I just got a copy of this book, preparing my pupils for early TG exams, and I'm really pleased with it. I think the previous series, the one that was still spelt with an @ didn't have an initial grade book (or else I'd just never seen it, whcih is possible) and I'd made up the s/r practice trests from their very clear criteria.

This book covers Initial and grdes 1 & 2, and seems to me to be quite a bit easier than the AB grade books. I've sometimes had pupils come ut of AB grade exams saying the sight-reading wasn't as hard as the examples they'd been trying in the practice book.

I'm thinking I might start reluctant sight-readers who are going along the AB path on this book first - there are set hand positions - only the one for Initial - and very limited rhythms. Once they can manage these, then maybe it's time to move on to the AB examples.

Personally, I think there are some much better sight-reading books out there - there are several series' published by FJH which are extremely well thought through. What I probably like about them is that they are about acquiring to skills to sight-read rather than the skills to sight-read in an exam...

You're right, this isn't a book about "how to sight-read" - but I would deal with that aspect of it myself as the teacher. It's specifically a book of tests which fit the criteria they will meet in the TG exams.

I agree entirely that sight-reading and "doing the sight-reading in an exam" are poles apart, and mostly I don't use sight-reading tests at all - I encourage them to do the reading from their own music. That's how I learnt to sight-read, since I had no lessons between age 10 and 15, at which point I took grade 6 (I did do theory and singing and general musicianship and cello, and I composed and conducted, but I was completely feral where the piano was concerned) and I allowed myself to break all the rules - stopping to correct, repeating notes, slowing down over the hard bits - en route to making myself confident with looking at new music.

However, when it comes to exam preparation you need to be able to "do the exam thing" and look at a short exercise of a particular type and do it the way the examiners want you to: 30 seconds and you're on, no stopping. Many of my less able readers are like rabbits in the headlights when faced with the AB specimen books, and even with Joining the Dots, and so far the coouple that I've tried with it coped better with these TG books.

There are some things in sight-reading that I find very difficult to train, and they may well be to do with aspects of the eyesight that wouldn't ordinarily be picked up by any eye test - I'm not sure of this, though. But when a bright musical 13-year-old, if asked "is that a line note or a space note?" leans forward to look at the book, and her parents assure me that her optician has said there's no problem, even when asked about reading music, you do wonder. And so much of it is psychological too: I have a boy doing grade 2 who understands all the theory behind anything I could show him - notes, chords, rhythms - yet when told to keep going, keep counting, even if I gently count to help him, he still stops and pulls back after a couple of beats, like falling off the tightrope. He's an excellent quick study, just can't keep it going and hates not keeping up with where he feels he should be.

So these books that you're recommending - do they deal with this sort of problem too?

To help with your Grade 2 student who keeps stopping - I'd suggest getting him to sight read some duets. If you're playing he's not allowed to stop

Oh, they still do though I do encourage them to learn to get themselves back in as soon as they can, which of course is what an orchestral player has to learn to do. Yes, I do a lot of duet playing, in the first instance sharing the two hands between us as a way of learning the piece. I find this woks well too

Unfortunately leaving a bit out and coming in at the right point still doesn't work terribly well in an exam

I was looking for some comments on sight reading in exams here. I have a 10 year old student who has just taken her Grade 3. Yesterday I asked her how she went on in the exam. She said it was fine but the sight reading test was much harder than any of the exercises I did with her and she couldn't play it. I used ABRSM Sight Reading Gr 3. I picked up a frosty attitude from her mother who asked, at the end of the lesson, which she texted throughout until I asked her to stop, if the exam results were through yet. As the child only took the exam last Saturday I asked if she was in a hurry for them. She said she was concerned that she might have failed because of the sight reading. It suddenly dawned on me that they were holding me responsible for giving her easier tests. In my experience, which goes back to 1946(!) sight reading exam tests have always been easier than lesson tests. I had given them a tip sheet on sight reading as well as loads of practise. The child has never been good at it. They also have a history of not reading anything I give them, something I joked about (although I didn't find it funny) at the exam centre when mother accused me of not giving her the order of pieces slip, until she searched her bag and found 2 of them still attached to the exam info, which she obviously hadn't read and which I'd given her months ago. I told mother that it was unlikely daughter would fail the exam because of poor sight reading and that I was more concerned about her pieces. At the exam centre she had a practise session at which I pointed out all the mistakes she was still making that I'd mentioned verbally, in writing in her notebook and on the music. Playing dotted notes staccato is an unforgiveable offence in my book. She did no practising for a long time due to taking various entrance exams for secondary schools and after that because the baby brother kept banging on the piano whenever she tried to practise and finally wedged a load of cardboard between the keys. Father said, to my horror, that she would have a blitz just before the exams, which is what she did last time and passed. They don't seem to be bothered about that, only about fobbing off blame onto me for supposedly giving her easy sight reading pieces!

Diane, you obviously know them best but i can't help suspecting that this is a family where everything has been fine because the child being getting along OK with relatively little effort on his/her/the parents' behalf and thus relatively little impact on their lives and schedules.
Now, as things get a little tougher, they haven;t put in the effort required and, yes, they're looking for an easy way out.
I wouldn't 'go there' as my son says.
You can either confront them head on with facts and figures as to what they should have done and have not done.
Or just carry on as normal, confident that you have done all that you can to help her with the exam.
Obviously, the actual exam result may well make a difference to the tack you chose.

Purely from the sight-reading point of view, if the child's sight-reading is poor, she probably doesn;t really have a good idea as to whether it was 'hard' or not - all she is saying is that she couldn't play it.
The main step up with the G3 sight-reading is that it's no longer in a fixed position. Some kids find this really difficult (I've got one) but some others have no problems with this, although other things still catch them out - I've got one G1 girl who can confidently sight-read a lot of the G3 samples (moving around the keyboard, reading chords, all fine), but will come un-stuck with G2 samples that have dotted notes or more than one sharp or flat.
So she may well say that a certain grade 3 one is 'easy' but that a grade 2 one is 'hard'.


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Yes I agree almost all candidates report back that the sight reading is easier than expected, although sadly that doesn't guarantee they've passed it !

Has anyone tried the "Sight Reading Success" series which includes a CD of the pieces so you can check whether you played correctly ? I was a bit sceptical about this as there is obviously a temptation to cheat, but I can see how it would work for the right player. I'm going to try out the grade 4 book on a pupil next term.

I tried "Joining the Dots" last year and thought it would work well but it didn't help much. I've also tried Piano time sight Reading and Improve your sight Reading. Not terribly impressed with those either. I use the AB Specimen Tests and I provide material and help sheets of my own.

My general feeling about the sight reading tests in the exams is that although they have been revised they are still rather difficult for the average candidate - particularly in the first three grades. I have a small minority of pupils who can do them without too much trouble but for most these tests are a stumbling block and I think the whole sight reading syllabus needs re-thinking - particularly in terms of what one can expect from the modern child. The AB approach, to my mind, remains rather old fashioned. - I simply don't find it pedagogically sound.

I do think sight reading is an important skill and I do agree that stight reading and passing an AB sight reading test are not the same thing.

I would like to suggest that at Grade 1 the test is divided into 2 parts - asking the candidate to clap the rhythm before starting to play. I also think that the number of possible keys could be reduced in the earlier grades. I expect some teachjers will think I am asking for dumbing down but I don't think so. I would just like the tests to be a bit more in line with what a fairly young child can cope with. sight reading is a complex skill of a kind children are rarely asked to perform in any other context.

I am also, as the years go by becoming more and more an advocate of enormous amounts of reading revision in the early stages. I have made the mistake of moving too fast and not giving children time to really assimilate the process and principles of reading music. Things I thought they had learnt for good are very easily lost. For many children it takes far longer than one thinks - and far longer than it did 30 odd years ago.

Some very wise words from Aquarelle . . .

I also am not won over by the ABRSM's sight-reading syllabus - I defintely prefer the new version, it is undeniably simpler in the early grades and more 'accessible' - but I don't find it a very useful reflection of anything we do in class.

And, yes, I agree that reading skills (both note and rhythms) have to be gone over and gone over until blue in the face.

I also am very keen on finger dexterity and think this is often over-looked with poor sight-readers.

i.e. if the right hand is in A minor position and the child has to play A-C, they will probably read it right. But if the hand is in G major position and they have to play the same notes, there's a good chance they'll get it wrong, not because they suddenly don't know that it's A - C, or A then a skip or whatever, but because fingers 1-3 are strong and so they 'behave' themselves, whereas fingers 2-4 aren't and often don't.

I'd be interested in books that ARE about "how to sight-read". Do the FJH series Seer_Green mentions fit the bill. Or any others?


That's an interesting thought. I bet my oboe teacher would also agree with you.