I have a pupil who has recently passed Grade 6 piano just missing merit because of a very bad SR mark . Despite practising Sight reading every lesson, her level of SR is only at Grade 3 level if that.

Has anyone any suggestions as to what steps I can take to help her improve this skill.

does she play a lot of other repetoire? i found my sight reading improved when i started playing lots of other stuff and .....einaudi

she probably doesn't play as much repertoire as she should. I have tried giving her sight reading books to use asking her to do some every day.

keep trying to encourage her to play lots of music. though the fact that im obsessed with buying new music and am always playing, might have helped.

Yeah, playing lots and lots of random stuff is good, i like to play my sister stuff, and buy random stuff to play!

There is no short cut to improving sight reading other than playing lots of pieces, new material and as many sight reading excercises at your level as possible. The problem is that most learners hate sight reading because they are not very good at it and find it such hard work at first. Its a catch 22 situation. You need to do all the hard work by doing more sight reading in order for it to become easier in time.
I have been learning the violin for the past few weeks and I am using about 12 different books to help me, including Sight Reading Excercises Grades 1-5. As well as a methodical approach using "A Tune a Day" I pick up as many pieces as possible and play through lots of different things regardless of how I might sound. It is the only way to get better at your instrument and to master all the various positions, keys etc.
There are no short cuts if you want to become a quick reader and a better player.

Gae

QUOTE (musicscore1 @ Feb 26 2005, 09:23 PM)

I have a pupil who has recently passed Grade 6 piano just missing merit because of a very bad SR mark . Despite practising Sight reading every lesson, her level of SR is only at Grade 3 level if that. Has anyone any suggestions as to what steps I can take to help her improve this skill.

do more sight-reading and start slowly, always look ahead of what's going on...
practise makes perfect:>

It helps if she can see what the tune's doing and what the chords/notes in the left hand doing. If she can see that the melody's going up, she should try and play something which ascends, even if it's not right. The same with the LH, if it looks like it's in thirds try and play something in thirds.

I used to think that I had to play something for the first time note perfect. But once my teacher had told me to look at what it looked like it was doing instead of trying to read all the notes at once and getting confused, it got easier! And if she plays it "musically" the examiner can see that she's interpretting the music as well, instead of just reading the notes!

As people have said above. Try giving her pieces which she may have never heard before. Also, get your pupil to clap the rhythm first, so she can get a rough idea of the different rhythms which are in the SR piece...

I play in a band, which has helped improve my sight- reading, so maybe, if she isn't already, get her to join a club/ band...

QUOTE

Once I tried Rach`s famous Prelude in C# Minor when I was about Grade 2 standard

Once I tried sight reading Rach's famous Piano Concerto No. 2 in Cm. It took me over an hour but I got through it....just!!

Gae

As everyone has already said - simply get her to play more, I'm afraid. I presume she has some old repertoire/exam books, where she only played a few of the pieces? She could take 5 minutes a day to just try and sight-read through one (a simple one). Clapping the rhythm is good. Also, trying to predict what it will sound like (simple sight-singing practise, and interval training) can help.

Also, do you play pieces through for her before she learns them? If so, she may be playing by ear/copying rather than reading the music, which would obviously be a hindrance to sight-reading (although a good skill in its own right).

QUOTE (musicscore1 @ Feb 26 2005, 09:23 PM)

I have a pupil who has recently passed Grade 6 piano just missing merit because of a very bad SR mark . Despite practising Sight reading every lesson, her level of SR is only at Grade 3 level if that. Has anyone any suggestions as to what steps I can take to help her improve this skill.

Sight Reading is a skill that some acquire easily and others can battle with it for years and years. The student can develop a complex about this - so that merely mentioning "sight reading" or producing a "sight reading book" can induce anxieties and tensions.

I have a theory that many weak sight readers actually have stored away all the necessary knowledge - it is just they have never found out the way to put it all together.

I witnessed a major breakthrough last year with a 12-year student, a score of 8 in Grade 4 went up to 20 in Grade 5. These were contributing factors, possibly in descending order of importance.

(a) Concentrated theory teaching from separate theory teacher - Grades 3, 4 and 5 studied. Grade 5 passed. [This was clearly the biggest new thing happening]

( Use of Harris series .. The best thing about his books is that you get a whole batch of similar pieces together and this builds confidence.

© Technical Issue 1 - Looking at the music all the time, not looking at the hands. Trusting one's ability to get the right finger through accurate hand positions. [This means as teacher watching the demeanour of the performer, not watching the printed score for accuracy!]

(d) Technical Issue 2 - "Reading ahead" - horizontally not vertically. You don't read a book of prose word by word - you scan ahead and you absorb whole phrases. Simple exercises can help .. memorise a bar of new music, remove music, play bar.

(e) Voluminous amounts of sight reading every waking day. I mention this last because I found that on its own in other years, it did not work.

I recently asked a performance graduate (and the best sight reader I know) - what is the best way to be a good sight reader. His reply was to play lots of pieces at sight - but not from sight reading books!

I thought about this.. to overcome the "sight reading" mental block lets teach the satisfaction that comes from trialling segments of possible new performance pieces! The musical value is likely to be higher as well.

One other thought...

Something that pianists in particular find difficulty with is keeping going (as in keeping a steady pulse and not stopping to correct mistakes). Other instrumentalists get the opportunity to play in bands or with an accompanist, so are more used to this.

How about seeing if your piano student has an instrumentalist friend s/he could accompany in simple pieces? It's a good way of learning how to keep bits of the piece going (maybe in one hand only) while waiting for a chance to get back on track.

Go back to the level she can manage, and find really fun enjoyable pieces at that level. Then gradually work up to the next level, all the time with music she really enjoys.

QUOTE (trio @ Mar 3 2005, 09:34 AM)

Go back to the level she can manage, and find really fun enjoyable pieces at that level. Then gradually work up to the next level, all the time with music she really enjoys.

Yes, when I took grade 5 (my first piano exam) my sightreading was so bad I started at grade 2 and went from there and now find it much easier. Although if time is an issue that might be difficult.

QUOTE (andante_in_c @ Mar 3 2005, 09:02 AM)

How about seeing if your piano student has an instrumentalist friend s/he could accompany in simple pieces? It's a good way of learning how to keep bits of the piece going (maybe in one hand only) while waiting for a chance to get back on track.

I strongly support this. I recommend baroque duo or trio sonatas, because they usually sound complete with just the bass line and the other instrument(s). Also, in published editions, the right hand part is usually realised, but it is legitimate to simplify it, since in most cases it is composed by the modern editor, not by the original composer. The unusual cases where the right hand has been fully realised by the composer should be clearly indicated in the publisher's introductory material.

I ahve a violin book called "The young violinist's first repetoire", published by Faber, which is about grade 1, with the piano accompaniment at the same level. I know this is a bit basic but there might be more difficult ones in the same series that would be suitable

QUOTE (andante_in_c @ Mar 3 2005, 09:02 AM)

One other thought... Something that pianists in particular find difficulty with is keeping going (as in keeping a steady pulse and not stopping to correct mistakes). Other instrumentalists get the opportunity to play in bands or with an accompanist, so are more used to this. How about seeing if your piano student has an instrumentalist friend s/he could accompany in simple pieces? It's a good way of learning how to keep bits of the piece going (maybe in one hand only) while waiting for a chance to get back on track.

In the 60s I recall my teacher having some excellent duet sight reading books - where I was required to play Primo with her Secondo. I recall this as being the most challenging Sight Reading I did because I did not have the opportunity to correct mistakes.

The issue referred to here is really linked to the ability to be reading slightly ahead of what you are playing now. If you are in Vertical Reading mode, you are less likely to be working for the continuity.

QUOTE

If you are in Vertical Reading mode, you are less likely to be working for the continuity.

That's interesting, because the main problem I have with piano sightreading is that I tend to work horizontally (being a first study flautist).

I have real problems reading chords, because I haven't really developed the knack of reading vertically. I'm better at reading classical period pieces because I can anticipate the harmonies, but I really struggle with 20th and 21st century music (and a lot of exam-type sightreading pieces).

I have the same problem - I don't read "vertically" at all, being much more used to following melody lines... reading ahead on a line of music is not a problem, keeping track of two staves at once I find much harder. I'm better at melodic pieces than chordal ones.

I used to be rubbish at sight reading. Now I'm not too bad. It only cracked when I really sat down and said "OK in two weeks you will beable to read it well". I guess she may need to have a larger repertoire (as lots of people have said) and just practice. I'm afraid I can't help to much as I'm only on Grade 4.

Sight reading seems to me to involve two major skills: knowing what the notes are (i.e. becoming familiar with notation) and knowing where they are (becoming famliar with the keyboard). I came across a quote that I think is relevant to the second. It is from William J. Mitchell's translation of C P E Bach's "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments":*

"In order to become oriented at the keyboard and thus make easier the acquisition of a necessary skill at sight reading, it is a good practice to play memorized pieces in the dark."

* Beethoven taught Czerny from this book.

I agree about those two skills... mine (on the piano) is not so much one or the other, but fitting them both together! Seeing a note and knowing what it is: no problem. Knowing where that note is on the keyboard and playing it - the work of an instant. Doing that simultaneously and accurately with both hands at the same time...

Or my favourite one: knowing I've got my hands in totally the wrong place but being unable to sort out where they should be and keep going at the same time.

O, I'm just glad it isn't just me...

I have been thinking about this quite alot recently, as sight reading is something I want to improve.

I have been trying to improve in a number of ways, including doing lots of sight reading - both easier and harder pieces and studying theory to improve my understanding of what is on the page in front of me. I have also started playing some jazz music, which is harder to sight read but allows you a bit more flexibilty - as well as improving my sight reading, this has also helped my general confidence.