Position:Home>Performing Arts> How to sight read.?

Sight Reading - There are several ways to improve sight reading!.!.!. the first is quite simple!.!.!. Read music!. Never look down at the keys!. You have to get use to reading music and moving your hands and fingers accordingly!. You can't sight read if you can't read music!. But you're thinking "I can read music"!.!.!.!. truthfully, you can't!.!.!. Let me explain!. You can read music as in read the notes, rhythms, dynamics!. Sure, but when you read it is either hands separate or slow!. Once you learn the music and begin to memorize people tend to look at their fingers!. A way to test memory!. When you have the music in front of you, you are not truly reading, you are looking at it while your fingers move due to muscle memory!.

Reading music means actively telling yourself what to do!. Commanding the fingers!. Try it, put something in front of you and verbally tell yourself what to do!. You will find it not so easy!. Always be conscious about your practice!. Constantly tell yourself notes, patterns, if you see scales, fingerings, countings!.!.!. etc!.

Second - read piano four hands or two piano four hands music with someone who is better than you!. This way you will be forced to keep up with the other person!. In sight reading we tend to go slowly and slow down when things get hard!. Well when you read with someone who is better than you, you will be force do read faster and react quickly to what is going on!. You can't stop!.!.!. if you make a mistake, you have to learn to jump or if things get tricky, learn to reduce, leave out a hand until you can get it back in or play chords!.

Third - recognize patterns!. If you see a scale in sight reading, quickly glance the rhythm, starting/ending notes, any accidentals!. If it is a C scale, then you know the fingering, just keep the rhythm and then focus on the other hand!. Do this will all patterns you see

Four - Use your ear!. Most of the time you can predict where the melody is going!. Trust your ear!. Music is about listening!. Try to be proactive by listening for resolutions and predicting where the music will end up!.

Five - Reduce - drop notes, drop a hand if you have to!. It is more important to keep going than to stop and correct mistakes! You are sight reading!. The goal is to always move forward!. Leave out challenging parts if you have to and play the other hand!. For example: You may see an alberti bass using tonic and dominant triad while the R!.H!. is doing some crazy runs!. Focus on the R!.H!. runs by playing a solid tonic and dominant triad!. You still keep the harmonic inflections, so you lose the pattern in the left, but at least you can keep going without stopping!.

Again - practice reading! That is the most important thing!. If the music is in front of you, don't look down!. When you look down it takes time to look up, find the music and then look down to find the notes!. Keeping your eyes on the music will also train your hands to learn the keyboard geography!. And tell yourself what you are playing!. Always be conscious and direct your hands to where they have to go!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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You definitely will need a book with notes!. I teach piano and we use Alfred's Piano Adult - about $12 but teaches you all the basic notes and technique and you won't need a teacher!. Do invest then wasting all this time not knowing what notes you're playing!. With piano you really need to know what notes, although the fact that you know rhythms is great!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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You need to take some music lessons WITH A TEACHER!.!.!. because you are, first of all, going to have to LEARN HOW TO READ MUSIC!.!.!. I don't think you even know what the notes are when you see them!.!.!. so how could you possible think you can sight read them!.!.!. something that takes a lot of practice!.

GET A TEACHERWww@QuestionHome@Com

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