hi my name is ryan jones. i am 15 years old and i was wondering if u guys can give me some advise on improving my sight reading skills.
i haven`t been playing 4 very long only about 8 months and not even that long because i broke my finger and it took a long while to heal. i started 2 play the piano because whenever i sat down at one i pressed what ever keys that looked and sounded nice and when i was done i had myself a mini crowd asking me 2 play something else and i couldn`t so i decide 2 take piano lessons

That`s quite a talent u have for improvisation, one I wished I had. As answer to your querie, you`ll hate me but there`s only one real solution.... practice. any music. study the music first in your head, reviewing the dynamics, notes, positions, texture, running it through your head, key signature, any extras ie trills, accidentals, key change, and of course rhythm. Do this study in your head for about 2-3min then play it through confidently. if your hesistant or scared of going wrong, it`ll show in your playing. after you played it, get someones opinion on how it sounded, if they`re experienced all the better, but hey if it sounded nice, then your already there.
email if you need more help.

well if u can tell where c is in the right hand (it`s the one on the line in the circle of the treble clef)
and f in the left hand (inbetween the dots of the bass clef)
u shouldn`t need much more help but practise
hope i`ve helped
kelly#

i memorized where A and G was on the base scale and C,G,F on the treb. scale and then you just work around and practice.

well, what helped me was to just get every piece of music you can find, especially music above your level, and just play it. even if you cant play it very good, just get the hard music and play what it looks like to you, and at the end of the piece tell yourself it sounded good and go to the next piece. so in other words, practicing sightreading will help you sightread better.

p.s. it helps if you pick music you like and really want to play. it gives some sort of incentive to get it right, and you have an idea what it sounds like already.

Although I`m only 13, I thinK I can help. The trick to sight reading is just by spotting any patterns, and scales and it`ll be so much easier for you. If you look at some sequences, some notes might be the same group of notes, but maybe starting from a different note. You have to practise too and the most important thing I beleive is counting the rythm in your head. You should also look at these things before you play: Key signature, rythm, the mood of the peice, and the clef.
Hope this helps! Oh and also, my teacher always tells me, that better playing is to CUT YOUR NAILS!! (if that helps)
Good luck!
-Janice

Hi Everybody,
I am glad, I found this topik. I am struggeling with sight reading myself. My problem is nerves.
I am an advanced player. I can play well by memory. My sight reading stinks though.
Couple months ago I started playing at the big church with the Praise Team. The music is fearly simple and I do practice, but I get nervous and I know I play the rong notes. It makes me feel very frustrated.
Please help!!

Hi, I have trouble with sight reading too, but i can play
very well when I have a piece memorizedb

I have one simple solution. Play a new piece of music every single day. If you take lessons, ask your teacher if you can do that. Try difficult ones. I love sightreading. I do it frequently. Oh, and this is a great way to prepare you for any competitions coming up!

Janice is absolutely right, and unusually insightful for a 13-year-old. Sight-reading is a matter of pattern recognition.
Play as much music as possible, and know your scales, arpeggios, broken chord patterns (c-e-g-c e-g-c-e g-c-e-g etc), dominant and diminished 7ths, all chords and inversions, and so on. Most music is made from these building blocks.

Janice and Rachel are right. Split up the piece into chords and be able to see pattern changes. One pretty easy (its still hard) piece to try it out with is `Solfeggietto` by C.P.E. Bach (Carl Phillip Emanuel). Looks easy, has the same pattern, but different key signatures.

you also have to take a few minutes to look over the piece

There are different ways to practice sight reading. It`s definitely important to practice it. So get like Mozart music or something like that and just go through the book and try to read through stuff. Also, when I was at music camp the teacher Gave us like the first few notes in a measure of the left hand part and whited out the rest of the left hand part. We had to figure out what went next. This helps you figure out the patterns in the music, esp. Mozart and the like, and you start to be able to sight read better because you don`t have to read every single little note. Hope this helped?

i`ve learned to make sure and look at everything when i`m sightreading.
i`ve done it three times for contest so i`m not exactly unexperienced. always know what key you`re in and know if you have any flats or sharps and what notes they`re on. scan the music for accidentals and crescendos and decrescendos. watch the markings as far as p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff. also watch for sfp`s where you would attack the note then back off really fast and gradually increase in volume. know the time signature. make sure you have the right part too. watch for rests and be careful when you have half notes and whole notes b/c you might have a tendency to cut them short. also look at all the notes so you have an idea of what you`ll be playing. hope this helps.
stacey

I`m not good at sight reading either, but sometimes you can`t help it. while i`m here, u want some sexy fun