Hi,

I am doing grade 7 piano and my sight reading is terrible. In every exam not once have I passed sightreading. I would really like to improve it as fast as possible - my exam is in two weeks! I think it's because my teacher always write the notes for me, so I never actually have to read music. PLEASE HELP ME OUT ASAP!

In the space of two weeks I doubt there's much you can do, but if you're doing grade 7 you should still be able to tell what notes are without having being told.

But practise is the best way to improve sight reading, just pick up books and sight read your way through all the pieces and start to recognise patterns and intervals. Hopefully that should improve your sightreading!

Good luck!

I agree!! Practising is the key to sightreading - I aim to practise sight reading every day, and has improved much more since doing so.

Pick songs which have a good balance between notes in the treble and bass though (not just a left hand chord and a simple melody for example), as these would be most like those in your exam (or buy a sight reading book from ABRSM or Trinity). As your exam is so soon, you should practise sight reading both hands together straight away instead of playing hands separately because this is what you'll have to do in the exam.

And remember! It's more important (generally speaking) to play some notes wrong than to stop and go back to correct things. The examiner is looking for a 'musically convincing' performance, so just keep moving all the time if possible. And if your pitch is a bit dodgy through being used to your teacher writing in your notes, maybe it'll be useful in the exam to pay attention to things such as dynamics and articulation - things which, at grade 7, should be fairly easy for you to do automatically

And when you get your 30 secs/minute to look over the piece first, look out for familar patterns such as an arpeggio or scale - this might help if you're a bit unfamiliar with reading notes straight off. I was told that professional pianists don't actually read a score note by note, but actually take in the general pattern of the notes and just guess!! I'm yet to find out if it's really true!!

Hope that helped, and good luck!

Laura

Good advice!
I've found that playing hymns or hymn style music with 4 parts has helped me loads, as this requires you to be reading 4 notes at least at all times. because of this, i can sight read most hymns very easily because you recognise the paterns easily and can play them without thinking about it.
Also, just pick up a new piece everyday, look at it for about 30 seconds, and then play it without stopping, and without letting the tempo suffer. like singerpianist said, the examiner is looking for a musically convincing performance, and isnt expecting each note perfect (although, if you can get all the notes perfectly without having to pause, then this is great!)

It will be very difficult to get very good sightreading in 2 weeks, as these things are all things that develope over time.

Good luck!

Jacob.


I think this probably is true. if you play enough of the same thing, you can hear where the music is going, and what is going to happen, and if you see the beggining, it just prompts you to play what is expected to happen.

I think over time, most people will find this as well as concert pianists, and i find this happens with me too when i play things like the mozart sonatas (this isnt meant to sound bigheaded as though im trying to seem like some concert pianist or anything!), and i can hear where the music is going, and whats going to happen, although sometimes i will carry on playing what i think should be played, or what i would like to be played, and then you look at the music, and you realise you're not playing whats written at all, and you're just playing some random made up stuff!

Jacob.

The "Improve your sightreading" books are extremely useful, also I find pianoforte books which have various exercises are very good at improving sightreading and just generally picking up music and trying to play it. BUT always remember to start slow, and build it up to a suitable speed.

Does your teacher write ALL the notes in, like bass line and stuff too? I think if your teacher gradually lessens the notes she/he writes in you will learn to be a more fluent sightreader

Even if you go slow, it's much better than pausing when you aren't supposed to. I suggest that after grade 7, try getting some fun pieces that you like (e.g. movie soundtracks) and have a go at them. playing lots of different pieces can improve your sight reading if you try them for the first time. Also, when sight-reading, read ahead! Although you should be doing this anyway subconciously just make sure you are not playing-reading the next notes-playing it-reading the next notes...etc as this will obviously make you stop and start all the time!

Good Luck!

I always count out loud when sighreading piano music (yes, even in exams) and this really helps me to keep going in strict time.

In the 30 secs I would check the key sig, the time sig and then look for accidentals, then have a quick practice from the beginning paying special attention to which fingers I shall begin with (and which notes). I ignore most dynamics and articulation and play everything Andante.

Does your teacher write ALL the notes in, like bass line and stuff too? I think if your teacher gradually lessens the notes she/he writes in you will learn to be a more fluent sightreader

Yes - I think this is a good suggestion.

I thought there was nothing i could do to fix my absolutely aaawful violin sightreading either as it was so close to my exam. We didn't discover just how bad it was until my lesson 5 days before my exam. I found sight reading in string group extremely easy and also just in general, and sight reading on flute is an extremely strong point for me - got 20/21 or something for my g8 flute sightreading. So, we just thought it would be ok. We were SO wrong.
Anyway about 2 hours before my exam, i got out my sightreading for violin grades 1-5 book out. I played EVERY piece in that book - even though i was doing grade 4. That was about 60 different sight reading pieces. I picked up on my weak points which were dynamics, playing with a key signature of almost all flats and shifting. So i just made a mental note to concentrate extra hard on dymanics and practised some, i practised Ab major scale over and over and just played random made up pieces in that key signature, and spent the last 20 minutes practising shifting from 1st to 3rd position and stuff - then went straight to my exam when this was all fresh in my mind and my sight reading went very well



Also when i'm given the piece and the 30 seconds in the exam, i have an extremely quick scan through to check key signature time signature, - 2 seconds gone, then i play through it quite quickly picking up dynamics and accidentals as i go along, 15 seconds gone, then figure out/go over any difficult bits - 10 seconds gone. Then a few seconds to scan over the whole thing again. Then when i play my 'sight reading' i've practically worked on the piece - played it through once and gone over difficult parts. It's not exactly sight reading anymore is it haha! It's surprising what you can do in 30 seconds if you're really thoughtful about it.

I like the Right at Sight series - they give you a lot of practice pieces and also some helpful strategies to tackle it.

They have what they call TRaK - Time signature, Rhythm and Key.

You work those three aspects out first. Then you tap and play the first couple of bars, and play the last couple (which also helps fix the key in your mind). Then you look for any changes of hand position, clef etc, and try out any difficult bits, possibly tapping difficult rhythms. Most candidates don't play anything in the 30 secs they've got, but you are allowed to, and the examiner won't take any notice.

Decide in advance what tempo you're going to play it at and stick to it come what may ... I once got a merit in sight reading in a piano exam despite missing a clef change in one hand and playing the rest of the piece in adventurously bitonal style!

Oh, and as they say in Dad's Army, don't panic

Although try and read it as quickly as possible make your sure you read whether it is in a minor or major because that can lose you a important point that you might need.

Make sure you look to see if there is any flats or sharps because this can also help you

Good luck