Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner You're either a good sightreader or you're not.

I am sure that everyone appreciates that a violinist or a clarinetist or any instrumentalist who plays a single-note instrument has a much easier time of sight reading than those of us who play polyphonic instruments, and, yes, we appreciate that they have other challenges we don't have.

It is also true, to some degree, that some of those instrumentalists and some singers who do not play the piano have no idea of the complexities involved in playing the piano and/or in sight reading a score. I am sure we all know a/an (put the instrument in here) and a vocalist or two who will hand you a piece, will have no idea of its complexities or difficulties, and will expect you to read it as easily as they sight read their single line.

A violinist once handed me the Franck Sonata to which I had never seen the score and suggested we play the first movement; "It's really easy!" Well, true, it's not as difficult as many another sonata for violin and piano, but "really easy"?

That said, "sight reading" and (some) "singers" are words that often should not be used in the same sentence!

Regards,

Truth, truth, truth. Ughhhhh... But I'm taking voice lessons now, so I'll eventually be on both ends of the spectrum, hehe.

Even worse some intelligent people I know think reading music is like reading a book. Once you know the notes you just read every piece...no practicing ever required.

Well, it's not really that complicated to understand. On piano you play sometimes 4-5 times as many notes as on a melodic instrument, and often at the same time. Of course that makes the reading harder to do.

Hymns aren't necessarily the best to sightread unless you want to get good at playing hymns. I would start with easier music if they're giving you a hard time. Like early intermediate pieces (Minuets and the like).

Actually, the Franck is considered one of the more difficult piano-violin sonatas! I've noticed that for pretty much all collaborative piano auditions, they want to hear Franck and Beethoven 7. Having played both, I can see why... (definitely two of my favourites, and to be honest I didn't think the Franck was anywhere close to the Beethoven in difficulty)

Many people in this forum claim that they can play Chopin Etudes well. But once they posted their playing, most of them are just a laughing matter.

As someone who plays the cello, and now is learning to play the piano, the polyphonic aspect of the piano is a big jump from the cello.

As someone mentioned above, you have other issues with other instruments (with the cello, it is tone and intonation - both take a long time to get good at for most people), but with the piano I am struggling to read two staffs with multiple notes at the same time. It is a big challenge, and I hope I get better at it! After only a couple of months of learning piano, though, I hope it is something I can learn - I am giving myself two years before trying to judge whether I will get there.

Although the piano is my primary instrument by far, I also played several single-line instruments when I was younger. One of the interesting difficulties about sight-reading music for those instruments was that the lack of context, particularly harmonic context, adds a kind of problem that pianists usually don't have. It is much harder to understand the music you are playing and where it's going if you don't have the whole of it in front of you, but have just one line. Which isn't to say that it's more difficult than piano music to sight read, but just that it has some odd difficulties that pianists don't usually think about.

Agreed. It does seem like I'm belaboring the obvious. And yet Im getting the feeling that talent is being underplayed by some...the ethos seeming to be, hard work will get you there every time. T'aint so in my opinion. I've always been a crappy sight reader. I always will be. The best I can hope for is to gradually become a bit less crappy with lots of hard work.

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday. I showed the violinist I'm playing with some harmonic analysis - she had 3 Cs over three different chords I had, all with different functions. Once we established that, the phrase sounded radically different and better.

I actually would like to pick up a single melodic-line instrument just to see how much easier sightreading would prove to be.

My cello playing wife is always wanting me to accompany her on the piano, then gets impatient while I struggle to keep up with music I've never seen before.

UNFAIR!!!

The key to becoming an excellent sight-reader? Get your masters at Indiana University, where all piano majors are required to accompany every conceivable instrumental and vocal piece....and have about thirty minutes to learn it...

sight reading, like anything else can be practiced and improved. Some people have more innate talent but we known that deliberate practice trumps innate talent that is not nurtured.

I hope so.. I really hope so

That's a very relevant and important observation!

Regards,

The posters who are emphasizing that other instrumentalists usually have only one line to read seem to be ignoring the fact that those instrumentalists have to create the sound by much more complicated means than pressing a key. Sight reading also included playing the notes.

Yes, that is a great observation. But as someone who has played a couple other single-note instruments (saxophone and violin when I was younger, plus I sing) it is overall still easier for a single-line instrument.

Why wait? Play melody lines with your RH. Instant single-line sight-reading.

My sight reading is good when I know the piece !

It's especially poor if the timing is highly synchopated.

For me it is very music dependent.

It's poor if the notes run on a scale that's not based on the major or minor scale. Eg I've been "reading" and practising Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody 2 for 8 months now - and I don't think I've figured out more than 70% of the notes.

On the other hand, my children are "amazed" I can pick up their Grade 6 and below pieces and play it reasonably first time out.

Still haven't figured out how to play the theme from Will and Grace - damm. Theme from Chariots of Fire - got it first time out!

Twisting by the Pool (Dire Straits) still can't figure it out. Lady Marmalade - ok!