Sight Reading – What Exactly Am I Trying To Do? (Part 1 of 2)
So, what is happening when I sight read or try to?
Well to put it simply, you read the notation and your brain interprets the symbols into information telling your fingers what to do, while receiving feedback from the ears on what is played. That is a lot to co-ordinate at once, and also why sight reading needs to be practised and approached from different angles.
Firstly your eyes scan the page, finding the beginning bar, then your brain registers the notes on the page for the right and left hand, and your brain recalls and remembers what that notes are and where they are on the piano. You also note how loud or soft to sound the note by the dynamic markings, the time or beat/pulse of the music and the key signature. In unison the brain deploys all of these elements of understanding to grapple with the finer details of playing a particular piece.
Yes, your eyes rapidly move and scan the music multiple times a second when you sight read, the more fluent a sight reader the more movements your eyes make per second, taking in more information and processing it quicker.
Secondly your brain tells your fingers what note to press how loud or soft and the duration. Your brain also tells your hand how to hold itself and balance while playing the notes based on the notes that follow and precede. Finally the feedback, you listen to what you are playing, and it should make sense to you based on what the sheet music is telling you.
All of this is just for the first note of sheet music; the very first note! As you play through a piece, your brain builds up a picture of what the piece should sound like, based off all the other music you’ve played or heard before, and what instructions you can recognise on the page.
When you see people sight read fluently, it’s the same as reading fluently. Your brain doesn’t see every letter and then spell the word, it recognises words from just a letter or two and fills in the blanks based on context. The same is for music, fluent sight readers read/remember/improvise patterns they have seen before. They also base it on context like the genre and time period of the piece, or composers’ style.
What can you do if you are finding sight reading a struggle or you wish to improve?
Sight- reading isn’t a stand-alone activity, so if you want to improve, it is a good idea to work on your ear or Aural skills, working on hearing the music in your head (composing, improvising), also working on technical ability like learning new repertoire, memorising scales and arpeggios and common chords to recognise. To improve sight-reading we want activities that allow you to interconnect all the skills you’ve learned in piano so far, and to slowly learn to draw on them together to become a fluent sight-reader.
Train your ear and eyes to recognise common patterns, dynamic markings, key & time signatures, etc.
Listen to music with the sheet music at hand. Videos on YouTube have many classical pieces with the sheet music as the video, other sheet music is free online. Listening with the sheet music helps your ear and eye recognise different sounds and patterns in music, by following along. More advanced students using some music theory can try to map out the skeleton chord structure of the piece.
Top tip: Listen to more classical music and other genres, the more your ear is exposed to the better!
For students that want to improve their sight-reading and learn a song they love, this can be a winning combination. Oftentimes students will come to me with a song they love, that they heard somewhere else, and ask can they include it in our lessons. This is a great opportunity to have students practice sight reading while listening to songs that they are hooked on and eager to learn!
Best of luck in your practising, and feel free to reach out to me through my contact details on the site if you wish to learn more, ask any questions, or if you’re interested in studying music with me at Truly Musical, Arklow, Co. Wicklow.