Hello. I have been playing piano for about 5 years now. One thing I feel I am having trouble with is sightreading. I know how to read music, but when I set down with a new piece of music I am very, VERY slow at playing it, and even slower if it is in a key with a alot of sharps or flats.

Does anyone have any good advice on how to improve my sightreading? I would be gratefull for any help. :)

hm...the only way to improve sightreading is actually practice sightreading. Here is what i told my students do to improve sightreading skill. Everyday you pick out a new piece from a piano book, and just play the first like 12 bars or so (remember try to not stop, and force yourself to continue if you make mistakes.) Everytime you sightread, there are several things you have to look before you even start.
1: Clef, (see whether it's all in the treble clef, bass clef or treble and bass etc..)
2: Key Signature
3: Time Signature
4: scan through the piece and look for accidentals
5: scan through the piece and look for particularly hard sections.
6: scan through the piece and look for maybe change of clefs.

you can scan through 12 bars easily i'll bet, so it's not that hard to do the above 6 steps in less than like half a minute

Once you checked the 6 things, you can begin and you really need to be conscious about where your playing and what your playing. And always look ahead.

I usually just print off sheet music from here and play it through a couple times. it doesnt really matter whether or not you stop, because you're still getting experience and i find that the more you try, the less you stop anyway because you become more confident

I've said this before in another thread but there's a really good way of improving sight-reading.

If you join a jazz band or a group where you're playing the piano, the pace forces you to sight read really fast. Improving your reaction time helps if you basically want to follow the music whilst playing. The practice improves your sight-reading tremendously. The other way to sight-read is to look ahead whilst you are playing the bit before that you saw earlier if you get me. It takes a lot of concentration to do that though because you'll have to remember the previous bit while you're reading the next bit.

mmm.. first thing, start out by sight reading REALLY easy pieces.. then work your way up..~ But keep in mind that no matter how many wrong notes you make, just keep going. Also, you don't have to sight read as fast as the piece would normaly go. Just take your time. (Teh trick is to try to get yourself to stay on the page as longgg as possible).

Heh.. and don't worry, you'll get better at it if you just practice. ^^ Plus.. there are people who play the piano really good, but are poor/mediocre sight readers. ^^; kk. Good luck on your studies!

I sight read by using egbdf. every line on the trble clef makes out the sentence every good boy deserves fudge. and then for the spaces face. then for bass clef i couldn't think up anything for that. i just memorize chords and stuff and yeah. thats what i do.

i memorize some notes too :D , like a very high or very low C and G , in that way is more easy found the others notes , for the flat and sharps , well , it's not so difficult , for example: is a found key with 5 " b " , i think , well , there are only two notes that not have " b " (in black keys obviusly) C and F , so i'll play all the black keys and only the C and F of the white keys , but it's always better see very well the key (flats , sharps, ecc) first that study the piece ( here is a page where you can practice ;) : http://www.funbrain.com/notes/index.html )

^_^

Thank you for all of the very helpful suggestions. All of this will help greatly. :D

Look ahead, definately.

And try to see where the music is heading, what note is emphasized. A lot of times on those difficult 16 or 32 note phrases, there are several key notes that are important, if you get those the rest will be easier.

I practised sightreading on my Marimba with a book by Jaques Delecluse, I just don't find it anymore. When I found it, I'll post the name. Or just look in the internet, it something like "Etudes Journaliers pour Xylophone". It's only for treble clef though. I'm not that great in sightreading, too.

The only way to be great at sight reading is to just keep doing everyday.

the most basic rule of sight reading: ALWAYS look ahead.

A few rules that came into my mind when I asked help for other techniques--but i'm sure it helps this one

1. play slowly, slowly get faster. It's a must! =)....well it could
(the following are helpful for other techniques but are real helpful for this sight reading)

2. play music that you are familiar with, wander around ichigos and you'll instantly find music =) if your interested in anime/video game music that is...it really helps because your familiar with the song! But it only helps alot if your familiar with it...but helps a tad bit in site reading

3. sing the melody, it'll make more sense to you.

4. play one measure at a time or a few

if you have private lessons you can request to play slowly or ask your private teacher to play a few measures at a time then you try it out, I usually do that during private lessons. One thing; don't ever rush! I always rush when I site read! My private teacher always finds me rushing when I play. Your practicing, no need to ever hurry. Even in a performance, if you make a mistake who cares. Ah...another thing I forgot, when you are playing the song for the first few times play the whole thing, don't start over again if you screw up.

hope that helps
-miyoko

Get yourself used to thinking quickly . . my eyes are always darting around, improving my hand-eye coordination. I recently noticed while sight-reading that one second before arriving at the part I'm supposed to play, I'll look at the right hand part first and then the left hand. It's all one smooth motion, I don't know . . see for yourself what you're most comfortable with. Or get somebody to observe your eyes, haha . . would looking at the left hand notation first be easier for you? Or both hands? Find out what's best for you.

i learned for the treble clef for the lines you think Every Good Bird Does Fly for the lines and FACE for spaces. for the bass clef you think All Cowboys Eat Ground Beef for lines. i hope this helps :D

make sure your hands are already getting to move to the next chord or phrase so that even if you mess up you can keep going..and also..never restart...if you mess up just keep going and fix it the next time thru...thats something i have learned from 7 years of band and being a music major in college and basically follow everything Neerolyte said...k? ;)

Hey.. I need help with sight reading too. Also, I'm new to this forum so hi everybody. Anyways, umm I'm not sure if you're actually suppose to do this but, instead of sight reading I basically memorize the keys and look at my hands playing instead of the keys, iono if I'm really suppose to do that because I find myself doing it while I'm playing the guitar. Anyways, can I have any info on how to get a kinda feel for sight reading and if what I'm doing is right. Note: I only played Piano for like 1 week now for 1 hour a day each day I believe.. maybe I should be more dedicated?

That is dedication already I think. To be good at sight-reading you have to know your instrument well. That means you have to be able to judge all distances that you move with your fingers with your eyes closed. In that way you can know where to move your hand without looking at your instrument so that you can concentrate on the actual music to read it. This just takes practice really.

Keep the downbeat and sub-beats in your head. Then think the sub-division as hard a possible. Even if you hit wrong notes, most people will not notice as long as you hold true to the beat.

Well, right notes are always good... So I suggest you practice odd rythems (sp?) and note combantions often, sometimes (more like everytime) etudes help in the process.

Theory mumbo jumbo gets me. I'm guessing you're talking about timing Mies?

Anyway I prefer less theory, more practical. Knowing the theory doesn't help with playing all the time. It does help but only to the standard of your ability when it comes to playing. Playing over theory is my way of handling stuff. In short - practice doing it and you'll get it.

I notice that I have trouble playing songs that I haven't heard before... I just can't tell if I'm playing it right or not... I mean, ask me anything about theory and I'll tell it to you, but when I see Sheet Music, I can't hear it in my head. This is also the reason why I can't transcribe very well, because I also can't hear a song and visualize it as sheet music...


But, I would like to also add that I have only been studying music for three years, so I think I made some excellent progress just being able to read the notes right...

Make cue cards . . it's time consuming, but use a music program or something, and print off the notes on the staves . . then print it out, cut it up and paste on a cue card. Then go through the notes, testing your speed and speed.

Originally posted by an-kun@Jul 10 2005, 04:55 PM
Theory mumbo jumbo gets me. I'm guessing you're talking about timing Mies?

Anyway I prefer less theory, more practical. Knowing the theory doesn't help with playing all the time. It does help but only to the standard of your ability when it comes to playing. Playing over theory is my way of handling stuff. In short - practice doing it and you'll get it.
In music, theory is practical because music is just the execution of theory. That's like saying in a geometry class that you don't need arithmetic because you're doing "practical math." The more you study theory, the more you will see its practical use in sight-reading and memorization. Suddenly, you find yourself digesting concepts instead of individual notes.

Should I try like for 15 minutes a day or so for like trying to practice a song w/o looking at my hands? And can you recommend me some songs to play... from this site.. Right now I'm currently trying to learn Gravitation - Sleepless beauty (only have the 1st section done sorta...) and I'm thinking about attempting to play Saria's song from Zelda. Or should I stick w/ something more simple? I try really hard if I put my mind to it.

Originally posted by Alfonso de Sabio@Jul 11 2005, 04:00 AM
In music, theory is practical because music is just the execution of theory. That's like saying in a geometry class that you don't need arithmetic because you're doing "practical math." The more you study theory, the more you will see its practical use in sight-reading and memorization. Suddenly, you find yourself digesting concepts instead of individual notes.
Of course you need to know the basics but I was sticking more to the point of people who know a lot but can't execute it practically. They are essentially different in that way. You might know the theory but can you execute it is really what I meant. I prefer just executing it rather than learning the complex theory mumbo jumbo. They are linked as you say but they are still sort of separate really. People can know theory but not be able to play the instrument. Yellow monkey can't play instuments (from when I last talked to him anyway) but he knows how to compose very good songs. He knows the thoery but he doesn't get the practical side of it I think. Practical teaches you some stuff that theory can't teach you. I digest concepts as well just through playing even though I don't have the extensive knowledge as some of you people here. I know what you mean though. Essentially you need both to become better. I just like playing rather than learning theory. Hope that cleared up my mess.

You're last sentence Alphonse - you can do that too when just trying to execute stuff practically.

@minhhoang - Do different pieces each day. Sightreading is "reading" something new so you're going to have to look at different music each day. If you're talking about memorising your instrument, then yes practising pieces would help I think.

Thanks for the reply, I think I'll do what you said, by reading different pieces every few days. I think that'll help my sightreading most, since I don't want to play piano just to learn a few songs.