Sight Reading – What Exactly Am I Trying To Do? (Part 2 of 2)
Practice sight-reading daily, make a checklist!
In part one of this blog, I discussed some of the linkups between the reading of the notes, and the feedback our brain gets from our actual playing. Plus we teased out some high-level reasons and ways to improve your sight reading. But now let’s get down to practical things we can do.
Top tip: Play a piece of music, that you’ve never seen, every day, and use a sight-reading practice checklist before you play. What is a sight reading practice checklist you ask? Well, see below.
Sight reading checklist: Before you play
Prepare as much of the music as you can before you play be aware of clefs, key signatures and time signatures
Tease out any tricky rhythms or spots and look out for repeated patterns
Always use a silent count in bar, and judge the tempo at which the whole piece is playable
Look out for recurring melodic features – scales, arpeggios, sequences, imitation and repetition
Play the whole piece silently on the piano placing fingers on keys but not sounding them
Aim to play as musically as you can, observing the character of the piece. Be aware of dynamics and phrasing
Keep your eyes on the music and moving forward in a steady flow, never look back and correct errors once played. If you have an issue with something in the piece after sight reading you can practise the skill in a separate exercise. This keeps sight reading moving forward and progressing.
Improve memory and recall, refine your ear, improve technical skills, problem solving
Improvise on the piano – don’t be scared, you don’t have to create a masterpiece, just play on the piano, hands separate or hands together, use a blues piano pattern in the left hand and play over it, or play one note at a time, it really doesn’t matter. The important thing is to start it and to keep trying, as you will improve, and your brain will remember patterns and tunes that you played many times before and it will get easier to improvise melodically.
This is the goal, to inter-connect all the different skills you learn on the piano in your mind and not compartmentalise them.
What you’ve learnt, seen before and exposed your ear to is all in your memory somewhere, and we are putting it into practice when improvising and composing. These activities help to make those interconnections between skills and deepen your understanding of music. Sight reading will improve your ear, by linking it to what you can see on the page, what you hear in your head and, most importantly, what you can play, improvise or compose. All of these aspects will link together with practice generally, and your overall musicianship will improve.
Composing is also excellent for improving musicianship. Through repeatedly working on writing music, you can start to hear what the music will sound like accurately in your head and be able to notate it. There are many free versions of notation software, that you can use to compose as well as pencil and paper.
Sight reading isn’t just for an exam, or only an activity done in a lesson
You can practice sight reading from books provided by the exam boards to prepare for exams, but is it enough? Sight reading comes easier to some than to others, but I would always encourage all students of all levels to sight read a new piece of music every day as well as using the suggestions above. If anything, your goal for an exam is that you are above the graded level, so the exam task is less stressful and easier for you to score high marks in.
Another idea is to use the sight-reading tutor/exercise books at least 2 grades below current level, and work through them, back up to the current level. This allows you to pick up skills you may have not absorbed the first time round and could solve any problems you’re having at your current level.
There are many free websites like www.tonedear.com that provide excellent games for ear training, these sites also keep score so it can be very addictive! I hope this has been helpful to explain to anyone who is struggling with sight reading, the answer is never clear cut, but a multipronged approach will benefit all, and be sure to highlight areas that need help.
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.