Hello.

I have been working more on my sight reading for the past couple of days and have a question. When sight reading I have a problem reading both hands at once, should I improve the right hand sight reading then the left separately, or just keep trying to read both at once?

I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I could not find it in the archives.

Thanks

Mike

Just concentrate on both at the same time. If you can read both hands separately, but can't read both at the same time, what good would it do to just keep improving each seperate hand?

I try to do both at the same time. Normaly though, I will go through once or twice with each hand seperatly, but then I put hands together. If I still have trouble I just keep slowing it down until I can do it comfortably.

It could do good in a few ways:

[1] Sight-reading is 1/2 about reading. Even if he's only reading one hand at a time, he's still practicing reading.

[2] Sight-reading is 1/2 about playing what he's reading. Even if he's only playing one hand at a time, he's still practicing playing.


Of course, that's only 1/2 the game. (Wait, 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2... oh, never mind!) He still needs to learn how to do both hands together, but hands seperate certainly isn't a waste of time.

Read both at the same time but try reading from the bottom up, i.e. from bass clef to treble clef. At least that's what my teacher tells me. I'm not sure why it seems to work. Also go slowly, slower than you did hands separate.

I find that dedicating 30 MINUES[/b] a day (not
continuously) in sight read through Bach very very
helpful to myself. Sight reading other pieces with
large jumps & leaps is hard for me, so I stick with
Bach.

Your days must be very long indeed if you can dedicate 30 hours each day to sight-reading! Lucky you! You don't think that that might be a tad much?

Cheers!

Personally I think that playing the hands separately at first is the way to go(for more difficult sight reading). Then once you become familiar with each hands part, simply combine them!!!

Playing hands separate then hands together is no longer sight reading. You are practicing at this point.

Don't be afraid or ashamed to go back to very easy arangements of music to be able to sight read hands together. After a couple of big books of this material, you should be able to move on to harder stuff.

basically, you read each vertical group of notes at a time, from base to treble. if you read slow, then divide the vertical group in smaller segment, say 1/4 bar or 1/2 bar. if you read fast, then you might be able to look at a bar of notes at a time. it also depends on the density of notes in each bar though.

Thanks a lot everyone for the advice. I just got some easy christmas carols i am going to start working through, also Bach.

How helpful is it to read the score away from the piano? I don't mean study the structure or harmonoy ect. but reading the notes and visualizing playing the piece? I have just started trying that. And really trying to find the rhythm in my head by reading.

Again thanks for the help.

Mike

Mike, do you have a book of Beethoven Sonatas?

Have a look at the slow movements away from the piano, and try to figure out the rhythms in your mind. Don't be caught off guard by the 64th notes -- they really aren't so fast if the tempo is largo or andante. The slow movements are full of these 64th/32nd/16th note passages that can be pretty tricky at first. Practice figuring them out perfectly in your mind, away from the piano, and then try playing them. If you can work these out, then you'll find your sight-reading in general will become much better (you won't be scared of the rhythms anymore, and they'll be much easier to figure out at first sight).

I took a 2-semester sight-reading course at school last year, and we spent a lot of time on this. It really helped -- I used to be scared of anything shorter than a 16th note, but they don't scare me anymore.

You're missing the fact that he's from Venus.

Try both methods. First play as much as possible slowly with both hands. Only for analysis play with one hand.

Playing slowly with both hands you will learn to see patterns/models in the music. Later on....you will react with recognition. Goodluck.

Best regards,

Johan B

I thought men were from Mars and women were from Venus, but if what you say is true, he's one lucky dude!

Cheers!