Sight Reading Solutions for Pianists

     After sharing my blog Perfectionism: Our Worst Enemy in Sight Reading with my friend Jesse, he responded that it triggered memories of band from his middle and high school years. Although he is not a pianist, many of the concerns he mentioned are relatable for all musicians who sight read music.    From Jesse:  "Whenever we would prepare for region my biggest fear was sight reading. It would look strange because sometimes it felt like when I would look at the music I couldn't read it, but when I was told to start I would automatically play as if I was on autopilot or something. I was so nervous and I made a few mistakes, but I kept going until the end. In our bass clarinet section there were 5 of us. There were 2 of us in Honors Wind, 2 with Symphonic and 1 in Concert band. We had to audition each year to be sorted into our respective band/director. We were given 2 selections to practice at the beginning of marching band. We had to practice on...

                  Of all the instruments, the piano probably has the greatest amount of printed music available. The sheer number of piano methods, supplementary materials, solo sheets, popular music, and piano literature is staggering and overwhelming to anyone who attempts to explore the piano repertoire. The main difficulty is finding music that is appropriate for your current sight-reading ability. Many pianists recommend playing through hymnals or Bach Chorales to improve sight-reading skills. These scores, however, may not be the best starting place for everyone, especially in the early levels of study. So the question remains, just where to begin and what to sight-read. And how do you go about finding material for sight-reading on your own without relying so much on the recommendations of other pianists or piano teachers?             ...

     Have you ever started sight-reading a new piece of music and become flustered when you made a mistake? I sure have. After my initial piano lesson over 30 years ago, I remember my mom explaining to my piano teacher that when I made a mistake, I would start over at the beginning of the piece until I got it right. Nearly two decades later, I had another teacher who noted that I made a facial grimace every time I made a mistake. While aiming for accurate pitch is a worthwhile endeavor, placing unreasonable expectations for perfection at first sight is self-destructive and interferes with the musical flow needed for successful sight-reading.      Many factors cause pianists to fall in the trap of perfectionism. For starters, today nearly everyone is familiar with listening to many recordings where note errors are virtually non-existent. If these recordings are our primary exposure to music, it becomes very easy to develop a perception where ev...

      Before getting into all of the nitty gritty details involved in piano sight-reading, it is important to first acknowledge the importance of the underlying factor of mental attitude. Many people give up on piano sight-reading because they are so overwhelmed with its difficulty that they develop the belief that they are simply not talented enough to do it or even worse that they think they will never be able to do it no matter how hard they try. Underneath these attitudes is an unconscious feeling of defeatism which undermines any further progress and growth in sight-reading. If these thoughts sound familiar, please note you are not alone; I once held all of these beliefs myself. I call them "beliefs" because they are simply emotional blocks and false perceptions that have no objective basis in reality.      The first time I questioned my attitude towards sight-reading and piano in general was when I checked out a library book titled Talent is...