Dedicate some of your sight reading practice exclusively to rhythm!Īlways count using the shortest subdivision you see. Rhythm is the Achilles’s heel of many musicians, and complicated rhythms can make sight reading even more difficult. But always aim for something easier than your skill level. A lot.” Over time, try gradually more difficult selections. As a sight reading instructor once told me, “The only way to get better at sight reading is to do it. And once you’ve done that, the sight reading exercise is over! Leave this piece, and check out a different one. Repeat these steps with the left hand alone, then both hands together. Once you have ghost played the right hand, play it aloud while still counting. We only want to play the section aloud once or twice – any more than that, and it’s no longer sight reading. Ghost playing is the act of moving your fingers along with the notes without actually making a sound. Then, ghost play just the right hand while you count 1 – 2 – 3 aloud. So we will be counting 1 – 2 – 3 for each measure. I’m serious!Ĭount aloud to yourself using the shortest note values in your selection.
Grab a book that you haven’t used in years, something that is so easy for you that it makes you laugh. So, you want to improve your sight reading! Where do you start? With something that is incredibly easy for you. But believe me when I say this: those walls can be knocked down. There is no doubt about that! But there are many things we can do to repackage the challenge as something fun, accessible and rewarding. Reading two lines of music at once, with correct notes and rhythm, is hard. In the case of piano sight reading in particular, part of the issue is also the size of the task. Putting this kind of pressure on yourself will only result in setting unattainable standards, and when you don’t reach these standards, you feel even less confident about your skills.
Music tutor sight reading how to#
Many students carry with them an internalized sense of inadequacy, which is amplified in response to a challenge like sight reading – “I’ve been learning piano for so long! Shouldn’t I know how to read anything by now? Shouldn’t I know every note by sight right away?” The answer is no.
In my experience, issues with sight reading almost always stem from fear of failure. Sight reading doesn’t have to be scary! But how do we wrap our minds – and our hands – around a skill that can be so intimidating? Understanding the problem I did not fully conquer this irrational fear until I was about 19, which was thirteen years into my experience as a pianist.Īs a piano teacher, one of my primary goals is to help my students not only understand how to sight read, but how to feel good about it. (That 7-year-old pianist in the picture above? That was me in 1999, when learning a new piece at the piano meant doing as much as I could to rely entirely on playing by ear!) My brain would shut down, my hands would freeze, and it felt as though I was trying to read a foreign language. Reading a new piece of music on the spot, without the aid of my ear, was a special kind of torture for me as a young pianist. I have a confession to make: I used to be a terrible sight reader.
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