I am not sure that is completely accurate. If you are learning a piece that is over your head, you are very likely learning some mix of notes, note combinations, and key signatures that are unfamiliar to you. Even if the notes are 100% familiar to you, the process of learning a new piece with familiar notes is going to reinforce your reading skills.

So as you struggle along, although you are not reading/playing them at or near tempo, which is the strict definition of sight reading, you are nevertheless learning something about those notes, and thus adding to your reading of them. And I think that is going to add to your general reading ability, although you may not recognize it right away.

This is one of the best comments so far! Thanks rocket88 - 88...good year by the way.

I agree! If you're using the sheet music to do your note-by-note "deciphering", then you're learning lots. You're learning about chord structure and theory, time signatures, note tie-ins, awkward rhythms, such as syncopation, major and minor chords and melodies, etc.

If you're purely rote learning (ie monkey-see-monkey-do), then you're not developing at all. I tried to rote learn difficult pieces when I first started playing stuff "over my head" and just couldn't learn that way. I even subscribed to an online teacher who used this method, but chose not to continue learning this way for that very reason - I'll never get better at sight-reading or musical notation in general.

From reading this thread, it seems like a lot of people are equating an "over-your-head" piece as something that you can't sight read all the way through. Just my opinion, but having been on this forum for 4 months and getting to know some of you, I don't think all of you can "sight read" the difficult and challenging pieces that you take on. I sure as heck can't.

I think some good habits to get into when attempting new pieces or even new measures of your existing pieces...IS to attempt to sight read what's in front of you, HT...sure, it's painstakingly slow, but this alone re-enforces sight reading practice. I've been doing this lately as well, instead of always doing the HS technique. PS-I read that advice here on ABF.

Some of us might not do note for note deciphering. For example, I had a way of hearing the notes on the page relatively (could have been in any key) and it's possible that players of instruments other than piano might do similar. So I could have done what LB did, memorizing music without ever getting to true reading. It was essential for me to decide specifically to learn to read piano music as a pianist does or it would never have happened.

I have always thought that by the time you get to the 'polishing' stage of a piece you would have to know it so well inside & out that you wouldn't really want to bother with reading it while playing it and so the 'you must be able to sight read this to play it' wouldn't come into play.

On the other hand I do see concert-level performance with scores open at times (especially for organ, where it seems very common) so I guess some people really do prefer to 'read' while performing no matter what their level is.

I also seriously doubt many people can truly 'sight read while playing' complex pieces (which to me means taking a piece and playing it correctly at the right tempo the first time you ever see it), if you're talking 'sight read so you can actually decipher the score and figure out what to play, then practice and actually play it' to me that is a different kettle of fish...

My view on this is that there is no harm in it. I grew up with
classical lessons, reaching about advanced-intermediate level
in high school, that is, I could play the easier preludes and
nocturnes. I have below-average talent, and I could not
advance any further than that; for example, one of the easier
Clementi sonatas would have been completely beyond my
reach. I saw the handwriting on the wall: I was stalled for
life at advanced-intermediate level and would never be
able to reach advanced levels. I quit in frustration in high
school and didn't play for 20 yrs.

When I restarted as an adult, the whole point of it was to
try to somehow reach the advanced levels of playing that
were unreachable as a teen. However, I soon realized that
advanced levels were just as unreachable as an adult as
when I was in high school. I wanted to play big-time stuff
that conservatory students and concert pianists play, but
had no talent for it.

Nevertheless I was determined to play the big pieces and
so I simply started to play them, note by note, one bar
a day initially, using repetition and time as a substitute
for talent. I knew that crude method had to work in the
long run, since if you take any one measure from a big
concerto or other concert pianist-level piece, anyone,
even a beginner with no talent, can play it. So the problem
with a big concerto is to simply string the thousands of
playable bars together, and if you can't do it in a few months
like a concert pianist can, then you'll simply have to take
longer, many years.

This method has worked for me. Today, after years of
grim repetitive effort, I can play three big-time pieces,
a big concerto movement, a concert pianist-level mazurka,
and a concert etude. I should not be able to play such
pieces with the below-average talent that I have, but many
years of repetition has enable me to play them.

So for a certain type of person, playing big stuff is the
way to go. If the person aspires to play concert pianist-level
stuff and has no talent, this is the way to play them.
Because if you have no talent, you will never be able to
gradually progress to where you can play big pieces. There
a number of experienced players on these forums who have
tired to reach advanced levels by taking expensive lessons,
thinking that they would be able to gradually progress to
the highest levels. They have all discovered that this is
not possible for a person without concert pianist-level
talent. They simply cannot progress to where they can
play a Chopin Ballade in a few months of work, like a
talented conservatory player can. Something like a Chopin
Ballade is concert pianist level stuff and you just cannot
work it up fast if you don't have the talent for it. Nevertheless,
anyone, and I mean anyone, can work up a Chopin Ballade,
by many years of repetitive effort.

If I had to spend a year learning a piece painstakingly note by note, I would be thoroughly sick and tired of it and never want to play it again. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of learning the piece in the first place? That, to me, is the biggest downside of learning something way over my head.

In my opinion playing the pieces (waaay) over your head is not the best way to develop the piano playing skill properly. You probably learn something from that certain piece in some ways but might not be in the organized order or with the right approach. But different people have different ways of learning so it might work well for some.

I just think when you have the right skill and experience, you will see the patterns, fingering, technique required and the story in that piece much better. Which means you can concentrate on the dynamic of the piece sooner and the music you play will tell that story better whether in the way the composer or you want. You will have more control over the piece...not the other way around.

I am considered myself a beginner. When I started playing most of the pieces were like somebody had spilled or splashed the ink on.

But after months of lessons I recognize chords, arpeggios, patterns on those a bit better. So some of them aren't so scary anymore. (A lot of them still are and there are a lot that fool me.) And the result is I enjoy the pieces and appreciate the process of learning a lot more.

I compare playing piano like reading a book out loud sometimes. I personally don't want to read Shakespeare's work when I still learn how to spell. :P

I think it might be better to go through other pieces to get your ready. There are millions of beautiful pieces out there to explore.


TinyHands

Downside to playing over your head?
For starters it's hard to see the keys. And it can be tough on your back.
Ask Jon Schmidt.