I was wondering how many people have the same trouble as me?

A friend of mine was telling me that she can only play by sight reading the music whereas I have always found sight reading difficult and if I know the tune I tend to get lazy and start "guessing" at bits of it as I go along and then I lose where I am on the music and then it all falls to pieces !

Yeah, me too...I think there was a thread on this a while back...I think the gist of it was that if you can memorise most of it, the next time you play, you can concentrate more on dynamics, articulation etc....

Good luck

I still read the music, but I guess what's coming next. Sometimes if I'm sight reading a piece, and it's not written how it sounds in my head, like the harmony's different or the bass, then I'll correct it automatically.

Hmm... not sure. I sort of work out patterns in the music, and work out roughly where the music is going, but if the music isn't there in front of me, I go totally wrong... that is unless I memorised the piece. I love sight-reading though, coz it's quite easy!

Wobby

i prefer to sight read

i can only play 3 things from memory!

1. flute grade 1 study lol
2. grad 6 piano piece Vals Poetico
3. As my baby sleeps by Jerry Greene

A boyfriend of my younger daughter was so good at playing by ear.
He could read no music, but used to get CDs of piano classics and learn the stuff to impress me.
It worked!... he played stuff that way that I could never learn even from the music....

He can't read music but the way he played I wolud say he was a MUCH better musician than I can ever hope to be.

I absolutely always need the music in front of me, otherwise I'm lost, no matter how well I know the piece! I tend to get nervous and if there's nothing in front of me to at least glance at, I'm sure to make a mistake!

QUOTE (doubletreble @ Apr 25 2005, 04:44 PM)

I was wondering how many people have the same trouble as me? A friend of mine was telling me that she can only play by sight reading the music whereas I have always found sight reading difficult and if I know the tune I tend to get lazy and start "guessing" at bits of it as I go along and then I lose where I am on the music and then it all falls to pieces !

the same happens to me i always get ded lazy, its easyer playing by ear anyway.
when i sight read i get lost because i play sumthing rong, because i just play what i think it is because i no it i no i shudnt but i just cant help it!!!
please write on my forum "i need help!!!please??" people have looked at it but no one has replied
luv ya'll
xx han xx

It must be great to be able to play by ear and from memory, I really wish I could do this.

But if you can't sight read it must make it really really hard to join any groups or an orchestra where sight reading really matters.

If I had to choose one or the other it would have to be to be a good sight reader, but boy wouldn't it be brill to be good at both

Jane

QUOTE (janexxx @ Apr 26 2005, 03:28 PM)

But if you can't sight read it must make it really really hard to join any groups or an orchestra where sight reading really matters.

I used to play everything by ear, but since I've started having lessons, and got told to read the music instead of guessing, or not knowing what the piece sounds like, sight reading takes over.

It's way harder to play by ear, and I rely a lot more on music than I ever did before. It would be quite nice to be able to do both equally as well! But now sight reading's taken over

If I'm buy myself though, like I said above, I guess or try to anyway!

QUOTE (janexxx @ Apr 26 2005, 04:28 PM)

It must be great to be able to play by ear and from memory, I really wish I could do this. But if you can't sight read it must make it really really hard to join any groups or an orchestra where sight reading really matters. If I had to choose one or the other it would have to be to be a good sight reader, but boy wouldn't it be brill to be good at both Jane

I can play by ear and from memory and so can my brother, but I can't sight read to save my life!

I know that sight reading can be improved with the correct technique and lots of practice, but do you think that playing by ear/memory can be learnt from scratch?

I prefer to have the music in front of me, i have tried learning things by ear, but i don't usually remember them.

i have a friend who plays piano, and both her and her dad play by ear. They can play really well, and can change key and modulate very easily. they're also good at composing stuff, until it comes to writing it down. However, they also find pieces with lots of accidentals, or atonal pieces very hard.