<p>I am a 16 (nearly 17, next month) year old male and I’ve been playing the piano for 12 years now, and I study at the New England Conservatory Prepatory (sp?) School in Boston. I play solo piano (right now I’m playing Liszt Concert Etude “Waldesrauschen”, Prokofiev Sonata No. 2 First Movement in D minor, and a Beethoven Sonata), but I am deeply interested in performing with ensembles, such as chamber groups. </p>
<p>However, I would describe my sight-reading skills as poor for my level of play. I can play beginner’s classical music with moderate ease at a slower tempo, and today I managed to play through Bach Inventions that I’ve played 5-6 yrs ago without too much trouble, but I would like to sight-read at a more advanced level. I am always amazed by the likes of my piano teacher, who can play the pieces I currently play the first time through with a high degree of fluency. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for improving sight-reading skills? Is the only way just to sit down and practice with new pieces each day? Thanks.</p>
<p>I am a chamber music player and majored in piano performance at University of Wisconsin – madison with an emphasis on collaborative playing. One thing that helps wtih sightreading is to play through sheer volumes of music. For a moment, lighten up on your mistakes, don’t care too much for virtuosity or delicate expression and just play. All types of music. Whatever you can get your hands on, just play through it. It also helps to play non-solo repetoire alone. Play through duo sonatas or trios or quartets, or even accompaniments to concerti or choral works, and don’t be afraid to play them alone. The breadth and volume of music you experience will improve your sightreading, becasue you will develop an ability to recognize alot of patterns and stereotypes you wouldn’t otherwise see if you focus on a specialized subset of your performance repetoire. Pattern recognition is they key to sightreading.</p>
<p>Sightreading comes with practice, yeah…but you can speed it up by playing chords rather than notes. The hymnal is a good place to start because you get used to instant chord recognition, also the key changes from one page to the next. </p>
<p>Try some tacky sheet music for popular songs, and concentrate on bringing out the melody rather than getting the notes right. I got rid of my stage fright by playing once a week at an old folks’ home and learned some GREAT standards in the process.</p>
<p>my teacher just gives me sightreading exercise and… the more randomn pieces you pick and plauy… the btter you can sight right… and yeah u pick up on pattern recognitionlike someone above said</p>
<p>I agree with what’s been said. Spend time sight-reading every day and you will get better. Also - if you can possibly find someone with whom to play 4-hand music, it’s a great way to learn how to “fake” a bit, as your partner will force you to keep going in tempo no matter how many mistakes you make.</p>
<p>Along with a 4-hand partner, see if there are some instrumentalists or vocalists who would like to get together once or twice a week and sight read through a number of pieces. Both of you will improve greatly and it IS a good idea to have a partner because they force you to keep playing right through your mistakes.</p>
<p>Learning chords is invaluable. I am a great sightreader, as I have been doing it for nearly 30 years. One of the main keys to sightreading, for me, is to instantly analyze the chord structure. This helps one to see patterns in the music, and often predict what might come next.</p>
<p>Reading popular sheet music can definately help you with this, as you can play the written notes, and then check the chord symbols for “validation” of the harmony that you are playing.</p>
<p>You have to be a little careful about using popular sheet music that way. I have seen lots of cases where the chord symbols were either much simplified or in total disagreement with the notes. It is almost as if two different people did the notes and the chords sometimes. Another problem is when the chords are meant to be used with a capo on the guitar or other fretted instrument. In that case, you have to adjust the chords by the appropriate number of semitones when making your comparisons.</p>