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I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this, but here goes.

I'm 18, and I've been playing piano for about 3 1/2 years, and taking lessons for a year and a half. Sight reading is an ongoing struggle for me. My playing level is fairly advanced,(my last recital pieces were 'Juba' and "Schumann's Romance in F# Major", and now I'm working on "Rustles of Spring" by Christian Sinding), but my sight reading is not so much. When I first started taking lessons, I basically couldn't sight read at all. (I could figure things out, but it took a lot of time) My teacher is taking me through the Keith Snell repertoire books, and we're in level 4 right now. I can sight read them, but by no means easily or well. My teacher says that these are my sight reading exercises, but we spend a week or 2 on each piece. She has told me that I need to sight read new things every day, but hasn't given me any specific material or anything.

I am looking for books or something that I can go through that has a specific amount to do each day, so there is no guess work involved. Would the Paul Harris books "Improve your sight reading" be a good option for me, and if so, what level should I start in? Or are there others that would be better?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

sight reading is a problem for everyone

you know why Liszt and a few others have magnificent sight reading skills? You would too had you learned to read music before even reading words and doing it at least 10 hours a day. Practice makes perfect.

so, just relax and enjoy your playing. Use the sheet as a reference for learning and during play...

Have a look at the thread in the Adult Beginner's Forum titled "Returning to piano, advice on slow learning process" - that poster has an identical problem to yours, and several people, including yours truly, proffered advice.

To add to what I posted there, I'll just say that when I was at your stage, I'd bought volumes of the complete Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven piano sonatas, and spending many enjoyable hours just sight-reading through them. Many of the fast movements were too difficult for me technically, but almost all the slow movements were playable, and could be sight-read - sort of. I rapidly improved my sight-reading ability, as well as discovered a lot of great music in this manner. Pretty soon, I was adding the Schubert Moments musicaux and Impromptus and Sonatas, some Chopin (waltzes, mazurkas and nocturnes), Schumann (Kinderszenen, Arabeske, Op.12), Brahms (Op.117-118) etc to my volumes.

I didn't actually practice most of what I was looking at (i.e. sight-reading, but never thought of it as such, because I was having so much fun doing it) - only a few selected movements and individual pieces that really appealed to me: I only properly learnt a few complete Mozart and Beethoven Sonatas, the rest being single movements. But the biggest effect of all this was that my sight-reading improved rapidly - and in the most enjoyable manner imaginable for a teenager mad about classical music like I was......

In other words, the more you do it - and enjoy doing it - the better you get at it. Personally, I don't see any point in buying sight-reading books for the sake of practicing sight-reading, when there's so much great music around to sight-read. Much better to practice sight-reading real music.......

I did read through that entire thread prior to posting this, and her problem isn't exactly identical to mine, I learn new songs very quickly.

Hey pianosNpreschooler,

I don't want to be sales-y, but your issues are exactly why I started www.SightReadingAcademy.com

Right now, I only have level 1 (corresponding with ABRSM levels), but I'll be releasing more very soon. The beauty of my system is that it delivers new music to you in your email inbox every single day (including unique and innovative exercises to help you read ahead), so that you never run out of unseen music to read.

But I have seen a gapping hole in sight reading education for more advanced levels (like yours), and that is why I am in the process of developing the Sight Reading BootCamp. I'll be releasing this in just a few weeks, but you should definitely considering signing up to be notified when it releases here: http://sightreadingacademy.com/bootcamp

This one will be around Level 8 material, and as soon as you are done with the 10 day bootcamp, you can continue getting new, level appropriate sight reading material every day, without ever worrying about running out.

Hope this is helpful!

I think some kind of standardized sight reading course is a great idea. I too have this "problem", although common wisdom had me blaming myself and my laziness.

I've just played the piano for about a year, so dont take me too seriously. I still can't sight read as good as I want too, but I still have some tips. First, you should sightread every single day. It doesn't need to be a whole piece but it should be at least 4 bars a day. My second tips is to get a pencil and write the name of the notes, underneath or above the notes throughout the whole piece. I did this for some pieces and it became easier and easier to sight read.

I hope this helped you a little bit.

I think that perhaps eirikg doesn't quite understand the meaning of "sight reading." Sight reading means being able to play a piece prima vista - at first sight - with a minimum number of mistakes and at an acceptable tempo. It does not mean repetitions of the piece to get it right; that is called practicing.

I don't like the idea of writing the names of the notes "throughout the whole piece." Indeed, I don't think that one should write the names of the notes at any time; that way, you'll never learn to read "at sight" if you have to write in the names of the notes before you can play them.

Regards,

When I was just starting to learn to read, it was good practice for me to go through music and write down the notes (but not play from the letters) That is not necessary for me now, because I can easily name an individual note, it's reading 5 or more at a time that's difficult for me.
I found some piano solo books at the library for sale for 50 cents each, mostly easy classical, and a few Martha Mier student books. I got 3 easy classical books(2 have over 100 pages, and the other one has over 50), which interestingly enough all seem to have different difficulties, so I started with the easiest, which I can play with reletive ease, but still challenges me. I'll also likely be switching teachers at my current teacher's suggestion, so I'll see what she'll do with me.

To me, the sight reading threads here are sort of a mystery, because I've always thought of sight reading as a kind of self-regulating thing. You read at the level you can, and that level slowly rises. You gradually select more and more difficult music to read, because you can. It never occurred to me to "practice" sight reading, because once I learned the basics of notation, it was always so integrated into my musical interests that it never became a separate "thing".

To me, it is not unlike reading written text - once you know how, you just do it. And yes, you don't start off by reading "Finnegan's Wake" - you work your way through various levels of complexity.

That is very much the way I see and experience it. You learn to do it with very easy pieces and just keep doing it with progressively difficult material.

Regards,

Do you have any idea what aspect of sight reading you find difficult? In my breakdown there are two main parts- seeing what to play, and playing what you see. The first concerns seeing correctly which notes, intervals, accidentally, and fingering. The second concerns the physical aspect of playing the piano. Since you mention you learn pieces rather quickly I would guess it is something in the first part you are having trouble with. Do you spend any time before sight reading to look over the score? Do you look ahead far enough in the score so that if there is something more tricky to read that you have time to decipher it before you actually have to play it?

Interesting explanation of sight reading! When I sight read, I feel like I'm trying to split my brain in half. If I could just concentrate on the treble staff, or even just the sheet, it would be one thing, but having to also be aware of the keyboard. It is very difficult for me to play without looking at my hands at least sometimes. I also wonder if I'm not trying to sight read pieces that are really above my sight reading level. Even if I go super slow, I feel like my hands are running ahead of my brain, kind of like watching your feet when you walk, and running into a wall because of it, instead of looking ahead, and letting your feet do their job.