2 month beginner here.

When I learn a new piece I generally take the first few measure and play them over and over. Now when I learn the finger placement I just read the notation and remember it. Playing it over and over I dont read the notation anymore, I just play by memory and ear.

Should I always sight read when learning a new piece? Is this best practice for a beginner or is sight reading just 'another skill' which I should concentrate on at a later time?

I just want to play the piece but at the same time don't want to pick up bad habits.

I think what you're describing is sight reading. We all rely less and less on the notes, just a glance here and there, as we become more familiar with the keys and the pattern. I would suggest that you always take a few minutes to carefully look back at the notes, though, maybe once every few times you practice the piece. It's very easy to have mistakes creep in, particularly in the rhythm, unless you go back and make sure you're playing what's on the page (assuming that's your goal). I do this hands separately, myself. It's easier to check.

Nancy

Personally (and I don't think that everyone will agree with me) I like to always read the music when I play - even when I am very familiar with a piece. This is because it's easy to remember something wrongly, and never notice until the error becomes ingrained. For instance, the other day I was playing a Mozart piece I thought I knew well, only to suddenly notice that I was holding a note too long in the left hand when there should be a rest. Not a huge mistake, but even so, if the composer bothered to put in a rest (or an accidental, or a dynamic) we should try to play what s/he directs.

That is not to say that you should not also learn a piece by heart; the two things are not mutually exclusive and you should to both IMO.

Good luck with your playing!

Sight reading means reading through the music for the FIRST time. Reading music while playing after the first time is just reading music while playing but that's not sight reading.

When I was a kid, I used to memorize like a page of music during the day time, then at night and there was no electricity, I just practiced from memory and in the dark. I think practice from memory is more effective.

I'm with Maryrose on this one, I always read the music when I play but for a different reason. When I first started years ago, I did the exact same thing choppin' does: committed to memory as quickly as possible then never looked at the score again. I've got a pretty good memory and this served me well for a few years.

However, I think simplistically speaking there are two parts two sight reading: identifying the note (that's a g#) and moving your hand/finger to play it (note that I'm ignoring issues of tempo, dynamics, etc). I realized that the reason I committed the piece to memory as quickly as I could was so that I could watch my hands and the keyboard as an aid to pressing the correct key(s) resulting in fewer missed notes.

So in order to play "better" I think I was shortchanging the sight reading process. As a result, even though I was reasonably good at the "note recognition" part, I was terrible at hitting the right notes, especially with movement and jumps. When I realized this, I made myself keep my eyes on the score when I played, a hard habit to form because I "played worse" but in the long run it improved my ability to play at sight dramatically, though it's still pretty poor compared to how good I'd like to be

it might be too early for you to actually work on sight reading, because you don't yet have the reflex on where to put fingers on some notes or chords or scales which are pretty much needed when you're sight reading.

after several years, i still have trouble to sight read some complicated passages, especially those with a lot of chords or accidents, because i still have to find each note for a chord before playing a chord. so, it takes time and experience. but if you do it regularly, little by little everyday, you will be getting there...

What you're describing is the worst of the
bad habits, and this is typically picked
up in formal piano lessons because
of the emphasis on memorizing that
is taught there. Gradually, the student
comes to rely more and more on memory
playing and less and less on reading
and playing, until he can no longer
effectively read and play a score.
This is not too much of a problem with
easier pieces, since there are few notes
to memorize, but as the pieces get
harder it becomes more and more
difficult for a person with average
memory ability to even play at all, since
he can only play from memory and can
no longer read and play a score
effectively.

Stop what you are doing now and concentrate
on reading every note in the score, with
your eyes focused on the score and not
on your hands--you can't effectively
read the score and look at your ten fingers
at the same time.

Could I get a tally of the people here that do this because I find that quite odd, considering my teacher has never requested that I play a piece memorized and always endoursed playing with the sheets? just wondering

LisztAddict is right; what you are describing is not sight-reading, which usually refers only to cold-reading and cold-playing an unfamiliar score for the first time, at tempo. If your goal is to ultimately be able to play professionally or accompany others, then sight-reading is an essential skill and you should practice it daily.

If your goal is to play for your own enjoyment and you're not worried about ever being in a situation where somebody hands you some sheet music and asks you to play it right then and there, then you don't ever need to practice sight-reading.

As for using the score while you're learning a piece, Nancy and maryrose make excellent points about the benefits of having the score available while you're playing it. I have gone back to scores for pieces that I have been playing by memory for months and realized that I had one or two notes wrong. And once it's ingrained like that, it's really hard to change.

you don't have to take his words too seriously or absorb his ideas without filtering in your mind. it perhaps makes more sense to listen to your teacher who's professional.

I started out my lessons by learning to sight read. I have a good ear and I know immediately when I make a mistake.

I haven't learned to play by ear and I hope someday I do learn this skill but I'll decide when the time is right.

I prefer to sight read simply because I know that I will be able to pick up any piece in my level and I'll be able to play it a little quicker than if I didn't know how to sight read.

When I'm given a new piece I can go thru the whole thing slowly by sight reading and by the time I've gone through it about 5 times, I can play it fairly quickly. By the time my second day of practicing rolls around I've already memorized unconciously many of the measures so that I can every now and then glance down at the keys to make sure I get to the right place on the keyboard.

I haven't purposely tried to memorize anything since most of my pieces are from the course books but I find in my case that by sightreading the music first I'll be able to memorize it with ease if I choose to.