I am learning to play the piano and my sightreading is ..... .... not good. If I play in time then the notes go out of the window.... and vice versa.

Has anybody got any ideas on how to improve because nothing seems to be working.

Thanks in anticipation.l

1) practice
2) practice
3) er, you get the picture...

Get things like scales and arpeggios comfortably under your fingers, so that when your brain sees "ah - G major arpeggio" in a piece your hands know what to do without too much effort. I bought "Super Sightreading Secrets" and a lot of the exercises focus on reducing your dependency on watching your hands and keeping your eyes on the music.

But honestly, if you're just starting out, of COURSE your sightreading's not going to be great - be patient...

Yeah, it is just constant practice!

Do you have any sightreading practice test books or books full of easier pieces? You could do some of them every day.

There's a series of books called "Improve Your Sight-reading" by Paul Harris which are quite good.

They start at Grade 1 and go up to at least grade 7...

many students find these helpful. And there's another series by Alan Bullard,
called the Sight-Reading Source-book, which is also excellent, but unfortunately
only seems to be available in the first three grades.

I used music flash cards whenever I was on a bus or train journey. You can either buy proper ones from a music book shop or make them yourself from an old pack of playing cards with a fairly blank pattern on the reverse and an indellible felt tip pen. Put a couple of elastic bands round them and keep them in your coat pocket to use when you have a spare moment.
Good luck.
Trevor

PS. My sight reading improved even more when I started to use Sibelius.

There is a grade 8 one too..... I reckon anyone who can actually manage to play the stuff in that can play ANYTHING!!

My sight reading isn't as good as it should be either, and whilst I would agree that plenty of regular practice is important, I think it is just as important to know how to improve the various different threads that together make a good sight reader.

Someone on the forum in another thread on sight reading recommended the book "Super Sight Reading Secrets" by Howard Richman, and I have been using this. There are certain stages of achievement that you must meet in pitch, rhythm and fingering before going on to the next steps, and each step focuses on one particular area before being combined with anything else. Keyboard orientation skills go along with visual perception skills and you must meet the requirements of both at each level before progressing to the next level.

The book is very flexible in that it can be used at any stage of learning, starting at the level you can manage now, but be warned that you have to be patient. Richman says that a thorough mastery of the core drills alone can take between three months and four years and you must always be patient and go at your own pace.

The reason Richman wrote this book after a lot of research is that he could "...play Chopin Etudes at the speed of light, but couldn't read musical comedy tunes at parties. Embarrassing is an understatement ..." I can certainly relate to that, though I do admit that I can't play Chopin's Etudes at the speed of light either!

Although it is aimed primarily at keyboard players, you can adapt the ideas to ther instruments.

Anyway, I'm giving Richman's methods a serious go and would recommend this book providing you can keep going patiently.

Information about the book can be found at

Amazon. Note that it takes about two weeks to arrive from the States.

I thoroughly recommend 10 minutes a day at this website http://www.emusictheory.com/
Seriously good drills, such as the scrolling note test. If you've got a midi keyboard its even better.

This should get you well on the way to quicker note reading..

What a good site - thanks for pointing it out!

My son's particular problem was stopping and trying to get the note right, to the detriment of the rhythm. Covering the music as he went along so he couldn't go back helped to get more musical sense out of it, but you do need someone who can read music to help you for that.
Although it technically isn't true reading at sight, if you are working through one of the AB workbooks - I wish I'd had them when I was younger! - one tip is to decide to work through maybe two or three exercises - play each once after looking at it for a minute, and then the next day, do them again, once, and another three for the first time. It helps to give a better idea of what you're trying to learn to do - be it rhythm patterns, arpeggiated bits, scaley bits or whatever. Just playing a thing the once and then never again isn't so helpful, I think. I'm still not suggesting you learn the pieces fully!
If you have rhythm problems, as I do, try clapping a piece rather than playing it.