I am rubbish on my SR, I hate it!!!
Who else is like this? It's just I can't do it...I really get fustrated with this


ARGH!!!


Abbie

Abbie, I'm not a teacher, and I'm certainly not an expert on piano, but I do know how frustrating sight-reading is until you get to grips with it. I'm almost certain that at least one person is going to reply to your post with some good, sound advice, so as long as you take it into consideration, listen to what your teacher tells you and work on improving your sight-reading, I'm sure that in time you won't find it as big a problem. I'm sure you're not rubbish, infact, the fact that you've realised that you're struggling with it shows that you're not rubbish!

Oh dear. Needless to say it is just practice. Start with some incredibly simple tunes, grade 1 beginners, get at least half a dozen together, play the first one as slow as it needs to be, and play it once only. Go on to the next one and when you've done the whole load, do them again, and again, and again. And if you see just a chink of a difference once you have been through them (without memorising them) - you CAN do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The important thing is to get the rhythym and timing in your head and keep going, don't stop. I've been through the agony - if you want to do it you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a thread somewhere about SR. Do a search and it may find it for you. It had some good advice on it. Sorry, I don't know how to do links to other threads!!!

Abbie, I know exactly how you feel - I'm hopeless at sight reading and always struggle with it. I hate the thought of it as well because I know how rubbish I am at it...
But recently, I've started to try out simple pieces (I prefer this rather than using the graded sight-reading books because that's more like an exam), and I find that it's like everything else: the more you practise it, the better you'll become. Even if you're not naturally good at it, you can still do it. Anyone can! When I speak to my teacher about it, he always says all I need to do is practise it more, and he's absolutely right. I used to think it was a hopeless case, but nothing's impossible!
Hope this helps... I'm no teacher or anything but I know exactly how you feel so thought I'd speak up. Don't give up and we'll both get there in the end!

You could get a piano tutor book, and just Sight read, say, a page a day. You'll improve with practice. Or, if any of your family play instruments, nick thier music and play it on piano. Everything helps, even if its the first page of a single line instrument tutor.

Don't worry. You don't have to be a genius sightreader to get a pass-mark.

I used to be so rubbish at sight-reading, but after months of hymn-book practice I can sightread anything up to grade 5/6 now So keep at it, and you'll get there!

Aww I'm sorry Abbie...don't worry, you're not the only one! I used to always find sight reading annoying because it'd be much easier to get distinctions if I didn't always barely pass the SR section. However, SR is important and I guess they say practice makes perfect.

So don't sweat it. Some of those SR strategies really help, and in the end, SR is a useful skill if you can do it well, but there are many aspects to piano playing besides being able to read something on the spot.

(By the way, I suck at SR more than you can imagine and I managed to pass the section on Grade 8!)

Try having a look at this thread. I don't know if it was the one DaisyChain referred to, but there are some hints in it.

I'm rubbish at sight reading on piano but good on flute. I think it must be the two hand thing that confuses me!

I think you just need to do a lot of practise with different types of music and hopefully you will become more confident. Thats what i try and do!

Yes, try not to get too discouraged. I haven't checked up on the ages of the posters above, (on their notes form the site I mean), but very often it is something which clicks somewhere around the middle of the teens. What I do know for certain is that if you are afraid of it, it is unlikely to improve dramatically. Try to stop thinking negatively about it. I used to full-on dread it until I was about 13. It's the only part of an ABRSM exam which you have no control over - or so the perception is. As an English teacher, I have often had the same experience with A level student who dreaded the unseen poem section of the exam more than their prepared texts. It's natural to be that way. Having said that, it's important that the spontaneity of students be tested as well as their capacity to absorb and regurgitate!

There's nothing mystical about SR; practice will improve it and it is certainly very well worth working at. If you think about it, SR is a very important skill. Many prospective music teachers are subjected to a piece of sight-reading at or just before their interview for teaching posts in schools etc. I have known situations in which it has been crucial in getting someone into a job, who may have been no better than or even not quite as good in other areas as some of the rival interviewees. An absolutely vital skill, which is required for accompaniment and much much more. So there's everything to play for - literally!

LR

I'm dreadful at sight-reading on the piano. I have improved with practice, but I'm still pretty poor. It's not just you!

I can't sightread well either. I do get better at it, in that I can sightread pieces of greater difficulty with the fluency I could sightread easier pieces than that a while ago. However, the level of pieces I can actually read fluently and confidently doesn't seem to increase at the same rate. I suppose this all tells me that I'm practising the wrong pieces when it comes to sightreading ; I can sightread harder pieces, just as badly as I could sightread easier pieces a while ago, but the easier pieces don't get as much easier relatively speaking, if that makes sense. I also notice that the speed with which I can learn pieces of a given standard increases, so I am getting better in that sense, but it's the fluency in reading that needs practising .

Also you'll probably note some pieces that are supposedly harder are easier to sightread than others that are supposedly easier; and some that are supposedly easier are quite difficult: that's just personal variation. Keep battling, it's just something that comes to some more naturally than others.

Mine's not wonderful but not horrific. I used to hate it, but once I started to get even a little better at it I started to enjoy exploring new music. Two things that I think helped me enormously were having to learn things quickly - short study scenarios - for church, plus some accompanying, and playing duets. If you just grit your teeth and accept the wrong notes when practising a duet, for instance, and keep your eyes ahead, and your brain on the beat that you should be on, regardless of what has been wrong, you'll find that more and more of it just starts being right!

Thanks guys but it still fustrates me so much


Im like NOT THE DREADED SIGHT READING

The thing that I find very miffing(!) is that I practise flute sight reading very inconsistently, but I have gradually and noticeably improved. Whereas although I'm pretty lax in general with piano, comparatively I'm certain I'm more faithful about sight reading and practising reading notes and reading two clefs and stuff, and you just wouldn't know it half the time...

Sight reading never used to be my best point either. Try things like practicing or playing along with accompainiments ( sorry if i spelt it wrong), and keep practising, and it will make perfect.
Trust ME!

My piano sight reading will always be my weak point but I still remember and constantly remember the best piece of advice I was ever given:

Try to keep looking at the left hand notes and build up the rhythm and harmony from there - if all else fails, just keep going in the bass and add as much right hand as you can manage.

Obviously this comes after sorting out the key and time. When you sight read, remember you are just sketching - mainly you are after a recognisable impression, not a full concert performance first time through.
Make sure you've spotted any obvious scale/arpeggio/chord patterns before you start, and off you go.

Yes, I too was prescribed hymn books!

My piano sight reading will always be my weak point but I still remember and constantly remember the best piece of advice I was ever given:

Try to keep looking at the left hand notes and build up the rhythm and harmony from there - if all else fails, just keep going in the bass and add as much right hand as you can manage.

Obviously this comes after sorting out the key and time.



I had a mini-break through in my sightreading in my last lesson. My teacher told me that reading the pitches was relatviely easy but that getting the rhythm involved a "creative leap"... you have to hear it in your mind and create that pulse there. And I thought, well I can do that!! But knowing that was what I needed to do really helped.



When you sight read, remember you are just sketching - mainly you are after a recognisable impression, not a full concert performance first time through.
Make sure you've spotted any obvious scale/arpeggio/chord patterns before you start, and off you go.



In another thread about sightreading I was assured that good sight readers are accurate!!! (ie not sketchers)
but that spotting arpeggios was vital. Personally I'd be happy with a "recognisable impression" over the
"modern music" I all too often produce .

I play at church evety week now but I think that for me hymn book training has improved my reading of hymn tunes not piano music which is generally totally different.

Back when I played clarinet, I found sight-reading easy! But I find sight-reading on the piano incredibly difficult (despite passing it at Grade 8). What I did was find a chariddy shop that sells sheet music, and I just bought loads and loads. And played it. One book in particular of Russian piano music, with the text printed in Cyrillic so I've no idea who the composers were, was great. And guess what? Little by little, I gradually improved.

One thing you can do away from the piano is to "read" music - just look at it and sing it in your head. That way you'll start to recognise rhythm much more easily, and if you then go and play it you can see how accurate your imagination was. I remember one of my first piano teachers looking at some music I had written, and I asked him if he wanted me to play it to him. "No need", he said, "I know exactly what it sounds like". I thought then he was showing off, but now I know he wasn't.

Good luck. Remember, anything worth having is worth working for.

Edward

I don't have a problem most of the time with pitch or music recognition. I can recognise rhythm almost all the time straight away, unless it's complex. Certainly at the level I am playing piano, et alone what l am expected to sight-read, I could clap any rhythm I was given - and hands separate, can sight-read pitch and rhythm fine in treble clef, and pitch mostly OK and rhythm fine in bass clef. I can sight sing reasonably well too, so it's not that I don't have an idea of what should be happening: generally I do.

It isn't the music recognition that I have a problem with, although bass clef is a lot less fluent than treble. My musical imagination/inner ear/whatever you want to term it, is pretty sharp - I was lucky to be taught rhythm, intervals, etc very well as a child. It's processing two clefs and coordinating that information to two hands that I can't seem to manage. And I practise that a lot because I know it's my weak point I must be making progress, I guess, but it's so slow I can't really tell.

Hey I was very very very bad at sight reading but with practice I've come to a reasonable level,

it gets more fun as you get better at it, you should try and see it as an adventure, start with things that are easily within your grasp and it won't be so arduous a task

If you're determined to get good at it you will, if you keep reading new music all the time, go to the library read it once take it back, swap books with friends and do the same, in no time not only will u be better but you'll be used to practicing so it won't seem a chore

I don't play from hymn books (was forcibly overdosed on hymns as a child) but I find with the sightreading workbooks that I can guess the pieces from the first few bars after a while so it's not really sightreading So I chop and change the books I'm working from.
I also play pieces from graded collections - it is important to get the level of challenge exactly right. Too easy and you're not learning, too hard and you can't even start.