{"id":1981,"date":"2012-02-03T17:27:31","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T17:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2021-03-01T10:05:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T10:05:17","slug":"the-10-secrets-of-sight-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/the-10-secrets-of-sight-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 secrets of sight reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like so many pianists who play for their own\u00a0pleasure, you might think that your sight-reading is\u00a0appalling\u00a0and that you are\u00a0terrible\u00a0at it.<\/strong><\/em> To be honest, you don’t even want to\u00a0speak\u00a0about it!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a SIGNIFICANT REVELATION\u00a0for you: sight-reading is not\u00a0more\u00a0complex or\u00a0mysterious\u00a0than anything else. You\u00a0simply\u00a0need to know and learn how to proceed to\u00a0become\u00a0\u201cproficient in the art of sight-reading\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here are the 10 Secrets of Sight Reading<\/h3>\n

1. Firstly,\u00a0have\u00a0a look at the general idea of the score. You can quickly\u00a0get\u00a0a\u00a0grasp\u00a0of the difficulties that may occur while playing the\u00a0piece\u00a0and of the general layout of the piece. Then, look at the tempo, time signature, key, change of\u00a0time\u00a0signature\/tempo. Basically\u00a0mention\u00a0everything that looks\u00a0peculiar\u00a0to you. Once this is done, sing the beginning of the piece and\/or the main\u00a0melody\u00a0to\u00a0feel\u00a0its\u00a0style. The\u00a0notation\u00a0will also give you a\u00a0fair\u00a0idea of the general character of the piece.<\/p>\n

2. Always plan to\u00a0play\u00a0slightly slower than the\u00a0standard\u00a0speed\u00a0you think you may be able to play the piece, as you obviously do not want to take any risk and\u00a0turn\u00a0it into a shambles. Especially check the fastest\u00a0rhythm\u00a0and\/or part of the\u00a0piece\u00a0to\u00a0decide\u00a0if you will be able to\u00a0play\u00a0it at the\u00a0speed\u00a0you have chosen to\u00a0start\u00a0it with. (There’s no\u00a0point\u00a0to\u00a0play\u00a0the\u00a0composition\u00a0at a\u00a0speed\u00a0that is too fast for you – especially when you practice your sight-reading)<\/p>\n

3. You are now ready to play.<\/p>\n

4. Behave as you\u00a0know\u00a0this\u00a0piece\u00a0extremely well already and\u00a0think\u00a0as you have already played it\u00a0many\u00a0times. It will give you a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n

5. Always read well in advance in order to be prepared and never look back. You have played these notes, so there is no need to look back to\u00a0check\u00a0what you have done. It would only\u00a0disturb\u00a0what you are currently playing and\u00a0especially\u00a0what you are going to\u00a0play\u00a0next.<\/p>\n

6. Always\u00a0count\u00a0(in your head) in order to keep things going.<\/p>\n

7. Remember that you should NEVER\u00a0stop\u00a0playing. If it gets messy, it doesn’t matter, continue, look further and focus on the\u00a0future\u00a0notes you will have to\u00a0play. Counting will help you to keep it\u00a0together.<\/p>\n

8. If you cannot control what you are playing, don’t play all the notes, just keep things going by playing only the bass,\u00a0for example, or the first note of each beat. Do this until the\u00a0score\u00a0gets easier again.<\/p>\n

9. Do exactly the same if a few\u00a0difficult\u00a0bars have been mentioned before the start. When you get to play them, don’t play them, but only a few\u00a0critical\u00a0notes of the\u00a0harmony\u00a0that are going to keep the flow.<\/p>\n

10. And of course, always be\u00a0musical\u00a0and focus on the interpretation of the piece, rather than on the notes.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cObtaining a perfect knowledge of the vocabulary used in music is essential if you do not always want to struggle with your piano playing. Reading music is an ESSENTIAL and SERIOUS tool that will help you progress to the next level of your piano playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like so many pianists who play for their own\u00a0pleasure, you might think that your sight-reading is\u00a0appalling\u00a0and that you are\u00a0terrible\u00a0at it. To be honest, you don’t even want to\u00a0speak\u00a0about it!!! I have a SIGNIFICANT REVELATION\u00a0for you: sight-reading is not\u00a0more\u00a0complex or\u00a0mysterious\u00a0than anything else. You\u00a0simply\u00a0need to know and learn how to proceed to\u00a0become\u00a0\u201cproficient in the art of sight-reading\u201d. Here are the 10 Secrets of Sight Reading 1. Firstly,\u00a0have\u00a0a look at the general idea of the score. You can quickly\u00a0get\u00a0a\u00a0grasp\u00a0of the difficulties that may occur while playing the\u00a0piece\u00a0and of the general layout of the piece. Then, look at the tempo, time signature, key, change of\u00a0time\u00a0signature\/tempo. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[19,20,21],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-note-reading","tag-adult-piano-instruction","tag-piano-education","tag-piano-lessons-for-beginners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28430,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/28430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonpianoinstitute.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}