My son is due to sit his Grade II piano exam today and, like his father, his weak point is sight-reading. Nothing I've tried so far, from bribery to physical violence (JOKE!) has worked in getting him just to practice it more (which is the only way to get better). I'm pretty sure he'll pass anyway - his pieces are sound, as are his scales and apparently his aural.

However, he had his final lesson yesterday and his teacher told him something that I've not heard of before. She said that if, when presented with his sight-reading piece, he puts his hands in the correct position within 10 seconds, he will get extra marks.

Is this right?

Total nonsense - the teacher is pulling his leg!
The examiner is busy writing about the previous piece (usually) and wouldn't possibly be able to time the number of seconds taken to get into position. Also, some candidates prefer to tap the rhythm first, before focusing on the pitch.
Good luck to your son - you could remind him that, even though it feels counter-intuitive, rhythm is more important than pitch.

Yes, I think Helen is right. I've never heard this before, and yes, I advise my pupils to sort out the rhythm first before even thinking of putting hands on keyboard.

I suspect teacher is trying to encourage your son to focus. Anyway good luck, I hope it goes well for him.

It's very unlikely, but I wouldn't tell your son that as the teacher obviously has a reason for telling him so

I'm sure he'll do well!

I've got my exam on Saturday and my sight reading is absolute awful! I just didn't find the time to practice and, despite a last minute rush, I'm nowhere near the required standard.

Anyone got any tips to increase my marks? I'm thinking it's gonna be best if I concentrate on the rhythm and the key, and generally ignore the pitches on the page!

Also, is it better to hold a wrong note (thereby keeping the correct rhythm/duration) or should I correct a note that's blatantly out of key?

I was aiming for a distinction but I've been doing the maths and a merit is the best I can hope for without a decent score on the sight reading,

Still, I'd be happy with any pass of course!

Sure, you should try to change a note in sight-reading, as long as you can do so within its time allocation. A longer note such as a minim should certainly be fixed more easily than say a quaver, though if you realise your mistake in the middle of a run of quavers, change to the appropriate note during the run without losing your pulse. Think of it as if the piano were an orchestral instrument and had to play along with the rest of the instruments. Credit will be given for making necessary alterations. Same applies to scales, pieces etc or course.

As to how your SR is marked overall, certainly there will be marks for accuracy of pitch, tempo, expression, pulse, rhythm etc. Remember that few people are multi-talented and get distinctions in everything. Better to in and maximise your strengths, build up a rapport with the examiner early on in your examination so that he will want to find you as many marks as possible when it comes to SR and Aurals at the end. Yes, of course they are professionals and have benchmarks when marking, but they are also human beings and they will be kind if you remember this. Even if it's only in terms of the encouraging remark that you will be given in the last box of the marksheet - ie. arguably the most important one, in which he / she comments on your overall performance and often gives much encouragement and suggestions for the future. All the very best to you!!

LR

I had a complete shock last term when one of my grade 1's came back and said the examiner had shown her the finger position for the sight reading, this was a student I was a little concerned about so was thinking - 'how bad could the rest of the exam have been if he felt the need to do that' However I had 4 kids in doing grade 1 in the same session and he showed them all.

Extra marks for sight-reading..... I wish.

How about finding some easy fun music for him to play through for fun after the exam? There is lots of lovely repertoire for kids out there eg jazz, easy versions of pop tunes etc and the more he sits and plays through new music, the easier sight reading will get for him.

Also could you or his teacher/friends etc play some duets with him? Having to stay in time with another player is a great way of training yourself to keep going/maintaining a rhythm even if something goes wrong. Most people seem to finf that the hardest thing with sight reading - there is a terrible compulsion to stop and correct every mistake, rather than keeping the overall flow and shape of the music going.

Well, the exam came and went. The exam piano is, I'm afraid, good only for firewood (don't take your exam in Cheltenham, Mrs Worthington). However, when the wee lad came out he said that he'd played his pieces perfectly, only made a minor slip in the B minor scale (curse that LH fingering!), that the Aural was "pince", and the sight-reading had gone "really well". We'll see how accurate his assessment is when the marks come.

He is due to play a duet with his best friend at the Cheltenham Festival, and they do play together quite a lot. In addition I used to play in various pop and rock bands (no, you haven't heard of any of them!) before I restarted studying music so we do quite a lot of improvising - mainly I'll vamp in the bass, and he'll supply the melody. In some ways, it wouldn't be a bad thing if his result was poor (as long as he passes!) because he's very competitive, and that might spur him on to do more sight-reading.

I was just looking through the marking guidelines for sight reading and it appears that the lowest mark you can realistically get is 7 - does anyone know if that's correct or not?

I'm basing this on the fact that "No Work Offered" scores zero, and "Very poor recognition of time and notes; No continuity or incomplete attempt; Complete disregard for key" are the criteria to score between 7 and 10.

If this is the case, I might just scrape that merit I'm after....

Well.

I just had my results (as mentioned in other threads), and somehow I got 15 for sight-reading. That seems ridiculously high to me- what I played was nothing like what was on the page; the notes and rhythms were all wrong- basically I just messed it up. I thought I would get 7. The only thing that I could have done to make it worse was to stop or let on that I knew it was a load of rubbish. So I guess that to Just Keep Going is the best thing after all...

Thanks for that.

My problem is I can't even do that though! I know you're not supposed to stop but I honestly can't help it!

I stop and correct everything! I'm seriously considering ignoring the pitches on the page (except the first and last notes) and just playing anything in key in the correct rhythm. I'll try to go up/down as is on the page but other than that I'll just make it up!

At least that way it will show awareness of key and time signature, and should sound musical.

That's not such a bad practice strategy - if nothing else, it gets you used to reading the rhythms and keeping going. You may find if you start of like this your ability to actually play the WRITTEN notes will gradually improve

Thanks, it's decided then; improvised sight reading is the way!

I'm actually gonna work a lot harder on it from now on. I've just been a little lazy for this one but lesson learned! (I suppose that should really be not learned, hence the problems...)

I think Sarah is right - if you can in effect switch concentration from the notes to the rhythm in your practice, you ability to keep going will improve, and gradually the notes may start falling back into place.

My daughter has made miraculous progress in sight-reading but on the cello so I am not sure how well the idea would transfer to the piano.

I bought a "bundle" of cello books from e-bay and amongst them was the Suzuki "I can read music" book. This splits reading music into pitch and rhythm. On the left-hand page everything is written in crotchets, it starts with just two notes and gradually introduces more. On the right hand page everything is written using the open D string. It starts with crotchets and minims and by the end of the book has semi-quavers and triplets. I worked through all the pitch pages with her first (doing a couple at each practice session) and then went back and did the rhythm pages with a metronome.

Before we started she would say every note name before she started playing, write in loads of fingering and rhythm was very hit and miss (fast on the easy bits, slow on the hard bits). Now when she has a new piece she just has a quick glance at the key signature and the time signature and plays right through. As these are pieces rather than sight-reading (ie things she is supposed to be working on) it is not perfect but not only is she playing without stopping but she is also starting to be able to identify the mistakes. She has also started asking to use the metronome when practising pieces (whereas the first time I got it out she hated it). She has made so much progress in her ability to read music that her cello teacher has remarked upon it while her trombone teacher (who she has only had since the end of September) has decided she is a "natural" sight-reader

Actually I think before very long they are going to discover a sight-reading gene

I believe you have either a sight-reading gene or a memorisation gene.

You are really good at only one of them - although you can improve at the other!

I'm a brilliant sight reader (seriously - I never drop more than 1-2 marks and have aced the sight reading a few times in exams) but I am the worst memoriser in the entire universe.

My comprehensive studies have led me to believe that the Asian population almost always have the memorisation gene!!

Excellent news but that which seems to confirm that the way to become a good sight-reader is, for most people, to work very hard at it!

I'd say this is true to an extent - most people have strengths one way or the other - but I've met too many people who are really good at both to believe it's that clear cut. I think a lot of what you're good at is down to how you're taught and what you practise.

Well done Kerioboe's daughter!

My advice to 'wobbly' sightreaders at lower grades runs broadly like this:

Work out the key, and therefore the SCALE. Silently finger the scale quickly.
Find as many scale and arpeggio passages as you can (quickly!)
Work out the time signature.
Silently tap the rhythm of the first few bars on a single key (for piano - for violin, 'air-bow')
Check for anything that needs special attention (eg position change or trickier rhythm)
GO!

ABOVE ALL, remember that sightreading is only a sketch and so long as you get a recognisable outline you will be 3/4 of the way there. You're not performing the musical equivalent of painting the Sistine Chapel - all that you are after is a good general outline.

If in doubt, always go for rhythm before note accuracy and try to maintain a steady pulse.

If all else fails and it is completely catastrophic, do ask for another go. Strictly speaking the answer should be 'no' but it does no harm to ask and some examiners may be more lenient than others.