The more sight reading you do the better you become at it. The struggle is part of the process. Don’t worry if you sound terrible. Remember that expression, dynamics, and timing are more important than getting all the notes right.
Begin sight reading with a piece that you think is too easy for you. If you’ve never sight read before, you will find that it is more difficult than it looks! It should be a piece that you’ve never seen before, perhaps one that you found in a collection or compilation book. There are three things to remember when sight reading:
- Look at the key and time signature. How fast is the piece? What is its scale? Is it in major or minor? This is why you should work on chord studies and scales.
- Keep your eyes on the music. This allows you to look ahead and not to “get lost” by looking down at your hands and piano, then looking up at the music.
- Count aloud. Keep good time. If the music is too busy, you may just have to play the downbeats.
Other than practicing your sight reading everyday, you can do other things to make it better, the extra mile to give your sight reading a boost:
- Play with other musicians, singers, percussionists, etc. This forces you to keep your eyes and hands going. Get together with a sibling or neighbor to work on your sight reading together.
- Practice everyday with unfamiliar material. If you practice sight reading everyday with the same material, you are not sight reading but learning to play a new piece!
- Begin at an elementary level and grow over time. The material should be a grade or two easier than your current level.
After two weeks of this practice, you will begin seeing results in your sight reading. Remember that the struggle is part of the process. If you are your worst critic, your music sounds great to everyone else!
