Hi! How do you recommend practicing sight reading? I've got a piano exam coming up in a few months and apparently the sight reading portion is really tough at my level. Thank you!
Sight read for 15 minutes a day. Doesnāt matter what you play, just read something youāve never read before.
Before you start, tell yourself out loud:
What key the piece is in.
What clefs are used. (Donāt assume right hand is treble clef and left hand is bass!)
What the highest and lowest notes are.
Notice the tempo marking. Even if you canāt sight read at allegro or vivace, youāll learn about the style and mood of the piece from the tempo marking.
Now pick a tempo and stick to it. If you canāt, turn the metronome on.
Always keep playing! Hereās how to do that:
Never, ever repeat a note. If itās wrong, itās wrong. Oh well. No need to make the NEXT note wrong too by re-playing the last one instead of continuing.
Never stop. Never take your fingers off the piano. If you canāt read whatās in front of you, make something up thatās in the same key and has a similar rhythm to what you see.
If your right hand gets lost, keep playing the left hand.
Sight reading can be a discouraging thing to practice at first. By its very nature we will never feel good at it: playing something for the first time canāt possibly feel as secure and musical as playing something we know.
BUT: itās a skill like anything else. Some people are not magicallyĀ āgood at sight readingā while others are naturally bad at it⦠sight reading is a learnable skill. Remember that once upon a time you couldnāt read English either, but now you can blow through a four hundred word text post in a few seconds. Reading music works the same way.
Pick musicĀ this easyĀ and play it flawlessly the first time with gorgeous phrasing.
Pick musicĀ this hardĀ and justĀ play one or two measures.
Pick music whose tune you know so you can use your ear.
Pick music whose tune is unfamiliar so youāre forced to read the notes.
Sight read duets with friends.
If you recognize the I and V chords of all keys, you can understand the structure of an excerpt and read it more easily.
Aim to play actual musicĀ as you sight read. The kind with dynamics and emotions and occasional mistakes. This will impress the judges more than a cold technical reading of correct notes.
Good luck on your piano exam!! If itās a few months away and youāre already thinking ahead about practicing, youāre going to be great. Iād love to hear how it goes!