Smash your Sight Reading! A step-by-step guide on how to improve your piano sight reading skills.

Written By Bea Kampta

Sight reading is a crucial skill in music education—it's the ability to play a piece of music you've never seen before, without prior preparation. It strengthens a musician's understanding of rhythm, pitch, and musical structure, and it fosters confidence and independence. For young musicians, developing strong sight-reading skills can unlock the ability to enjoy and perform a wider range of music, whether they're playing solo, with a group, or exploring new genres.

In order to feel confident at sight reading, it is crucial to analyse and observe some important elements. This will allow you to foresee what the piece is about and prepare you for anything that may seem random or unpredictable.

Here are a few tips on what to DO before you even begin to sight read.

1. Work out the key signature and scale the piece is in

The number one thing I encourage our students to identify and analyse is the scale or key the piece is written in. We do that by looking at the key signature of the piece first - i.e. how many sharps or flats the piece contains (if any). To revise all the steps of how to identify scales and key signatures, please visit our blog on this topic here:

https://www.ashbeamusic.com/blog/become-the-best-key-signature-identifier

https://www.ashbeamusic.com/blog/memorise-your-minor-scales-and-key-signatures

Knowing what scale is being used in our pieces is a key component to understanding the building blocks of a particular piece of music. By doing this first, we will identify the patterns of notes we will encounter during our sight reading and predict how the melody and chords will be moving. That is such a powerful skill to have. 

2. Watch out for accidentals

Spotting your accidentals can prepare you for what may seem random and a stumbling block whilst sight reading.

So what are accidentals?

They are all the sharps, flats and natural notes that are not part of the key signature that the piece is written in. This could be because the composer decided to temporarily use a different type of scale (for emotional effect) and needs to make you aware of it by adding sharps, flats and natural signs to additional notes.

It is highly recommended to scan through the piece first, and observe what type of accidentals you will come across to avoid or prepare for potential stumbling blocks during sight reading.

3. Recurring rhythmic patterns

Rhythm can be one of the most difficult components to sight read accurately. Most students tend to read the notes fairly accurately during sight reading. However, when it comes to rhythm, the majority of students play most notes without obeying the time values of the notes. So most notes will sound as crotchets or minims as their brain is preoccupied with identifying the letter names (or pitches) of the notes.

Try to spot as many repeated rhythmic patterns as you can, and try to hear the sound of the rhythm in your head. This way, you will be immediately able to play the parts where the repeated rhythms occur, without having to stop and think.

4. The clefs and octave positions in both hands

One of the most common mistakes we see during our online piano lessons, is that our students tend to get confused about their starting position and where to place their hands when they begin to sight read. They often start in the wrong octave, which puts them in a position where they misread an entire section of their sight reading piece.

This can be avoided quite easily! Simply recall the position of middle C in any clef: treble and bass clef if sight reading a piano piece or alto and tenor clef if playing a viola or tenor trombone piece or even when doing music theory. That way you will always be sure how far a specific note is from your middle C!

I often use this tip during our online music theory classes, as most students forget to recall this crucial step when they work on transposition questions.

5. Use the provided fingerings

Many students ignore fingerings during sight reading. They are a helpful aid to ensure that transitions are smooth from note to note or section to section. Using the suggested fingerings removes an extra layer of confusion. It can be very demanding or even impossible to think of the best finger patterns whilst sight reading. So stick to the recommended fingering!

6. Simple repeats in music 𝄆 𝄇

Watch out for general repeats, if any appear along the way. Take a mental note of where you will need to repeat from and where the piece will truly end. Try to play all the repeats! That way you are not only getting to know your repeat signs better but you are also forcing yourself to sight read for a little longer, which is always a good thing.

Have fun mastering sight reading!

Love ❤️ 🎵 Ashbea Music 🎵

Bea Kampta
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