Sight-Reading is one of those skills that you will develop over time as a pianist, and the longer you have played the better you will become at it. It requires discipline to improve your sight-reading, and you need to dedicate at least one practice session a week to doing this to develop your skills. In the long-term it will bring you lots of benefits, and could even open up job opportunities such as accompanying singers or Ballet classes. If you can pick up a piece of music and just play it, then it's an indispensable skill that will reward you in the long-term.
Below are ten useful tips on sight-reading: -
Get yourself a basic sight-reading book. The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music do them and have different abilities, ranging from Grade one which would be a beginner up to grade 8 which would be for the more advanced player.If you don't want to use a sight-reading book, then pick out some songs from song books you have that you haven't already learnt and ones that you are not familiar with.Set yourself a realistic time limit for each piece. If you are choosing songs from normal books, then just do a small section of the song. A suggestion would be half a page.If new to sight-reading, or if you want to improve, then A suggestion would be 2 minutes to look through your piece of music, try bits out and look for patterns e.t.c.When playing a sight-reading piece look out for the following:The Time Signature the piece of music is in, scroll your eyes through it and check for any changes in the rhythm.The Key Signature - Make sure you are familiar with this and how many Sharps or Flats are in the piece of music, look out for natural signs, as these can often be sneaked into songs and catch people out!Look for any reoccurring patterns, most songs are repetitive, so look out for these, play through a couple of these and get use to it.Look at the tempo the music suggests, if it's a fast song, then it's better to do it slowly and accurate than fast and make mistakes.Look at the start and ending of the song, or section you are sight-reading up too, and familiarise yourself with this, you will probably find they are very similar with the start and end on similar notes or chords.There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.
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