Mental Attitude: The Most Important Solution of Piano Sight Reading

     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 Overrated by Geoffrey Calvin.  This book dismisses the popular notion of talent in favor of deliberate practice and expands on the 10,000 hour rule popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Many people oversimplify the 10,000 hour rule by thinking it just takes 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. Yet even more important is the quality of focused sequential practice with the end goal of making improvements otherwise known as "deliberate practice." But did you know that some of the original research involving 10,000 hours involved pianists and sight-reading? Yes you read that right! Pianist and sight reading expert Victoria McArthur of the Florida State University collaborated on academic papers with her colleague Anders Ericsson, the eminent psychologist who formulated theories of skill acquisition through deliberate practice. 

    So you are probably asking just what all of this research has to do with mental attitude? In a nutshell, everything! If becoming an expert in any field boils down to deliberate practice, then sight-reading is no exception. The true mental attitude regarding sight-reading is that yes you too can do it through deliberate practice. And just how do you deliberately practice sight-reading? While several approaches may work, the most efficient way would be through a sequential well organized method that covers everything you need to know to develop your skills step by step. That is where my upcoming books come into play. My first book consists of two note patterns simple enough for anyone to begin. The vast quantity of patterns in this book covers the entire range of the keyboard and helps you internalize the patterns so you will have the fast recognition needed to sight-read successfully.

Stay tuned for more,

Robert