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Thank you all for the suggestions - BruceD and pianoloverus and Arghh (and others), you have all provided some thought provoking insights. Also many thanks for the repertoire suggestions - I'm fully aware that "more is better" in terms of improving sight reading.


I'm flattered to have stretched your imagination Yes, I'm a piano major, as you keep mentioning... not that it's relevant to this discussion. Yes, I suck at sight reading, and even though I've played loads of music by many great composers, my sight reading has not magically improved. So, rather than continuing to just play stuff and hope for the best, I want to figure out how to get better. Even if it feels like a "chore" - learning the foundations isn't always fun, but it's necessary for unfettered enjoyment.


The second time I play through a piece is always 100% better than the first, because I've learned it enough that I don't need to look at the music all the time. A couple more repeats and it's mostly memorised. This is probably part of the reason I've never developed good sight reading skills.


It's been mentioned in various places, including here & also a few of the million threads on PW, that counting out loud using the smallest rhythmic subdivision in the piece, helps when sight reading. I'm not sure exactly why but it seems to work.

Your point re. looking at hands is well taken and makes good sense, thanks. In observing very good sight readers, I've noticed they seldom look at their hands, and easily negotiate jumps without looking, but I guess peripheral vision & the occasional glance is enough. The Howard's sight-reading book I mentioned places great emphasis on "keyboard orientation" and reducing reliance on vision.


Very interesting. I wonder how one could practice that?

The relevance of mentioning that you're a performance major is that this would be extremely unusual if your sight reading is as horrendous as you seem to think it is. Maybe you're comparing yourself to other performance majors? Would you be able to sight read the easiest Chopin Preludes or Mazurkas? By sight reading I mean playing them at significantly less than performance tempo with some stopping but not stopping every measure. I think the idea of practicing sight reading with the goal of never stopping is not so important and highly overrated unless one wants to be a professional accompanist. The important thing for almost everyone is how fast one can learn the notes to a piece and not whether one can play it through without stopping the first time.

If your second time through a piece improves that much and you have it memorized after a few more times, I'd say that you're note learning skills are very good and your only weakness is related to a very limited definiton of sight reading. If you think your poor sightreading is related to memorizing a piece very quickly then perhaps you should make sure to look at the music even after you've memorized the notes.

Counting out loud using the smallest rhythmic subdvision might be useful for beginners but I don't see how how many non beginners would benefit. Using the smallest rhythmic subdivision seems especially unhelpful and extremely awkward unless possibly if the piece has some very tricky rhythm. Does it help you? What piece was it helpful on? I can't imagine, for example, that most would find it useful to count a Mozart Sonata in 16th notes.

from my post on a previous thread (Oct. 2010, improving sight-reading):
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1540430/Re:%20What%20are%20the%20fundamentals%20.html

I'd posted this on 6/10/10, but it's still relevant advice on sight-reading:

From the Guild Musicianship Book (National Guild of Piano Teachers, ed. Lindfors; Summy-Birchard Inc., 1961; ISBN 0-87487-638-9):

"The ability to sight-read piano music depends mainly on keeping the eyes on the music and not looking down at the keyboard; on reading by groups of notes rather than one note at a time; and on looking ahead to see what is coming. Above all, it requires keeping going rhythmically even though there are mistakes.

Before starting to play, the clefs and key and time signatures should be noticed. The title and tempo mark should be looked to for clues to the idea of the piece. It may be necessary to play slower than the indicated tempo, however, to keep a steady pace."

I'd also suggest playing the piece "in your mind" (looking through it very carefully) before actually playing. Go ahead and work out the tricky fingerings and rhythms before starting to play. And yes, sight-reading material should be several levels easier than the pieces you are working to perfect. The steady pace is the most important thing. Take a slow enough tempo that you can keep the pace steady.

The more sight-reading you do, the better you will get. Best wishes!

I wonder how you do that? I'm guessing that you rely more on aural memory since muscle memory wouldn't set in that fast? If that is true, then another thing I found helpful when sight reading is to hear in my mind what I need to play before I play it.



If you don't have other people to play with, then metronomes work. The metronome can also be used as a prompt to read ahead to the next beat on each click so that you're forced to read ahead of where you are playing.

[1]By doing it. Grab every chance of reading through things with other people.
[2]Know a bit about harmony and gain some experience in playing by ear. That helps you approximate the music (as wr says). And you'll find that as time goes on, the less approximation you are doing and the more detail you are able to actually play at first sight.
[3]Read music away from the piano. That develops your ability to grasp what's going on without it being just a "put your finger here" instruction.
[4]In my view, nothing really beats just being interested in exploring music you've never seen or heard before. Life's too short to explore it all, but just get cracking.

Definitely more reliance on aural memory. I've just started experimenting with more mental practice & visualisation, as pelf and currawong suggested, and it might be working


Yes, that really helps. I think that the counting-out-loud serves the same purpose, except it also seems to "disconnect" me somehow so I'm not focussed on my hands or the notes I'm playing so much and am more in "the zone". If that makes sense.


I was never asked to sight read at my audition! Yes I suppose I could manage the very easiest Chopin Preludes in the manner you describe. But I think a higher ability than that is absolutely necessary for any professional pianist, and I'm certainly below what you seem to feel is the minimum level for a piano major. It's funny though, when I'm asked to sight read something in class I am probably the worst, but if the task is to learn a piece of music and play it from memory in the next lesson, I'm way ahead!

Yes, I agree that if you are planning a career as a professional pianist you should work on your sight reading skills. OTOH you are very lucky to have the ability to learn and memorize music quickly which is obviously a very important skill also. Perhaps your teacher, who knows you far better than PW posters, can offer some specific advice or understand what's holding you back as regards sight reading. For example, when you sight read in class does the teacher offer any specific suggestions?

+1 for Plover's point over here. I'm a decent reader, but I've never actually practiced sight reading, I've just gone through lots of foreign music and had a lot of fun with it. Last night I was reading through Rachmaninoff's first sonata, and a few Kapustin preludes and etudes for fun. It was severely under tempo, and sometimes there were pauses, but it's not like it was totally incoherent. But it was all just for fun and not actual practice.

I am ok at reading music but where I fall down is where they put the sharps in the margin and not against the notes. It takes me a while to recognise which is which at speed.

Sounds like you need some work on your scales, and maybe some chord progression work.

Those are called "key signatures," basics that you'll have to learn. You can't be said to be "ok at reading music" if you can't play in the basic keys that have a few sharps and flats in the key signature.

Regards,

Wow, focused effort on sight reading? I gave up on ever being good at sight reading. I just read music for fun, if I need to take a hand off because the piece I'm reading is hard so be it. Not going to bother looking through stuff I don't really like.

How is that going to help? I have no problems with scale

Let's just put it this way, if you don't feel as comfortable in B major as in C major, you're definitely not anywhere close to being okay at reading sheet music :P

If you're playing in Ab and aren't sure if the D is flat or not in the key signature, then you need to play your scales more. It needs to be second nature

Chord progessions help a lot, too!