“Sight reading is terrifying.” At least, this is the phrase I hear from 99% of my students in the early stages of our lessons. Anyone who has completed graded exams as a child will remember the genuine, tangible fear of hearing the examiner say, “let’s begin the sight-reading portion of the exam.” Your palms sweat, your vision blurs, and you question ever being able to read music in the first place. You play through something that may as well be a Rachmaninoff Concerto, as you plod through the notes one by one, forgetting any sense of musicality. You hit the final note with an embarrassed yet relieved look on your face as it’s finally over.
Bit of a somber introduction, I know. However, these are the memories most have with sight reading, and after completing grades, vow to never engage in the torture again. I’m not part of this cohort; I genuinely enjoy sight reading and see it as key to my growth as a musician. I’ve been sight reading (mostly) daily for the past 15 years and it’s become a cathartic part of my routine. I want all of my students, and you reading this, to do the same. I want sight reading to become both a beneficial and pleasurable part of your musical life. Like with most things, the pleasure tends to hold off until a certain level of ability is reached. But fear not, the road leading to this as shorter than you think.
Why should you sight read?
Every teacher under the sun forces sight reading on their fearful students, but few explain why? Let’s summarise my two favourite benefits:
- You become better at reading music. Sounds obvious, I know. Have you ever noticed when you learn a new piece of music, there comes a point where you simply stop needing to look at the page? The more times you play a piece, the better your brain and hands remember it. You start to feel the notes as shapes in your hands, rather than seeing them as individuals on a stave. It’s similar to reading a script of a play. The first time, you have to read every word excruciatingly carefully. But over time, you begin to memorise words, sentences, paragraphs, and eventually, the whole thing. You can then have the confidence of going on stage with nothing but yourself and the character you’re portraying. I’ll never understand how actors do this. My point is, to improve your ability to read music, you have to read music. You must expose yourself to new material regularly, as once you’re past the point needing to look at a piece of music, you’re no longer improving your reading. Our primary focus as performers is to expand our repertoire, but regularly exposing yourself to new musical material will be the number one driving factor that improves your reading. Don’t sight-read to become ‘better at sight-reading’; do it to become better at reading music.
- You become more comfortable with your instrument. When you sight-read, you must look at the sheet in front of you. Your hands may be in your peripheral vision, but you certainly don’t have the luxury of watching each finger, ensuring correct placement and technique. You often see virtuosic instrumentalists play with their eyes closed; this isn’t just a neat party trick. The musician is so comfortable with their instrument that it becomes part of them. There is no fear of hitting the right note or finding the right position. The movements are unconscious and natural. Whilst I’m not suggesting you ever need to play with closed eyes, sight-reading always forces your line of sight away from your hands, increasing comfort and familiarity with your instrument.
How do you sight read?
The three questions to ask, and hopefully answer, are:
- How often should you sight read?
- What should you sight read?
- How should you sight read?
My opinion on these three questions has formed over years of trial and error in both my personal practice as a pianist and my experience teaching students of all ages and abilities. There are nuances to everything and you should always experiment to find what benefits you the most. However, I can confidently say that the following concepts are both fundamental and crucial to your reading ability and improvement.
How often you should sight read is quite simple and non-negotiable: every day. You should sight read every day. No matter your ability or experience, consistent sight reading, for 5 to 10 minutes per day is key. Notice I don’t suggest that more experience requires more time. Practice time in general should grow as you develop as a musician. For pre-grade students, I recommend 10 minutes per day. For grade 5 students, 25 minutes. The vast majority of this will be spent on mastering repertoire and performing exercises (scales, arpeggios etc.). However, each student must set aside 5-10 minutes for sight reading. I recommend placing it in the middle of your practice time. Allow yourself a 5 minute break from playing your repertoire (which after 30 minutes of agonising over one bar may be needed) and focus your mind on something else.
My opinion on what you should sight read is any piece that 1. you enjoy and 2. is 80% ‘easy’ to read. Don’t play music you don’t enjoy; life is too short for that. My main qualm with any graded syllabus’ sight reading book is, with no offence intended, the pieces are dire. They are specifically written for the standard of the grade, which is needed, but often lack any musical interest. Even with the most will in the world, you will not develop a daily sight reading routine if you are constantly playing these pieces. As a child, I would go to the music shop with my dad most weekends, each time to buy a new book that featured music interesting to me. A few I can remember: ’50 easy pop songs’, ‘Best Of Ludovico Einaudi’, Ed Sheeran’s Divide, ’50 Disney Songs’, ‘100 Greatest Piano Solos’, and the score to Les Misérables. Every day I would sit down with eager excitement to play new material. Whilst reading any music is beneficial, to create a sustainable and enjoyable daily routine you should read music that is generally simple to read. My rule is for a sight reading piece is: it should feel 80% easy. You should be able to get through most of it without too many stumbles.
And finally, you need to understand that sight reading is an exercise of reading music in real time, not an exercise of ‘trying to learn a new song’. With this in mind, here’s a step-by-step guide that you can implement into your routine:
- Find a piece of music that looks ‘80% easy to read’.
- Spend 1 minute looking at the piece’s key aspects, e.g., key, time signature, tempo and performance directions. If there’s time, try to spot any sections that fall into the ‘20% hard to read’ category, e.g., accidentals, unusual chords, or syncopated rhythms.
- Play the piece, from start to finish, as confidently as you can. You are likely to make mistakes. Ignore them and keep playing!
- Once finished, spend 2-3 minutes going over any section that felt tricky.
- Play the piece, from start to finish, as confidently as you can. You are still likely to make mistakes. Ignore them and keep playing!
This is a 5-10 minute routine that you can easily fit into your practice schedule. Make to sure to gradually increase the complexity of the pieces as your sight reading improves. I guarantee that after two months of daily practice you will see an immense difference in your ability.
A few final tips:
- After sight reading a piece that you particularly enjoy, feel free to ‘learn it’ and add it to your repetoire.
- Finding pieces that are ‘80% easy to read’ can feel humbling. Don’t panic, you will improve quicker than you think. It’s so important to not read pieces that are too challenging. After completing step 5, if you played 80% of the piece correctly, it is of the correct difficulty.
- If you sight read a piece that you particularly enjoy, try to find other pieces by the same composer or in a similar style that you can read next time.
Music Omnibus 