I am not musical at all, but would like to help my daughter.

My oldest daughter (now 20 years old, and a college student) has played piano since she was a little girl. She took lessons for about 10 years, from around the time she was 6 to 16, and was always her teacher’s star pupil. So its been 4 years or so since she had any lessons. Anyway, she is not pursuing piano or music as a career or a college major, but she would like to get back into it. (And who knows – maybe she would actually do something more with it.) She took a music theory class at college recently, even though she is not in the school of music and not a music major. And while she did well, she realized that she is just not strong at all at sight reading. She does have perfect pitch – and can hear and play immediately. (It isn’t just me saying she has perfect pitch. Her teacher always said it and in her recent university class, the professor of music also confirmed this was the case.) It is a gift she has just always had and she doesn’t really believe you if you explain how unusual it is – she assumes everyone can do this. Its natural to her. But, in her case, the gift let her progress past her teacher realizing that her sight reading skills were not good. She was really just playing by ear – not reading the music. If the teacher played the song once, she could play it. She had totally fooled him. (Yes, maybe he wasn’t as good a teacher as I thought. I’m just not equipped to assess it.) If she knows how a piece should sound, she can play beautifully. If you hand her a piece of music she is not familiar with, she will struggle. She can read music of course, but just is not a strong sight reader.

What would you suggest ? Private lessons ? A computer application hooked up to a digital piano ? (If so, any specific software recommendations ? She does have a digital piano with MIDI already.) If lessons, any suggestions as to how to pick an instructor, how to describe the situation, etc ?

Thank you.

yep, im exactly the same. i cant improve my sight reading and ive been playing 4 3 and a half years. its really annoying

I think just practicing her sight-reading might help. Get her (or encourage her to get) a bunch of music she's never seen before, ranging from moderately easy to super-hard (or whatever difficulty you think is appropriate). She should look through the music, notice hard parts, maybe clap the harder rhythms... Maybe just sing it in her head. If she can play it after hearing it, she should try to hear it in her head once or twice. As she goes through the music, from the easy stuff to the really challenging stuff, she'll probably learn techniques that will allow her to know what's supposed to be going on in the music without having to have someone else play it first.

Is not a serious case though. Try with beginner books with easy notes. Let her read thru for about a minute and ask her to play on the spot. After she has mastered it, move to the next level.