Hi,

Im not a very good sightreader but can usually get through a piece extremely slowely.

Im great on percussion and quite good on guitar, but its a different story on piano.

See the thing i don't get is how do you read two staves at once?????

I can perfectly read both bass and treble clefs on their own but how do you get them both together?????

I've asked other people and they say look ahead but how can you do that i don't understand that...


im really annoyed and very downhearted please assist??????????

micky-d

I'm not sure looking ahead works very well to start with - I know lots of books say it too ..

Something that I find helps my pupils (some of them some of the time) is to practice the rhythm with both hands without the notes. On the piano lid, or RH on right knee, LH on left knee. Go slowly enough to build in a bit of thinking time without interrupting the pulse to do it.

Sort the rhythm out first, then play the whole thing. Work slowly through one of the sight-reading self-help books, starting at the level that is fairly comfortable, even if it's well below what your level is in other things.

Hope some of this helps a bit.

Maybe try lots of pieces where it's not hands together but where the tune moves from right and left hand a lot, to get you used to looking at both staves in the same piece? Then gradually build up to pieces which are together but have more of one hand than the other, like simple right hand tune with only a small amount of bass clef.

I think the reading ahead starts to come more naturally when you get more fluent, just like when you are reading a book out loud and your eyes are always moving to the next phrase...but if you couldn't already read well, you wouldn't be able to do that?

Also, instead of just looking for patterns and intervals when you sight read only one hand, look for patterns that involve hands together - like when the two hands are playing a melody in unison for example. Are they both moving in the same direction or in contrary motion? Things like that.

You can always circle off each beat in a bar so you can see exactly which LH and RH notes correspond.

Mostly, it just takes a lot of practise and patience!

The only sure fire way to get good at sightreading is to do it!

I whizzed through my piano exams in four years (started at 14) but my sightreading was absolutely appalling as I had never really spent enough time learning how to do it.

When I started teaching school I struggled with playing hymns - I had to practise stuff for ages to get it to performance standard, but I found reading the guitar chords was easier, I was able to play the melody and busk a basic LH. Learning keyboard harmony at university also helped with that. And gradually my sightreading just got better and better, the more I had to do it.

So, that's my advice really, just do loads and loads of sightreading, simple stuff at first. Try getting some melody-only books that have guitar chords and make up LH parts for them. It's all about getting comfortable with using both hands and thinking of them as a single entity, rather than two separate parts.

Just think we organists have to sight read three staves, then two wont seem so bad

I remember my eldest son as a teenager (he's now a brilliant percussionist) saying to me "but how can you read two staves at once?" when I'd been looking at his very complicated percussion part and thinking "how on earth does he follow all that?" !!

try going back to a basic piano tutor repertoire book and sight read each hand separately.
Tapping the rhythm on your knee is a good one keeping the pulse in the other hand and taking note of the key signature and any accidentals. Tunes for ten fingers repertoire book 1 is a good one for this. The Right@Sight Series is good too. Start witj book one and only when you feel confident with that one go onto book 2 etc.

Take it nice and slow, then build up to harder stuff.

I would not give a five year old "War and Peace" as their first book to read aloud in class, yet somehow you have learnt to read.

Go back to the basics and work at evry little hurdle bit by bit and it will come.

Good Luck

I use Pauline Hall Sightreading books - they are easy to follow and make a really gradual progression to sightreading. You get used to reading Code Signs and when they areren't there anymore you automatically have them in your mind.
Good luck!

see i am the same, i can almost perfectly sightread percussion music, i pick up grade 8 music and can play it out no problem but then it comes to sitting at my piano and boom... im gone... it's just the two staves, i can't do it, i know i have the ability i just need to know the technique before i can attempt reform (+ for some reason on piano i like to stop and fix things, bad idea... )

thanks

The whole idea of sight reading is not stopping and fixing things. Start with something simple and keep on trying tell your self you must keep going. You will get there at the end.

There is so much sound advice that I won't confuse things by adding more ideas. I will say though, stick at it- the more you do the easier it gets, honestly!

I'm going for my Grade 6 piano in the summer. I did fairly well in my Grade 5 (Merit) but completely failed the sightreading as I thought 'how can you read two staves together' so I understand and sympathise.

Anyhoo, I made a decision that enough was enough, I was going to get good at sightreading and although I play at Grade 6, I am currenly working through Grade 2 sightreading and I'm only on Grade 2 because I've already gone through Grade 1.

This certainly seems to have helped, the Grade 1 stuff is more right hand and left hand separately and then you start to do two hands together from Grade 2. Also in the Grade 2 book, I first went though every piece sightreading the left hand and right hand separately and then put them together.

So, I still find sightreading a nightmare but I am improving