A warm hello to everyone is this wonderful forum,

Have any of you ever seen or used this book by Howard Richman?

I have heard a few good things about it from more advanced pianists, but what about for the guys like me and others semi novices of a year or so?

Anyone that hasnt heard of it it might be worth checking out.

I am not familiar with it, but a quick look at the reviews on Amazon seems to confirm my first impression - there is probably not much in this book that will instantly make you a better sight-reader.

In my experience, there is only one thing that helps to make someone a better sight-reader and that is, quite simply, practice. Now maybe this book has some decent tips and pointers, but I don't think it's anything you couldn't learn by reading through other literature.

i saw it at B&N before and looked over it little bit and decided not to buy it. it basically teaches you to recognize pattern stuff.

my sight reading is getting better even without reading the book. the key is sight reading constantly/regularly. i sight read when learning a piece and continue to read through even when i memorized a piece (as my teacher suggested), which obviously helps me a lot.

I bought the book because I read on another forum that it was highly recommended. I couldn't seem to get into it so I loaned it to my teacher for her opinion. She thinks it's wonderful, suggested I do the work in it. I tried, found it painfully boring & quit. It's probably very good if you are disciplined enough to just do it, but I would rather just work on real music. I am just not into drills & tuneless stuff even if it is good for me...

I agree with Wink and 8Dude. I found it is more helpful for me to work on real music, and to practice, practice, practice. I will take the music away from the piano, and just read through it, identifying the progressions, the chords etc.. This may not work for everyone, but it has helped me enormously. Gaby Tu

I have that book also and would only recommend it to very, VERY serious students of sight reading.

I completed this book and I had a love/hate relationship with it. It took me just under a year to finish the book. I have some general comments (as well as specific suggestions if anyone is interested):

1) As mentioned, you do have to be totally committed or you'll never get through it.

2) It can be boring, but if you stick with it you'll find it very addicting.

3) The key to success (IMO) with this book is to do it every day for about 15 minutes (this can be painful at first). After about a month it will become a habit and almost enjoyable and after a couple of months you might find you're doing an hour or so a day.

4) Be especially aware after you have mastered one exercise and are going on to the next. There is a great temptation to quit because when you start the new exercise it can seem impossible.

4) I would use a metronome from the outset!

5) I would slightly change his process (mostly the later exercises). I would break-up some exercises into two steps, shorten others, etc.

5) It is not a panacea--only a great foundation. Even if you finish the book you still need to sight-read all of the time. After I finished the book six months ago, I now sight-read for pleasure about 30 minutes a day. I started playing from scratch two years ago and now I can sight-read anything (slowly) and intermediate-level pieces at a decent tempo.

I agree with you that sight-reading for at least 15 minutes every day is a key to success in sight-reading, but you don't need this book to do it. There's a wealth of great music out there available for sight-reading.

Wise words.


I'm not trying to dump on this book, but it never ceases to amaze me how often someone's looking for a quick fix to their sight-reading woes and they look for a quick fix in some book that will "magically" teach them to sight-read like a pro. There's no such book - hard work and practice are the way to get there. The answer is right there in plain sight, yet people still look for some get-good-at-sightreading-quick scheme...

Sight- reading popular music...I have a classical piano background... to intermediate level...Years after I stopped lessons I wanted to learn how I could read, fake, lead sheets to be able to improv big band, etc...A year later with an excellent teacher to guide me... basic theory lessons to read lead sheets, fake, learning all my major and minor chords, plus extended chords...I came away able to sight read better and faster, popular sheet music, as a result of this training...plus now I could read basic lead, fake sheets and improv too...All practice , practice ,practice... a labor of love for me all these years...To challenge yourself to reading higher and higher levels of sight reading... with a goal ...is another way ... I use this method even now at 67 years old and loving piano more than ever...My passion...Sandy B

wow, awesome 193866.
8ude, Darla, Bob, gabytu, wink, Singa thank you all so much.
In conclusion it looks as if even using the book is very hard work, just as normal practise. I do get bored easily, so based on Darla's description I say I give it a miss. Or maybe ill just spend on it and see for myself.

Thanks a million you guys.