I remeber memorizing sheet music because sight reading hurts my brain so much. One day, I took an advice and follow through with it and began sight reading with a metronome at half the tempo of my piece. To my surprise within only a month, I read and played my piece instead of usually memorizing it. It's a step towards sight reading skills and I'm glad to have made progress.

For the record : Oscar Peterson was a Classically trained pianist who performed only classical. Then he went the Jazz route. His sight-Reading was at a professional symphonic musician level.

I can sight-read grade 8 RCM level music. I took piano lessons from 6 to 8 years old and my piano teacher moved. My parents then paid me 10 cents a page. I went from grade 2 to grade 9 pieces by 13 years old and earned a lot of money. 10 cents was reduced to 5 at 11 years old. Now I have over a hundred music books and I can play 1000's of pieces. I can play a popular song, sing the written lyrics and remove the sung melody from the sheet music in real-time. I occasionally play one of my 7 grade 8 books cover to cover or pick out my favorite 10 pieces. I am learning all of Mozart Sonatas, having played them all about 7 times. I do not understand them all yet though and I do not play them fast enough, and never will, grade 8 is my sweet spot. I write this because it cannot be understated the joy I have received from this ability to sight-read. It was the greatest gift my non-musical parents ever gave me, combining a lust for candy with my given ability to enjoy and feel music.

A lot of good tips from a teacher who taught Classical music for many years ! It's not whether reading or playing by ear is the better way but a balance of both. Robert Estrin posted a video talking about his father (Morton Estrin's) students who can play complex Chopin pieces would panic when asked to play a simple piece like "Happy Birthday" out of the blue. People with a good ear can reproduce melodies easily. Add a few chords and you have piano arrangements. The Suzuki approach to learning Book1 by ear is nothing but memorizing and copying phrases from the teacher without actually understanding the pieces. People who are good readers can play an unfamiliar piece on paper the first time. When they hear a piece on radio they still need the score to play it. Learning enough music theory is equally important than reading alone. Some people can be very accurate reading notes. When G-B-E is played together do people just read the notes or do they hear it's an Em chord in whatever inversion? Suppose someone is playing the 1st mvt of the Mozart Sonata in C. In the middle the piece changes Key to F while the Key Signature stays the same. Do people just read the flat added next to a B but unaware the piece has a Key change?

The great improvisers will have a very strong foundation in music theory. Learning to read music and understanding theory are both very different skills that will enrich your playing endlessly. Great video.

You are EXACTLY right! Playing by ear is a blessing..... but at the same time a curse. Playing by ear can be great in the beginning but it will never have all of the details of the original piece NOR will the person ever be able to EXACTLY duplicate a song. There will always be something missing.

For beginners I recommend Progressive Sight Reading Exercises: Piano Technique by Hannah Smith. I have every student of mine buy that book and there is nothing better in terms of quantity/quality/price.

Thank you so much for saying this! There’s so many pianists on KZfaq who are telling their viewers to “not worry about sheet music, just learn from KZfaq” etc… it’s so damaging to people’s ambitions, providing they want to get to a decent level with their learning

As a classical music student for many years, i wish I could learn how to play by ear, I think it’s also very good for musicians to have this ability. I been reading sheet music my whole life, sometimes I kinda feel like I’m being “kidnapped” by the sheet music and I hope I could be free musically one day.

as always great Allysia.This is your fifth year student.now i am in ABRSM grade 5

You are so right. I play for years on hearing, piano and guitar. And finally I decided to learn notation. Thank you for all your videos

I learned to read music and am glad I did. I do want to improve my ear. I am envious of people that can hear a peice and then just play it.

Wow, I'd recently admitted to myself that my progress had stalled because my sight reading was so bad and I didn't know what to do about it. I was feeling kinda frustrated so this video is perfect! Thank you so very much, I needed this!

I love learning how to sight read because it gives me a huge sense of accomplishment reading and playing Bach, Camidge, Clement and even Shostakovich. Not too humble to start at grade 1 and I am getting a real kick out of it. I find when I come back to it I am incrementally better. Also it is better than suduko for getting my brain going. Music is a language after all. Thank you, you are a great teacher. 😊

I'd say always do sight reading first when your brain is the freshest! 5mins, then onto the main practice 👍🏻

Amazing video, thank you 😊

THANK YOU ALLYSIAAAAAAAA. MY QUESTION WAS ANSWERED. I BEEN TRYING TO REACH OUT TO YOU ABOUT THIS. AND YOU ANSWEREDDDDD. Love from ARMENIA. I must go sleep now. BUT BEFORE I SLEEP I MUST GO AND TO A JOURNEY TO FIND MY SHEET MUSIC.

Well said! Couldn't agree more.

I worked through a rhythm program called tap, that improved my ability to quickly read rhythm figures. It also strengthened my sight reading abilities by not having to concentrate on rhythm and note choice at the same time. My rhythm reading got so good I could focus my full attention on note and melody and chord selection.

When I watched this video for the first time I thought you MUST be talking about ME! ...So.... I watched it again, ... and then again! All my particular struggles with sight-reading and finding a way to 'force myself' into a 'programme of learning' were completely exposed! Needless to say, you answered them all! Now I have a route to follow which I intend to take my first steps on .... and... I'll see you in your next lesson series following the one you mention here which I'm already on the way to completing! Thanks so much for everything you do for us struggling wannabe pianists, Allysia! (BTW... grab this course while you can folks... it's real gem!)

Thanks!

Thankfully was taught sightreading when I was a child. I have played piano for decades but being able to read music, I have been able to learn to play other classical instruments. I don't think I could have progressed so quickly if i had to learn notes etc. along with technique.

Really great information. thanks for sharing. Very helpful

Thanks 😊 I really love this

Thank you for the advice..

A very smple recommendation, but something we as beginners don't really put much attention sometimes, thank you so much for this video. you're amazing!

Thanks ~☀️

thank you so much love your channel

Very insightful advice. Thank you

Awesome 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍. Thank you so MUCH,!!!!!!

I really like it. I had exactly the same thoughts going through a few on line courses (recently Pianote).

I started to sightread / practice the Czerny book 2 weeks ago. (I sightread for 10 minutes as much as I get and move to the next one when its fluent. Some exercises are really tricky for me. If they don't work out within the sightreading-timeslot, I practice it the next day after sightreading something new) I'm now around exercise no. 35.. still a long way to go 😅

So I've been learning pieces following the synth on youtube videos and play along to songs using chordify so I don't get bored while learning to play. As for sight reading, I'm learning kid songs and scales to read sheet music. Also Moonlight Sonata is a good and motivating sight reading piece. Reading intervals more than the notes really helps too. Some apps are good to learn and jog the memory of notes. But theres no getting around it, its mostly patience and practice.

I wish I had discovered this channel earlier, I have just signed up with Pianote which I hope will deliver for me as a complete beginner. I’m hugely interested in sight reading, and it was through that, that I found your channel…I will drop in regularly 👍

10 + month as started myself piano learning, so ordered my first book for Sight reading practice...thank you for nice pointing !

Wow, you've convinced me to add this to my daily regimen. I didn't realize how I was missing this component of my practice routine. I usually do a new Alfred piece every week, so I thought that was enough sight reading practice. But it's not, I'm basically just memorizing the piece rote style like you said. I've been playing a year now, and I'm almost done with Alfred book 2, think I'm progressing at a satisfactory pace. But, I am wondering when I should incorporate or switch to playing by ear and/or improvisation. I can't squeeze it into my schedule now (already at an hour a day of practice), and I feel it needs focused attention. Should I wait until I'm done with Alfred book 2, then focus on that for a few months or more? Until I finish book 3 was my original plan, but the books taking longer and longer the further I get, so I think book 3 will take me a full year to do it justice. Side notes, I want to be a well rounded piano player. I don't plan on playing concerts or anything too serious like that. I'm 31 and am taking the long road approach here. But it's my belief that getting a solid base with improv and sight reading would greatly benefit the other aspects of my piano playing, so I don't want to miss out on this. Thanks!

Indeed, being able to read standard music notation is a big plus. You'll discover details that your ear 'over looked'. Doesn't matter if it's classical, jazz, pop, folk, or any other genre. Yeah, once you've practiced a piece a few times, you're just doing things by rote. Try practicing the first Hannon exercise, it's the same thing, repeated over and over,,,until you get to the place where you change from ascending repetition to descending. Guarantee, you'll miss the transition, because you'll lose count and lose the connection between your playing and the music. "This is so easy!" quickly changes to "where am I? Am I up to the turn around yet?" Practicing "Moonlight Sonata" really requires good sight reading skills, especially reading ledger lines (although the B# in measure 4 will probably cross you up also - I had to look that up, and yeah, it's legit - for complex technical reasons they write the C as B# - win some, lose some,,,sigh!)

Hey Allysia more people in the comment section. Way to go waiting for next video.

This is very interesting! Could you please make a video about people that used to play well but stopped for years. I played for many years and I’m barely getting back to it but I don’t know where to start!

Oscar did a pretty straight ahead classical training in the beginning. Andre Previn asked him in an interview , which is on youtube somewhere, 'You studied classical ? " " yeah, played Czerny for example," Oscar said. Paraphrasing. in fat, Oscar said in another interview one time that it was because he liked to fool with the notes , that he would deviate from the page, that led him to focus on jazz. I dont mean to go on but I find this story interesting. and I love Oscar. :-) thanks for your support of sight reading, i ve been working on it and it is getting better what a sense of enjoyment to start to hear a piece of music , that perhaps you havenot heard before, begin to sound like something.

I’ve found Bach Scholar’s Sight Reading and Harmony book very good for practice. Real music and short “one-per-day” excerpts each with four levels of difficulty that you can pick from. And it’s counterpoint, so you have to read both hands, you can’t cheat and use your ear.

Great tip on tryiing to read unfamiliar music every day! It's easy to want to stick with one piece and "master" it but keeping the sight reading muscles strong is important!

I can't play by ear or through memorization. It's all in the sheet music for me. No matter how difficult it seems, all playing is a learning experience, even if it seems that there is no progress, there really is.

I relate to this video! I did my ABRSM grade 1 and 2 when I was 11-12 years old. Sight reading scared the hell out of me (I think probably because my teachers could have been better at explaining theory and spotting when I was struggling) I went off on my own, learning by ear, songwriting and playing in a band. 20 years later, I’m feeling held back and so I’m back to sight reading and having lessons! But this time I’m loving it and it’s coming much easier, because my teacher is fab and I don’t have note-phobia anymore 😅 plus as I got older I became more in love with classical music and so the pieces I learn I actually enjoy... learn stuff you enjoy and you will be more determined to master the sight reading!

Spot on with the complex pieces that after a while become automatic. I used to learn an ancient notation system by writing random notes and then trying to understand where they are and what note to perform, with no regard to musicality. It was just atonal mambo jumbo. I just wanted to be able to jump automatically to the right note without my sense of musicality getting in the way. I did this because in the Army i learned Morse code and the one way they used to teach us was to intentionally use random letters that didn't form any words. They explained to us that the moment the brain notices the pattern in something that could be a known word, it then pauses for a microsecond to go on that tangent thought, which in reception of Morse at high speed is a catastrophe, you get distracted and you loose a good amount of signs because of it. So the secret is just to get into a sort of a mindless flow where (after training a lot) the hand writes the correct letter almost automatically, in something like a reflex, without the analytical part of the brain getting involved. This might not be such a catastrophe in learning the musical notation but I think it's easy to deceive yourself and to slow down the progress if you get good at a piece and then, instead of actively following the score you just glance at it and the hand go automatically on the right track. It's perhaps fine as practise in general but you're fooling yourself thinking that you do sight reading practice. The practise should be almost always on stuff that you don't know and, preferably, which doesn't really follow known patterns to keep you on your toes and actually attentive at what the coming signs are.

Hi there, honestly great content!!! After almost 2 years, I still consider myself a beginner :) I had lessons for about 6 months and that was more of an intruduction to music theory, reading music and, of course, playing. After that, I couldn't keep the lessons and I continue by myself. I don't play by ear, but I also can't sight read, at least I can't sight read and play simultaneously, I think that's what sight reading is all about, right? I learnt to read the score and that's how I learn a piece, but I can't read fast enough.

I’m getting better and better at sight reading since I’ve started my daily piano practice a few months ago. But I’m so bad at playing by ear and improvising! Every time I tell myself to start learning how to improvise, I find an piece in my sheet music collection and just learn that... 🙄

I have been teaching myself for almost 2 yrs and have seen how amazing it is to be able to read sheet music. There is sight reading apps, I used one and it was super helpful in the begining.

Great channel and while I had a great enthusiastic piano teacher with Indiana University degree who emphasized sight reading and music theory, she never mentioned how to read/improvise from a lead/fake sheet which is more of what has kept me interested in music over the long run(learned years later from another good teacher who played in clubs). So thanks to you and others for the videos and info on how to do that also or whatever approach keeps people engaged in their art and creativity.

Reading music is an important part of music. You don't need to read music... until you do. If you wait until you need to learn you'll miss out on tons of opportunities while you try to learn a complex skill that you should have already learned.

I like Paul Harris sight reading books.

Nice video. When sight reading a new piano pieces, what are sight reading check list .

I've been doing that thing where you learn the notes and then memorise it even just after like 20 minutes. I notice that I'm mainly reading the rhythms, and seeing where the chords are happening, just to remind myself, rather than actually reading it. To read it and actually recognise/name the notes I'm playing, I have to slow it way down.

I always just memorized pieces, but was always disappointed that I never learned to sight read better.

Which of your books could be followed to get into advanced level. Sorta proficient with the basic level and chord progressions. Seek your insights.. Stay safe. Thanks a lot for your action packed sessions full of thoughts and guidelines. Raj

Is it fair to say that in sum, the advice here is that you can study a piece (bit by bit) as long as you sight read for 5 mins a day?

So, I'm doing piano 2 years now as an adult beginner. I'm currently learning Chopin Grande Valse Brillante Op18 and and it's going alright, plus I've already done Op64 n2 and the Op9 n2 nocturne; So that's about my skill level peak. Technique is a little behind that but still ok and improving. But when I try to not look at the keys, I go back to like the first day of piano lessons. I can barely do scales blindfolded, and sightreading even the easiest stuff I have, the Anna Magdalena notebook, even for a couple of bars; It's impossible. Just like a complete beginner, I can't put the hands together, it's horrible, to go all this way and slowly start to get over this hurdle just to get back to the very bottom again. I want, I... need to get a lot better at sightreading and "feeling" the keys to ever even come close to the kind of ease and comfort that I want to have on the piano, and it's becoming apparent that unless I do specific material for that I'll never get it, no matter how flashy and virtuosic pieces I can play by memory. With that in mind, my question is this: What should I try to sightread? I was thinking of starting again the Czerny Op599 (which I've already done regularly) and trying to sightread like the very first couple of etudes. This brings up another question: When attempting to sightread a piece, just how many times are you allowed to go back to the beginning if you make an unsalvageable mistake? I mean, if you do it enough, eventually you'll just memorise it, and that kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it? But if you don't go back to the beginning and instead skip to the next one, you'll soon find yourself trying to sightread something completely impossible. How do I handle this? Please, any help is appreciated.

Im using android apps called "name that note" its free sight reading game but really helpful in increase my sight reading..

Erroll Gardner couldnt read sheet music proficiently, but 'nobody comes to watch him read' haha

Thanks for the tips :) I have a question that buggled me for a long time, let's say you are in G major and a F# sharp is written on the score, how do you read it? I mean, the little voice in your head, does it say "F sharp" or does it just say "F" , or even "Fi" ? Thanks 🌻

On top of using sight-reading books, I teach sight-reading through a very obvious, but unorthodox method. First I trick my students into reading tongue twisters. Second, I have them read aloud a familiar passage of maybe 2 paragraphs (ex. The Bible, Harry Potter, Science textbook, etc.) They have to read it perfectly. Then I have them read the same exact passage aloud at twice the speed. What am I doing is I am reinforcing and strengthening the literary reading skills, and forcing them to look ahead. Then I put music in front of them. And part of the practice logs, my students need to tell how much they read aloud. If the reading is strong, it will create a snowball/avalanche effect into music. I teach orchestra, and private piano and strings. I used to teach chorus. Main instrument viola/violin, can comfortably play early Beethoven on piano, and play string bass.

If I can’t understand a note or chord or should I just fake it during my performance (to myself or making a quick youtube). To keep song going and not stop

👍

I'm having trouble. I hope you can help me. In notation, how do I tell if "C#9" is a C sharp 9, or C with a sharp 9? Thanks.

So, for a beginner, 4 to 8 bars a day for 5 minutes. Next day, start a new one, even if you didn't get the previous one very well, correct?

I struggle with sight reading and I used to be a piano teacher lol

Sight reading, sight reading, sight reading. If you want to get better at piano practice sight reading!

I've been playing for a week and a musical friend told me to start sight reading from day one, real simple. It should be the bedrock that my learning is vased on, apparently 😏

So I know how to read sheet music due to me playing the violin. I’m now learning how to play the piano and I’m not too sure how to match and or coordinate the piano note to the note that’s written on the sheet music. Any tips on where or how to start?

And for bass clef, get Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Music of James Jamerson. Your reading chops will get much better! Trust...!

Question: When sightreading, should I do a right hand, left hand and both hand split, or should I go with both hands from the get go?

You have to have akillset of sight-reading before you can sight-read pieces well. In other words, you have to learn sight-reading first before you can sight-read.

Great ideas for starting. Unfortunately most of of these books are not in Braille, as with most books!! I've always wanted to learn pieces faster, but I have poor vision, I don't mean that "Oh just get some reading glasses" either, and I don't know how to read Braille music. I have a pretty good ear, but it's not really developed. Have you ever worked with a low vision or blind student in the past??

Hey, that link is dead to your course!!😭

What is the name of that sight reading book? Do you have a link?

What about sight singing? This is why I want to learn piano.

Would it be ok to do more than 5mins a day. I like doing it. Sometimes I've done 30mins. I've been taking lessons for a year and a half

I’ve been learning since august 2020 as a mature person and I’ve no idea how to play by ear!

Is there a book that gives the answers to the worksheets... So that we know how far off we are if self learning?

Is it possible to learn on my own??

Liszt piece by ear.. check Nobuyuki Tsujii

I really wish I caught this a couple days ago I’d love to be in on this looks like I’m too late 😞

I’m confused! Is there a difference between memorizing a piece by playing it over and over with the sheet music or just learning it by ear from the beginning? How would you learn advanced pieces without looking at the actual written music?? I’ve played with sheet music my whole life except for a few pieces I’ve played so often I have muscle memory and don’t need the sheets.

Very Helpful. What music would you recomend for more advanced players who want to improve sight reading?

Is sight reading right for the very fussy ! , what i mean is if people are just to fussy to play lots of different music ! ? . I've always been really fussy when it comes to literature for instance , in that i don't or won't like reading books that are fiction , preferring historical fact based or scientific fact based books . So for me although sight reading in itself is all fact and obviously i have learnt the basics , or to play basic pieces bye sight first , " for piano " . But i wonder what sort of balance i should attain to if for instance , rather than learning the more strictly fantasy based although none the less historical , i substitute effort for composition and improvisation , across different genre but still remaining capable of understanding a complex and old/historical score , i wonder is that really enough . A balance of time/effort with creativity i guess . Or perhaps not , perhaps the hole idea is that if you train to look not at the keys so much , but more forwards and left or right , you can have the best of both worlds . The big question is , what if anything is the margin of creativity one will loose or obtain , if training to sight read at higher levels .

What do you think about the RCM Four Star Sight Reading books? Those are what I am using, and I am wondering if maybe there is another book I should try. This video was very helpful, and your channel has really helped me on my piano learning journey.

Hi mam im from India. As not a Native English Speaker i couldn able to Understand ur Pronunciation 08:40 th minute? Which book that is? Could u spell? Or Reply Texts?

Maybe somebody below mentioned this, but … wow! Oscar Peterson was an accomplished classically trained musician. You should not just ad lib comments about things you don’t know about. After all, you recorded this presentation, so it should be pretty easy to go back and edit it.

Question: Do you think sight reading is important?

I read online that some refer to it as “Sight Playing” which is the more apt name?

9:18

i used to be able to sight read perfectly fine, until i started depending on it so i started memorizing my pieces. now i miss my sight reading ability :(

There are two types of reading sheet music through. 1) Reading the notation to absorb the piece and quickly committing it to memory. 2) Reading it in real time as you play. The former of course is important but the later is a waste of time and brain power unless you get it for free over time. Definitely not worth practicing it. I, for example, have no problem playing Chopin's ballades and etudes from memory (self taught 8 years) but I can't read sheet music in real time like most teachers define "sight reading". Never felt that I needed this ability so I never devoted time to it. To learn a piece I usually study the score, make chord and other notations and examine the harmonies and structure thoroughly. When you understand a piece to a level where you know the purpose of each note and essence of each variation not only is it a breeze to memorize but also easy to improvise on it. Then there are those piano students, who are products of teachers, who over stress the importance of sight reading. They are completely lost without the score. They don't know what they are playing, don't understand much about the theoretical structure of the piece. They are just rigid robots transferring black dots from page to fingers. That wasted sight reading brainpower during play could be put to better use like listening, being analytical, and mindful. So I say spend less time on sight reading and a LOT MORE on music theory and you'll advance further and faster.

I learned the Fantasie impromptu from watching a KZfaq video and I have no idea how to sight read

2:25 heh... yeh..... wouldnt that be crazy..... 😶

You are not really talking about sight-reading in the prima vista sense of it. I was hoping this was a video about actual first sight sight-reading.

Hi Allysia could you please write down the recommended titles in the info section? your speedy talking is not understandable completely for a non native speaker and the books are presented only too fast thanks

Armenia 🇦🇲🥳

You’re very beautiful. 😍

I do not agree at all that your ear will limit you. In fact to move beyond the written page and learn how to solo you need to transcribe great solos yourself which requires a trained ear to do so.