Teaching Sight-Reading Musicians without sight-reading skills are hampered in all they do. Approaching every new work is a hassle. Picking up a piece of pop music is a chore and learning it is equivalent to learning a piece of the standard repertoire. It's no fun to "go shopping" for new pieces. Many entertaining options are not easily accessible: accompanying, playing duets and ensembles, playing "requests" for family members and friends. All students need to learn to sight-read. Sight-reading, also called sight-playing, is a learned skill, although many professional musicians don't remember how they learned to do it. Most of us don't even remember when we couldn't! Let's please be more methodical with our students! I start my teen and adult beginners in a sight-reading program after about 9 months to a year. With children, I wait at least a year or until they are well-established in reading in C position (which for my students, comes after being well-established in middle C position). My transfer students wait until I am assured any remediation in counting and note-reading is well under way. First, the student must understand--or at least have an explanation!--of why sight-reading is important. Probably he'll remember a particular song that was really tough to read when he first started it: he had to count up and down on the staff and use mnemonics to figure out the notes. (Let's hope he didn't write in letter names!) As he discovers it's easier to begin a new piece, he'll gain appreciation for the importance of good sight-reading. Second, select material that is at least one level below the student's present ability. Two levels is probably better. You want to cut back the difficulty of other aspects of music when you are teaching a specific skill, as I advised for using the metronome or teaching eighth-notes. Third, lay out the three basic rules of sight-reading and write them in the margin of the first song: Examine the piece first for patterns (measures repeated, lines repeated) and traps (key signature, accidentals, unusual counting patterns, accents, dynamics, fingering). You're allowed to study the piece as long as you like before you play. Play SLOOOOOOOOOOOWLY. Do not play at performance speed. You are not performing; you are sight-reading. Play as slowly as you need to to incorporate *every* detail printed on the page. Your goal is accuracy, never speed. You have only *one chance* to get it right. (That's right! The piece may be played only once!) Read ahead like crazy. Don't be caught by surprise. Your eyes and brain should be on the next note as the current note is being sustained. You can't read ahead if you are playing fast. You may have to devote 15 minutes to introducing sight-reading. Don't worry; it's time well-spent. Fourth, make sight-reading a part of the assignment. Don't just do it at the lesson. Assign it as part of the daily regimen. And check it at the lesson. Start at various places (not just the beginning--and especially at difficult spots) and hear a little bit of each piece. Beginners often cannot traverse one page daily, so I often begin with one page played once only on two consecutive days. Then move to one page a day, then one piece a day (if time permits--more than two pages a day is a bad idea). I start with Allan Small's "Very First Piano Solo Album" (Alfred) as a sight-reading book. There are two more in this "series" ("Teacher's Choice" and "Student's Choice"). More advanced players will gain much by using a hymnal (4-part writing) as sight-reading material. (If one hymn a day is too much, start with one line, then two.) The easier Haydn sonatas and Scott Joplin rags are also excellent sight-reading material, as are "vocal scores" from Broadway musicals. Find material that suits your student's taste. Your student will never regret the time spent learning to sight-read. And having students who sight-read well will pay off for you, the teacher, too. Sight-Reading Techniques Sight Reading Myths Sight Reading Tips