I got a serious problem in sight reading and I never pass the sight reading exam since Grade 6.

Now I am doing my DipPiano performing exam and must pass the sight reading section in order to pass the overall exam. It's the third time for me to take the sight reading part. This time I am not sure whether to take the whole exam again or only the sight reading section. Can anyone give me some advise? How many hours of practise should I do in order to pass the sight reading safely? How can I study sight reading in an effective way? I got only 3-4 months to prepare now......

Dav

The way I practise sight reading is very very effective but would be far from cheap for most people.

Buy a lot of books, and play each piece just once or twice. Then go onto the netx piece. Make sure the pieces are at the right difficulty. If you have a friend who has a lot of music, try and borrow theirs - i work in a school and borrow my piano music from there, so don't need to pay anything!

does your teacher keep books in stock for other students? I have a whole load of books ready to sell that I can lend to students for sight reading, as long as they return them in excelent condition! Might be worth asking your teacher

Also it might take a bit of time but if you have failed sight reading since grade 6 then you could try starting from that standard and working your way back up to diploma level

If you are attempting DipABRSM (I suppose), you will be required to sight read pieces equivalent to Grade 6 difficulties.

Bare in mind that rhythm, dynamics, speed, style, techniques are as important (probably some times more) than note accuracies. Which means if you can catch the "contour" of the notes but with some mistakes, and still be able to perform with the correct rhythm and right pace, adaquate style, some techniques, it's better than merely getting right notes and missing out all others.

In terms of preparation time, it quite depends on how much time you got everyday, and how's your preparation on the rest of pieces. If you could keep practising sight-reading 30+/- minutes every day for 3-4 months until you go for the exams, it should be quite adaquate. Probably you could find the graded exams pieces as a starting point, so you could start from probably Grade 5 (or even Grade 4) and end with Grade 7 pieces for sight reading.

More practise, better! So, just keep familiarizing yourself with your piano. At Dip level, you should be demonstrating a strong control over the piano, not the other way round. So, even you made some mistakes with sight-reading, so be it, because you are the performer! right? :-) That's the problem with the music writer! Not you... heehee! Feel better?

Good Luck,
Twu

My problem with sight-reading is that I can sight-read some grade 8 pieces and yet can get really unstuck on something from a grade 4 or 5 books. It seems to depend on the style for me. I would love to have a go at the Diploma but would be afraid that the sight-reading would be in a style I can't manage - usually modern pieces which I don't enjoy playing at all and so there is little pleasure in ploughing through books of this style.

A couple of comments on Sightreading at diploma level: I have taken the DipABRSM and LRSM (teachers). Both times I found the sightreading very accessible - although obviously especially written for the exam they were in recognisable (and not difficult) styles.The DipABRSM was in dance form. The LRSM problem was the difficult and changing time signature. The sightreading for the LRSM was definately harder than the Dip. The bad news is the standard of performing the test is certainly high. The most important thing is to give a musical, convincing performance. However they did comment on the one wrong note I gave! My feeling was they really do expect an almost faultless performance. You get 5 minutes to try out though which I found quite a long time. Hope this helps. Margaret

How many mark did you get in your Quick Study Section? I got only 3.

Hi Margaret,

Would you share your experience with practising your sightreading?

Thx & rgds,
Tannie

Hi Joe. I managed 12 marks in the Dip and the LRSM. I might have been lucky with the pieces as I was familiar with the style presented.

Tannie - I haven't really got anything to add to the other comments given by others. The only thing I would say is I used to be totally useless at Sightreading. It was a toss up whether I would fail aural or Sightreading! I just read loads of music - not just classical but jazz, film music that kind of thing. I really do believe the more music you experience the better sightreader you become. Paul Harris has some interesting thoughts about sightreading if you have come across him. His Sightreading books are quite useful too but hearing him speak is better. Reading music away from the instrument is helpful too. Hope this helps Good luck. Margaret

I'm an amateur organist, but apart from the problems of 3 staves and feet, I think the issue is the same as for the piano. Prior to my diploma exam (many years ago), I was a church organist, playing for 6 or 7 service each week. No way could I practice new music for every service - so I just had to sight read. You have to start with the easy stuff and gradually extend yourself - but there is no substitute for having people listening to your every mistake! And just like reading a book, don't just look at the individual notes one by one - always look to the next phrase (or better still, the next sentence). Also, unless it's ultra modern, spot the shape of chords, scales, appegios etc. Work out the phrasing, just as you would the lilt of reading a book aloud. And keep going, regardless. Above all, just play masses of new music.

Good luck !

I, too have the sight reading problem. Anyone here can recommend me any book titles to practice for sight reading? M G7 this year.

Hello there,I also have my scale problem before.Before this,my scale were really really bad but everything going find after some advise given to me.Try to practice min 1 hour for scale everyday if you can.Give your fingers some rest while praticing during that hour and try to play all notes correctly in the scale slowly then only play faster according to the speed needed in the exam.Hope it helps.

My forte was sightreading. Did it every day for about 1 hour. Now my teaching load is quite heavy and I've been dealing with a lot of beginner intermediate students. I sat down the other day and my sight reading was terrible I was appalled.

So now, I've set aside time in my schedule to practise site reading - EVERY day. And that's exactly how you get good with it.

As already mentioned:
1. Have a plethera of music at your disposal (the net is very good for downloading music in the public domain).
2. Make sure you don't know how the music goes (you don't want to be using your 'ear')
3. Play through the piece only once. Then move on to the next piece.
4. Always start with something easy - even grade 4 standard - and work your way up.
5. Learn to interpret music as patterns - just like we no longer spell out every letter in a word, we can also read music in scales, chords, sequences and not note for note. This can only come with practise and lots of it!
6. Read music away from the piano - hear it in your mind. Do this frequently, as this will also help you see music in patterns.

Sight reading should be a part of your every day practise. You can't practise a lot of sight reading unless you have a lot of music - so the real challenge is: WHERE do I get all this music from?

1. Teachers
2. Local library
3. Internet
4. Own collection
5. Friend's collection

You can buy a whole library of music from The Sheet Music Archive for $19.95 US dollars. This is a BARGAIN price.

http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/index.cfm

Happy sight reading!