Improve Your Sight Reading Dramatically by Looking For These 5 Things

 Today we continue our work on sight reading by looking at the main 5 things you need to look for anytime you sit down to sight read a piece.
 
Previously we discussed the importance of learning to sight read, how to incorporate that work into your practicing and what you need to do to take your sight reading skills to the next level. At this point, you are hopefully:
 

• Sight reading every day
• Starting with music that is easy for you and not too hard
• Focusing on one thing at a time to read in your music while playing through for the first time
• Playing slowly
• Challenging yourself with harder music as you progress and even music from other genres

So…how is it going? Do you feel that you’ve accomplished some or the entire above list after working on sight reading for a few weeks? You’ve probably accomplished more than you think that you have! However, there may be some areas that you are having more difficulty with than others…which is completely normal and to be expected.

Even if you aren’t having challenges with your sight reading (maybe try a harder piece if you are finding it to be really easy), there are five specific things to look for in any piece that will help to keep your focus where it needs to be and really fertilize your growing skills.

Here are the 5 things that you need to look for in any piece that you want to sight read – before you start playing through the piece.

1. Key Signature – this is so important because it will tell you what notes are sharp or flat. If you don’t know that you’re supposed to play G # instead of a G natural, the music is going to sound off and it will make you stumble in your playing. Know before you start what notes to play so you can make fewer mistakes during your read through. It can often help to play through the scale that matches the key signature of your piece.
2. Time Signature – this is also important because the time signature tells you how long to play all of the notes that you have already looked over. It tells us how many beats are in each measure and what kind of note is getting the beat. We have to understand rhythmic values of notes, such as half notes and quarter notes so we can fit the right number of beats into each measure.
3. Accidentals are often a part of music and they are just as important as the key signature in terms of playing the correct notes from the beginning. An accidental is simply a sharp, natural, or flat sign in front of a note, indicating that it is to be played differently than the key signature originally called for. They are easy to see, but it really helps to look through the entire piece just to see if you have any accidentals and where they are.
4. Dynamics play a vital role in the musicality and expression of a piece. They tell us when to play loud or soft and how loud or soft we are to play that passage. Read through your piece visually to look for what dynamic markings are listed and where they are. This will actually help give you a “feel” for the piece and including those will help with rhythmic accuracy a lot of times.
5. Articulations are different symbols in music right over the notes they are applied to that give emphasis or connectivity to and between specific notes. Accents, slurs, dots, dashes…these are all articulations that require the note or notes to be played in a specific way. Articulations often enhance the musicality of the piece and coordinate with dynamics to create the expression and feelings conveyed in the music.

Each of these 5 things that you need to “read” before sight reading a piece are included in the following video with many examples at the piano keyboard.

​It may help to cover 1 item at a time sitting at your keyboard to help you really master each concept. Soon this will be a habit anytime you sit down to sight read and you really will see an improvement with those challenges that you may have been having beforehand. 

If you like my tips and lessons, you will love the courses over on my website. Whether you are a beginner looking to get a solid foundation to build on or you are looking to take you existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.