It's really hard to sight read in piano. Can you give me ideas on how to sight read faster? I'm studying piano for 7 years and up to now, i'm slow in sight reading.:lol:

A trick I learned from 8 yrs in choir and band, also from my piano teacher to sight read faster: Mark the first note in each row.

some people can sight read, some people can't. my friend is an amazing pianist but cant sight read and its cost her a distinction in all of her piano exams =[

ive never really found it that hard so i dont know how much help anything i can say will be, but look for harmonic/melodic patterns in the music and work out the structure before you try and sight read it. look for nasty bits and play them separately at a very slow tempo. look for stuff like changes in key signature, time signature etc.

hope some of that is of use

I guess you just start slow and with basic melodies. I've been playing guitar for 5 years and sight reading never seemed practical but now that I've got my piano I must get my act together. I wish I had started reading earlier cos it takes me aaaages to learn anything at all.

I've been playing piano for about 10 years now, and I find sight reading to be very easy.

I guess it's because I've had so much practice doing it. Now and then I print out a bunch of new sheet music, take it to the piano, and try playing all the songs. That's how I decide which ones I want to learn and which ones I'd rather not bother with. That's sort of a problem because I'm always printing out new music and not spending a lot of time on trying to improve a lot of the pieces I want to learn, but it's also a blessing since it's improved my sight reading skills so much.

All the advice I can really give is this: practice. Honestly, that's the best thing you can do! ^^

A trick I learned from 8 yrs in choir and band, also from my piano teacher to sight read faster: Mark the first note in each row.

Thanks miss princess, i'll try that later!!!:P

Thanks wogandosh, amari, and thorn!

I use the sheet once, slowly just to learn the notes. Then i play from memory. if that fails i can look back to the sheets.

I use the sheet once, slowly just to learn the notes. Then i play from memory. if that fails i can look back to the sheets.

What if it's impromptu??

What if it's impromptu??

what's impromptu???

anyways back to the topic... I've just started to play piano(self-taught, so far) and find myself that my eyes goes to the keys.. and I've read that it's much better to sight read, so now i'm trying to learn how to sight read and having a really hard time..


p.s. check the topic "eyes on the prize"

I think an impromptu is something like musical improvisation. [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_improvisation"][url]

Use Amari's method, I also started playing printed scores and my sight reading improved. If you practice on a piece long enough, there is no need at score of even to look at the keys. Muscle memory?

Thank you meim and p-chan! What I mean IMPROMPTU is that someone asked you to play a score, and this is the first time you saw that. And you are in a party. What will you do? you should sight read right? But how can you play that if you don't know how to sight read...

oh i see, like maybe a fake book, or a sheet.. hehehe..

I've come across an article about sight reading yestrday by accident.. it goes something like you have to memorize each note the line and space represent instead of depending on the traditonal "Every Good Boy Does Fine" style because by doing the every good boy stuff the player has to do a two step move(repeating the line and backtracking for the letter) instead on one(naming the note on the spot) do this on the treble and the bass clef.. well something like that. hehehe..

Thanks P-chan!:P

welcome.. i'll post more stuff as soon as i can.. hopefully others who may have a problem with the same topic too may find hope in this topic.. hehehe..

welcome.. i'll post more stuff as soon as i can.. hopefully others who may have a problem with the same topic too may find hope in this topic.. hehehe..

ok, that's great!!^_^

Dude, my sightreading is fine...unless the key signature goes beyond 3 sharps or flats...then I get owned.

I dunno, it's always been..."you get better the more you do it". But since you say you've been working a lot on it already...

I mean, if it's for an exam or something, you just gotta take it a lot slower than it should be...they've always told me to read from the bass up, and keep on going...

thanks hofodomo01! I'll try that too!

It's also a good idea to spend some time learning scales, arpeggios, and common chords. Since I'd imagine that the stuff you'd be asked to sightread would have fairly standard harmonies, knowing all the "building blocks" in advance would take a load off of you when you sightread. Contrast "that's a 4-note chord with notes on B-flat, C, E, and G" with "that's a C2 chord"; the latter is a lot easier to pull off in real time. And when learning the chords/scales, pay particular attention to the fingerings, since you'll save a lot of energy if you know what fingers you're supposed to use next.

Along similar lines, when you're listening to new music, try to guess what note is going to come next in the melody. As you get better at it, you'll see that some patterns show up a lot more often than others, so when you sightread, instead of having to figure out what the next note is from the 88 possible piano keys, you can figure it out from 2 or 3 "probable" choices.

@A question earlier on 1st page - That's not an impromptu. And impromptu is a composition (music, writing, etc.) that was written with no revisions; most people who have a certain perfect pitch or a very good ear for notes can do this well, unless it's just blind luck. Lol.

Take Chopin's "Fantasie-Impromptu" for example, or Shubert's Impromptu for Strings (I think he wrote one. Lol)

Ok, thanks Mazeppa for correcting! Thanks tanonev for your advise!

Sight reading was really hard for me up to a point about a year ago when I started to associate parts of the musical staff with notes. I know its something you all learn when you start any musical things, but I did it a bit different. The top bar of treble is an F and second from the top on the bass is an F, third up on treble is an F... yeah. So from there I basically count how many notes something would be away from the nearest F and go from there. After a while you don't even count, its automatic.

The best way to sight read is to pratice sightreading and keep playing. It's true with any instrument. Also when you first get music, play it slowly untill you get the melody...

Thanks Radical Dreamer and Mick.

Though, sight reading for an instrument like Trumpet, French Horn, Tuba, Baritone, Trombone (brass) is harder to sight read since you don't also JUST need to know positions and fingerings, but also pitches as well.

Good thing I have PP. :heh:

Mazeppa, what is PP?

Perfect Pitch.

Brass is tricky. It's like asking, "what's the taste of an apple?"

Brass players kinda just have to "know" their pitches and adjustments they need to make.

one thing for sure... the best way to go is slow but sure...

hey I have my technique too! remember your fingers? (its only for G clef)

your five fingers corresponds EGBcf Which means the Five lines of the staffs
and FACE corresponds to four spaces. so remember that C=do D=re E=mi F=fa G=sol A=la B=ti and so on... hope that it would help


and also remember each note value depends on the time signature right? !

^_^


it's the most effective for the beginners so far...

anyways I'm a former Music Major hehe

hey in addition... we i had studied how to sight read through singing and we sing the notes my former pofessor used to give us easy pieces first like from 2 pitches (e.g. do-mi), then to three (do-re-mi) in different combinations hehe it would help you much. ^_^

here's my mail! absolutejero@yahoo.com

Ok, thanks to all of you people!

One way to improve sightreading is simply just practicing as some people have said. One way of practicing is going through an easy piano book, just sight reading ~10 songs everyday. Some major points while sight reading are to keep going on if you mess up or go slow if you are having much trouble. As you go through books, you will steadily get better and you can advance to harder books to sightread. Eventually, sightreading will be something simple.

<-- Not caring what others said

~~

Ok, just mainly read a lot of easy songs, slowly (don't care how easy) and make sure you don't mess up. The reason for slowless is to look what you are doing.

The more difficult, the slower you should go. This is also a great technique for practicing pieces in general.

Good luck.

Oki, thanks asian and mazeppa...

I mark the hard parts in Highlighter

A trick from my old piano teacher is to read really fast (and remember the notes/pattern) - she did a demonstration for me, and by the time she was playing a measure, she's already read ahead to the next line! I've found that even reading ahead to the next measure helps a lot on sight reading. But the bottom line is practice. Hope this helps.

I just tried to sight-read Maple Leaf Rag, and completely murdered it. Hah--it's still the best Joplin piece; I want to learn it so bad, it's his best. :sweat:

I'm one of the lucky few who can sight read by ear (I know it defeats the purpose), but what I do is read the notes, then compare it to a recording if available to see if I'm doing anything wrong. Then I can fix it from there, and I usually just have music by for reference. Consequently, I memorize quickly.

I'm one of the lucky few who can sight read by ear (I know it defeats the purpose), but what I do is read the notes, then compare it to a recording if available to see if I'm doing anything wrong. Then I can fix it from there, and I usually just have music by for reference. Consequently, I memorize quickly.


i think that's called palying by ear.. not sight read

i think that's called palying by ear.. not sight read

Of a sort. But people tell me I'm really fast at reading notes. That comes with time, I guess.

I'm in my college band, and I HAVE to learn to sight read, or else I'm screwed. Every semister they keep forking me over to even more HARDER things to sight read, and eventually it's pretty much like reading a book to me. I'm just up to a point where you can pretty much point out anything on the measure and I can tell you what it is instantly. Though if you ask me what kind of chord or scale it is, I'll just give you a weird look.

Though I think I could read musical notes faster than I can read a book =/

Though if you ask me what kind of chord or scale it is, I'll just give you a weird look.

Oh, good ol' cadence theory. -_-


Though I think I could read musical notes faster than I can read a book =/

That could be considered bilingual. ^_^

I'm lucky to be a good sight-reader because I'm in winter percussion ensemble and I'm not able to go to the class during school. So I go to practice after school and many times the rest of the ensemble has received new music during class already and has spent part of class reading and going through the music. But when evening practice comes, we're expected to know the notes so we can work on ensembling it, dynamics etc. So right before practice starts my pitt instructor hands me my new music and we get to work. It's a good brain work-out.

I wish we had our own pit tech... Our one instructor can't keep up with everyone, and the pit is suffering majorly...

I wish we had our own pit tech... Our one instructor can't keep up with everyone, and the pit is suffering majorly...


Well...that could be a blessing, if you have a responsible section leader to run practice. Our pitt instructor makes us do mindless mallet exercises/warm-ups for an hour and a half every practice before we can even get out our music. And she never compliments us. But maybe that's why we win all the time...hehe.

That's the problem. We had one this year (a very good section leader), and she still couldn't do jack squat with the pit. They're just that stupid.

Our techs seem to think that the pit is where you send all the crappy people. I think that being in pit actually takes more talent than being on the line.

Yeah, that has happened to a certain extent with my my pitt too. If they have a kid who is determined to play in the band, but doesn't have any musical sense at all, they assume that they will be welcomed with open arms into the pitt, and given a concert bass drum or gong part. It depends on the person, but usually my pitt instructor says no. There are try-outs and if you don't make it...then you're out. And yes, the pitt does take more talent than the line because the drumline doesn't have to worry about having to listen to drums behind them that are careening around the room and at the same time trying to stay in time with a myriad of different instruments playing different rythyms, notes etc. etc. etc....

This is getting off topic but this whole thread wasn't going to stay on topic very long anyway.

At our school, the best mallet players are all on the line. It seems that either you're good at everything or you suck at everything. And the only two marimbists not on the line are seniors.

Yeah even though this is really repetitive, the best way is to sight read as many pieces as possible and try to get as many notes as possible. It just develops through time. I know since i have played piano for about 8 years and violin for about ten years and 2 weeks ago i had to sight read the first violin part of Dvorak's New World Symphony. AUGHHH WE all hate too many flats (second movement). Oh Yeah and When sight reading, make sure to look at key signature or else you are probably screwed if it is in A major and not D major (Darn Dvorak). Some people say that covering your hands while sight reading helps over time but i never saw the point of that

And some key signatures are just plain ol' hard to read in for piano especially. B flat is a killer for me, since most bands play in that key 85% of the time. I do really good with sharp keys though. -_-

Yeah i also hate different minor keys. B flat isn't too hard on violin but i hate 7 flats.

Ehh, minor keys aren't all that different from their parallel majors. It's just figuring out the key from the signature, since it's major by default.

C major is the absolute worst in fast mallet runs.

You have to study hard and it's hard becuase there are 2 clefs and it can get confusing. You can also take theory lessons.

What's hard? =/

:\ Reading notation is the basic (very basic, actually) stuff when playing piano.

C major is the absolute worst in fast mallet runs.

Amen to that! And we learn all our new mallet exercises in C major first. Apparently it's easier for the newbies in the pitt. I think not. C major is easy in piano...not really for mallets.

Well, it's kinda easy slow, but it gets exponentially harder as you speed up.

@Clarinetist: Mhmm. And..? =/

@Pantalaimon: I was referring to "what's her name"... (the one with the japanese characters).

That's what she was talking about? =/

You have to study hard and it's hard becuase there are 2 clefs and it can get confusing. You can also take theory lessons.

:\

Oh, okay. x_x

I was confused because we were talking about key signatures with 7 flats and she said you have to study hard and it's confusing... idk, I'm having an idiot day. @_@

Oh, sorry for interrupting!

Am I crazy or have I seen that post before? @_@

i find sightreading really easy... maybe it's because i read a lot so i power read anyway.. good training

i find sightreading really easy... maybe it's because i read a lot so i power read anyway.. good training

power read???@_@

Well, music is like a different language, so I'd think that it's kind of like how reading fluent english will not help you at all when you're trying to read a Japanese book.

Well, music is like a different language, so I'd think that it's kind of like how reading fluent english will not help you at all when you're trying to read a Japanese book.

Lol yeah. As pretty much everyone has said it just takes a lot of practice. After a while depending on the person, it just becomes easy.

*Busts out old big book of easy music*

My sight reading is so horrible--need to work on it so when I apply for a college I can not only learn pieces fast and well, but learn them faster by sight reading them too. :heh:

Good idea. You'll still want to read it slow though, as (this may just be me though) it's probably more likely that you'll misread notes (especially if you're so "horrible" at it) and keep playing wrong notes unintentionally until you realize it sounds wrong if you learn songs initially only by sightreading.

i've try and try to read notes but i look and the keyboard since i'm really new into this and later on eventually i end up looking at the keyboard instead of the sheets

Try not looking at the heys or sheet for a while then slowly start to look at the sheet and follow the notes from memory. You might find yourself slowly able to read the notes whilst playing.

@HanTony: hehehe.. i've tried that too but my eyes just goes down.. it's like looking at a b**bs


p.s. i've just began to play.. is it normal?

I only noticed myself not looking at the keys a week ago. It seemed to suddenly be natural and i was like OMGWTHBBQ.

@HanTony:kk i'll try.. tnxs

Yeah, there's not really a certain point where you stop looking at the keys - it can be compared to learning how to type without looking at the keyboard.

I myself am good at sight reading, but I could'nt memorize the piece. I dont' know, maybe because I am so keen in creating music of my own that I don't intend to write them in scores that reading music per se causes my brain to function to the notes like a robot.

Yeah, sight reading is different from knowing, understanding the notes tune by tune, lyric by lyric and most of all, playing the piece and performing the piece.

I don't like sight reading, sometimes feel like I control the music. It's should be vice versa.

I could'nt memorize the piece.


i've read an article that said the same thing... that sight readers don't tend to memorize the sheet but cause they enjoy reading..

and those who memorize the piece helps with memory..

i didn't finish reading the book yet.. it's so boring and it has alot of pages and the text is very small in short i don't like reading much.. i'll post what i've learn or read after i read the book.. eventually i have to finish reading it..

i could only dream of the day that i would get sheets from the net print and playing it as if i was reading a book <-- what an irony to what i've said before.. haha

I'm not entirely good at sight reading, however one trick that has really helped me was not stopping. People have a habit of playing until they miss a note. Play slowly and just make it through the entire piece, however long that may take. Once you miss a note, remember it and keep going, if you stop there, you won't pick it back up the way you were and you will get into all sorts of bad habits that take forever to break.

That used to kill me when I was learning to sight read. I'm told I have a good ear, so as soon as I hear a note that doesn't fit, I want to stop. It's natural, and it takes a while to get over.

Hey guys!! Thanks for the updates about sight reading. I'm really excited to hear more about what you have researched!:)

Yeah, there are four types of pianists - those that can sightread well but not memorize well (I myself included), those that can memorize well but not sightread well, those that can do both, and those that can't do either (in which case, they should not be called pianists :P).

Wow, that is a bad habit, takes a while to get through with on any instrument *sigh* Even as I'm typing, a bad habit I have is that when I make a mistake TYPING, I delete all the way back to that letter and retype it, even though you could just use the mouse or the arrows... Same with music, just try not to stop and redo that measure and continue on...

thanks!

lucky for those who can both sightread and memorize...

i remember when i was a kid and my piano teacher would quiz me on my music...he would hover a book or something over my hands while i was playing so i couldn't look at the keys i was pressing...and since i couldn't sight read, i just memorized every song ^^...

but i learned to read later like in middle school...and i guess not looking at the keys was major factor in helping me learn to sight read...

I think it also depends on how much you depend on looking at the keyboard when you play? Usually I don't look at my hands at all, I can just stare at the book, lol.

I wouldn't be able to remember anything if I didn't look at my hands... Even though I don't look much while sight reading (which i do until I memorized the whole piece) maybe one or two times when i don't know where I s'posed to put my finger/s, but after memorizing it's like I need to stare at my hands to be able to play and when I memorized a piece I can't sight read it anymore...
But then again, I only played for about three months and i don't practise that much...

Great guys!!! Please feel free to add more insights on what you have researched about sightreading!

if your teacher told you something to remember the notes like
All Cows Eat Grass or Every Good Boy Does Fine
forget it.

Just remember for Bass Clef it's
GBDFA for Lines
ACEG for Spaces

Treble Clef
EGBDF for Lines
FACE for Spaces

Thinking letters in your head is much quicker than thinking whole sentences.
For those beyond the staff, remember it's a big fat repeat of GBDFACEGBDFACE...etc.
I personally just remember that the top line on the treble clef is F and continue from there and the space right above is G and continue from there. For those below the staff, just say it backwards!

Once you've got that stuck in your head, next would be to remember intervals
Because you ONLY need to read one note, and that would either be the topmost note or the lowest note. The rest you just look at the intervals. Don't identify each note individually! It's much slower to identify each note then find it on the piano. For example, the below measures...

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/AndyTran1/CielMeasures6to8.jpg

First identify the flats or sharps. In this case, they're A, B and E flats. If you play a song enough or just do a few scales for a while, the flats and sharps should begin to feel natural to play for the song. If it still bothers you, just circle them with a pencil! Remember, nobody's criticizing you!

For base clef, you just have to immediately identify the C on first measure then since the C is on a space, and the next note is a space, the next note is an odd amount of notes away. Meaning it can either be a third, a fifth, a seventh, a ninth, etc. Since it's 2 spaces away, it must be a fifth. Next is from a space to a line. Therefore it can either be a second, a fourth, a sixth, and eighth, etc. In this case it'd be a fourth. Eventually you don't even want to count lines or spaces and just recognize how far apart they are from each other.
Either way, for the whole first measure, left hand:
play a C, hit a fifth above it, a fourth above that,a second above, a second above, a second below, a second below, a fourth below.
Second Measure:
F, a fifth above, a fourth above, a fourth below, a fourth below, a fifth above, a fourth above, a fouth below
Third Measure:
Same as the first measure

Chords is the same way - think in intervals. First chord on right hand, lowest note is G. It's a third and a fifth together, so just jam those 3 keys. Next chord has the same lowest note but is a fourth instead. Just try as much as you can to limit trying to find each and every note.

Another helpful thing is to recognize patterns. Nearly every song has a pattern, especially for the bass clef. Some songs go up and down in the same intervals except with a different bottom key. Many others repeat themselves like the first and third measure of this song

Edit: I think I forgot to mention this, but there's no real other way to play very difficult songs than to memorize them. Memorization is really the only way. Sure the sheets can be there for reference for a measure or two, but memorizing a piece is the key to performance quality.

I didn't really use the whole FACE/EGBDF thing - until I learned by repetition where all the notes were, I just used the fact that F and A were the top lines, and E and G were the bottom lines.

I can't sightread for my life so, yeah I'm sorry. I can't help you :(

again, sorry.

Yeah, there are four types of pianists - those that can sightread well but not memorize well (I myself included), those that can memorize well but not sightread well, those that can do both, and those that can't do either (in which case, they should not be called pianists :P).

Yeah, I'm in the category of "those can memorize well, but cannot sightread well."

It sucks, because I need to learn technique and sight-reading to become a pianist. I got the emotion/interpretation and memorizing down (natural), but doing the technicalities of piano will kill me my high school years. :heh:

That's where Hanon will save your neck. ^_^

I'm definitely in the "can sightread well but not memorize well" category. It's not that I can't memorize, but it takes me a long time. I can learn a piece much faster when I'm sightreading.

This may seem a little strange - I've been playing for 4 years, and how I've started to get better at sight reading is by going through all my old books. Even if they are preliminare or Grade 1. Go through them all. You actually improve a lot. Also, try to keep a steady pace, if you stumble, continue to count and start at where you would be. It's hard - but helps!

I'm probably in the "memorizes and sight-reads well" category but I suffer from distractionitis. >_<

I'm definitely in the "can sightread well but not memorize well" category. It's not that I can't memorize, but it takes me a long time. I can learn a piece much faster when I'm sightreading.

I'm the exact opposite. I can't sightread for beans. I learn about 3-4 measures at a time, and I don't move on until I can play them without looking at the sheet music.

I really wish I could sight read well, but I just can't. I spent 3 years in marching band, and I've played piano/keyboard for about 3 years now.

As many have suggested, I find learning where certain notes are on the staff to make sight reading much easier.

I'm something in between the four categorise... i can't really sightread, though I manage, I can't really memorize (at least not while playing the piano) but I manage... ^_^ I am in a fifth category ;)

The one that's inbetween. There should probably be a sixth, for people who can't do either worth beans. -_-

On second thought, I don't think anyone would put themselves in it...

Hello! I really appreciate the things that you post here. I have something to say too! To be familiarize with notes...You really need to practice=)

Ain't that the truth. Also, if you're the kind that sight-reads stuff that you'll never play again, start with stuff that's reasonably below your level - probably not a good idea to try to sight-read something you're gonna play for a recital in two months, unless you're some sort of prodigy, in which case you don't really need to be here anyhow. >_< Keep approximately the same ratio as you improve, just to stay on your toes.

I think it is hard to sight read piano b/c you have to play to hands at once, that takes cordnation.

That's sort of it. Overall it's confidence and also a good understanding of the piano and knowing notes when they are 'read' on paper.

I'm actually just starting to progress nicely in my Sight Reading Exercises..

I've been playing for 7 years and I don't have that much trouble sight reading