THE BULLETPROOF SIGHT-READING GUIDE
This guide is created for intermediate through advanced pianists who have some sort of experience reading sheet music—even if you suck at it. If you’re a total beginner, keep this guide for later, but start with the beginner’s video HERE. I’m a fan of setting a solid foundation of music before jumping into learning new things.
Now, I’m going to put you through a step-by-step process for how you can bulletproof your sight reading skills.
1. IGNITE. I work with passion, not force or even theory. Essentially, every endeavor is useless if you don’t have the heart and desire to really go for it. We need to fill your tank and fuel the fire. So the first thing I want you to do is to find some sheet music that you’d like to play—it can be any sheet music at any level. You can either find sheet music you have lying around somewhere in your home or check out SheetMusicPlus, MusicNotes, or SheetMusicDirect for free one-page previews of popular songs and pieces.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
Don’t be lazy. I know it’s easy to rush to exactly what you came to find, but trust me when I say that everything is connected—especially this. It is extremely important for you to have somewhat of an idea of what you’d like to play someday. Having a tangible piece of music in front of you keeps you motivated, with your eyes on the goal. Imagining the sheet music you want to play is not enough. I want it to be right in front of you, for you to touch it, or at least look at it on the screen.
Then, go to YouTube and find a good, solo piano video of somebody playing that piece or song. It doesn’t have to be the same version you have the sheet music for. Watch the video, really listen and actually feel the emotion the player is releasing. Imagine yourself on that piano bench, playing that exact piece, just like the pianist in the video.
Get excited that that can and WILL be you someday if you stick to your piano training and practice my suggestions regularly. So say it out loud: “I am going to play this piece as soon as I can.”
For example, if I want to play Passenger’s Let Her Go, I’d go grab the sheets for it lying around somewhere near my piano, and look up “Passenger Let Her Go piano”. I might shuffle through a couple videos to make sure I have a good, solo piano version of the song, and just sit and watch it with no distractions. My personal favorite is this arrangement: Passenger - Let Her Go on Solo Piano.
Now that we have you ignited, we can start the actual sight-reading boost.
1 2. REVIEW RHYTHM. It will help to go over any old books you have in theory, rhythm and even old method books. Below is a link to a file I’ve compiled from the many amazing rhythm exercises from www.SamuelStokesMusic.com. Go through the various pages and tap or clap these rhythms. It will help to count out loud. Remember to take the time signature into consideration when counting and clapping. Check out the counting guide below for help with the most common time signatures.
Try these with the metronome about 80% of the time and without the metronome the other 20%. Tap at various speeds, ranging from very slow to very fast.
CLICK HERE FOR THE RHYTHM EXERCISES
Start with the basic level. Then, do the basic-intermediate, intermediate, intermediate-advanced, and eventually, the advanced.
Quick Counting Guide:
4 FOUR 3 THREE 4 QUARTER 8 EIGHTH notes per measure* notes per measure*
3 THREE 6 SIX 4 QUARTER 8 EIGHTH notes per measure* notes per measure*
2 TWO 9 NINE 4 QUARTER 8 EIGHTH notes per measure* notes per measure*
*Note that the notes per measure can be either exact (four quarter notes per measure) or the equivalent of (four quarter notes per measure). Translation: four quarter notes per measure, or eight eighth notes per measure, or two quarter notes and one half note per measure, or one whole note per measure, or any variation of this, as long as it is the equivalent of four quarter notes per measure. You may use the following charts for help.
2 NOTES
RESTS
(http://mtgmmusic.org/rhythm-pyramids.php)
3 3. PRACTICE correctly. This is probably the most important thing here. When … you practice sight-reading, you MUST be consistent to apply the basic principles over and over. This means:
SIGHT-READING PRACTICE.
Click HERE to enlarge.
Begin with easy music—even if you think you can read it well. Slowly... I repeat … S-L-O-W-L-Y increase the difficulty of the pieces you read. Method books are great for this. DO NOT read any piece more than twice. You should get through these pretty quickly if they’re at your ideal sight-reading level. If you’re spending too much time on them, find easier music to begin with. Notice any mistakes that happen and whether you push through them and continue to read ahead anyway. If you stop, make a note to go slower to give yourself time to process everything going on on the sheet.
4 Go through the books and alternate between these techniques:
- Go at your own speed and choose a SLOW speed. Check the smallest note value in the piece and decide your speed based off of that.
- If you’re already familiar with phrasing, try phrasing.
- Use the metronome at a slow speed. (Note: you cannot phrase while using the metronome)
- Use the metronome at a speed slightly faster than you’re comfortable with. To practice going through mistakes, you have to make mistakes. So it is good to speed up sometimes to practice the act of going through mistakes. Be careful not to speed up too much as that will cause you to make too many mistakes.
TECHNIQUE & THEORY PRACTICE.
I bunch these two together because something like scales involves theory knowledge as well as technical ability to be able to play them.
Do all of these without looking at your hands.
- Practice Hanon in all 12 Major Keys. If you’re unfamiliar with Hanon, get familiar. You can start by using the free printable PDFs available HERE. Don’t be overwhelmed and just start the first 20 exercises in C Major. Once you are able to do those evenly with the metronome (quarter note = 60 bpm, and slowly increase), you can then begin doing them in different keys.
- Practice all major and minor scales in four octaves.
- Practice arpeggios in all major and minor scales in four octaves.
- Practice inversions in all major and minor triads in two octaves.
Play with strong fingers, in forte, piano and everything in between.
Be mindful of fingering and accuracy.
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This will help you:
1. Recognize patterns like scales, arpeggios and inversions in sheet music quicker.
2. Develop the technique necessary to play through such patterns without wasting time looking down at your hands.
3. Look and read ahead faster since you’ll be familiar with more patterns, both with your eyes and finger-memory. (Ditch the measure-by-measure mentality.)
4. Play in any key without the common difficulty most other players have.
4. CREATE A HABIT. Plug in at least 5 minutes a day for the next month in your calendar to work on sight-reading. Seems short, but over time, it will progress your skills much more than not doing anything! For right now, as you build your rhythmic and general musical foundation, I’d say work on reading and rhythm for at least 40% of your practice time, and technical exercises/scales for another 40%. In other words, don’t spend as much time working on your repertoire or learning new pieces until you patch up these cracks in your foundation.
This may take some discipline, but it will be worth it.
So if you practice for an hour a day, use approximately 24 minutes to practice sight-reading and rhythm, and 24 minutes for exercises and scales. If you practice 20 minutes a day, use at least 8 minutes for sight-reading practice and 8 minutes for exercises and scales. You can use the remaining 20% of your practice time to play pieces you’ve already learned.
I strongly suggest you do not learn any new repertoire during this time while you build your foundation. Use the time you’d normally spend on learning new music to work on rhythm, sight-reading, theory and technical development to build your foundation. You will see how having a solid foundation will cause you to learn new music A LOT quicker than you are now and you will thank yourself in just a short time.
Jumpstart your habit of practicing this way and …
PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR RIGHT NOW.
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Make it as important as a doctor’s appointment. All this information is utterly useless if you don’t take action. The best students trust the system, the teacher and take action, and those are the ones who end up even surprising themselves with their progress. I guarantee that you will progress the more you follow my suggestions.
Great job if you’ve come this far. Believe me when I say you’re on the right track if you’re doing these suggestions regularly. Prepare to be pleased with how far you’ll get in just a couple weeks. Also, I want to hear from you! Let me know how you’re doing in your practice and keep me posted on your wins and/or difficulties. If you have any questions, comments, feedback or if something wasn’t 100% clear in this guide, please email me. I am here for you as my success as a teacher quite literally IS your success.
Oh, and remember that video I told you to go find and watch earlier? Go watch it again and be inspired. That will be you one day.
Enjoy the music!
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