowed to that in an exam sightreading piece. Now there's a thought! )

It's hard playing straight SATB adaptations - the "moves" just don't fit under the fingers as well as something written to be played on the piano!

It certainly improved my pedalling technique .

Four-part carol arrangements are difficult to play without practice at reading them; there are, thankfully, easier arrangements available. I think Usborne do one which isn't too bad .

Agreed. If I'm really in a rush, I'll disregard the left-hand notes and just play the chords (normally written just above the bar) along with the melody. The singing should be considerably louder so nobody should notice.

I agree with you on that one, scores written for SATB are much harder to read than those written for piano (even if it were the same thing written with three notes in the right hand and one in the left most of the time) especially when there are intervals that I can't reach, usually tenths, and have to play some notes with the other hand (but don't realise until I try to play that I can't reach ). I think the two notes in one hand and two in the other throws off my shape recognition: I'm much better at recognising three note chords than two-note chords, and certainly one note with one hand and a three-note chord is easier than two two-note chords.

I can't really sightread four-part carols too well yet: I have a go every Christmas, I'm just hoping that eventually I'll be better at sightreading (with practice of course) and will be able to do it. I don't really find that missing notes out makes it much easier; my brain seems to want to read the other notes or get distracted by them anyway .

Sorry, not much constructive advice but I'll join you in saying that it's difficult.

Thanks for all those reassuring comments everyone.

It's done my self confidence such a lot of good as I thought it was me and my aweful sightreading.

(It's just that about 4 years ago, when I first bought the book, my former piano teacher played the book all the way through without a glitch and never once said that it was SATB etc etc and was tricky. But she always was a wonderful sightreader and maybe she had played them year on year. She was after all over 80 then!!

I'm practising SATB hymns generally at the moment (New English Hymnal) & I must say it is improving very very slowly - but I'm thinking long term here (say for about 4 years' time) not Christmas!!!!!

I agree with the advice to leave out some of the notes though if you're accompanying singers - it's much easier to keep going - I've tried this with some of those which are too difficult for me to sight read properly at the moment!

This place has free (out of copyright) lead sheets (i.e. melody + chords) for a fair number of carols:
http://www.christmas-carol-music.org/

I've always had difficulties with SATB notation, and wondered why - note-wise and speed, it's not the hardest thing I've had to do! Getting involved every year has helped, there is an element of repetition certainly at the med school carol service, which makes life easier. I try and put in what notes I can, but don't worry too much if a few are missing.

If the Osbourne book is the same one my pupils just arrived with, it looks pretty simple - these two are G2 and G3 and aren't having much trouble with them. I have to say, though, the bright red pages for a few of the carols are a bit much!

I know how you feel. I get countless people saying "play this" "play that" and I usually make a terrible mess of it! (for some bizarre reason, it always seems to be quite hard versions everyone wants me to do) I try my best but hey.

If you're after piano solo versions, PRACTISE! Otherwise go for an accompaninent version and get people to sing along! It's also happened with operas as well for me! Had one guy who's a fantastic tenor get me do (*ahem* sightread) a song from Carmina Burana Oh god was that hard!

IrisH - LoonY

I wish I could do this too. I suppose I don't really pratice enough. The thing is I never really think about it until a few weeks before christmas. People have posted some great tips though.