Music Education #9 Sight Reading

Here is a detailed outline showing how a parent or teacher can prepare a piano student to be able to sightread music. (Know how already, and want a little advice? I like this video. )

Make sure you don't put a kid through the following all at once and then expect him to remember at the end of the practice: spread it over a week at least to make sure it sticks, reviewing the points on several different days.

1. Confirm that the child is thoroughly confident in identifying all piano key names including sharps and flats. A way to reinforce this is to say “Play all the Gs on the piano from low to high.” Then have a small doll or toy slowly chase them up the keyboard as they are playing and saying “G, G, G, G,” and say “Uhhh- you win!” when they get to the top. Repeat with all other single notes and include combinations of notes such as “Play F, A flat, F A flat, F, A flat allt he way down the keyboard,” Children also enjoy it if you play the slow, preposterous teacher: Say loudly and ostentatiously, “Now, I’m going to teach you how to play a B flat.” [Meanwhile you can whisper in their ear that they can try to find it before you say how to do it.] “First you have to know how to find a B, then you have to know that to go flat you have to go down to the very next key…” By this time they should have been able to play it seventeen times, and you can say, “Hey I was going to teach you that!” Focus on speed becomes the game rather than the commandment.

2. Drill all the Lines and Spaces of the treble and bass clefs orally (without keyboard) A good game for this is the spin game: Say as you slowly turn around in a circle: “The names of the treble clef lines are…EGBDF” and be saying “EGBDF” when you are facing the student again. Their goal is to try to say EGBDF before you do and before you face them. If you say “EGBDF” before they do, just repeat the question on the next revolution. Continue with lines and spaces for both treble and bass clefs until they can recite them quickly on call or until you fall over.

3. Then he can learn to identify if a note is a line or space, and which line or space it is. Is it the first line? Is it the top space? Is it the middle line?

4. Teach skips and steps on the keyboard. Show skips and steps on the staff (Line to the next line is a skip, Line to a Space is a step, etc.) and correlate skipping and stepping both upward and downward to the correct interval and direction on the keys.

5. Then the student learns to play the lines and spaces of treble and bass clef where they are played on the keyboard.

6. Begin attaching the cardinal number and letter to the line or space by saying, for example, “The fourth line is GBDF! Be sure to mention that the treble clef and the bass clef are ancient forms of the letters G and F, and point out which Gs and Fs they are. These are anchor notes, along with middle C.

7. Drill individual line and space notes with flash cards. I like to set one flash card upon the music rack and say “Is this a line note or a space note? Is it treble or bass clef? Is this the third space?" (Yes, it's the third space.) "Is this the fourth line?" (No, it's the 5th line) "If you know the names of the treble clef spaces, you can find this note!” Sometime about this point I begin to stick to a few notes at a time to memorize as anchor notes without reference to EGBDF or GBDFA, etc. memorization treble F just because it's the top line And the top line and the top space are a step apart. Another very useful tool for working with sightreading children is the Wright Way Note-finder.

8. Learn “Hugger notes” (Notes that are on spaces just outside the Lines of the treble and bass clefs: There are Four: F, B, D, and G) and ledger note (any line or space notes beyond the hugger notes that require ledger lines to be written)

9. Use pairs of Flash cards to show skipping, stepping in either direction

10. See if the student has a “mental image” of the keyboard by asking them to close their eyes and answer what is a step up from G, a skip down from D, etc. Carry this a step further by asking if A# is a black key and if F flat is a black key or a white key, etc.

11. Review rhythms (whole notes through quarter note) with the corresponding rests. Winning Rhythms by Edward Ayola can help with this, especially fun with two people playing at once, either premeditated chords, or simply choosing whatever notes or note clusters each one chooses. A dynamic plan can also be chosen without any regard to notes, which adds to the fun.

The students now know a lot about the notes they are about to read. In preparing for the rest of the process they should continually be checked for good posture, good hands and fingers, relaxation of the torso and arms and natural breathing as they play, because... not knowing things promotes tension, and not knowing things is the nature of sight reading!

12. Time to get out little beginning piano books! First choose pieces with only one note at a time, and keep it short. Before attempting to read a piece, first identify the direction of steps or skips: (“step up, skip down, step up, step up…”) Then name all notes to be played (C, C, G, G, A, A, G) Then name the finger numbers that will be used. The student should also clap the rhythms while counting the beat aloud. Now it should be played. Encourage the student to keep a steady beat. This process should be used a few times on different pieces, then the student should attempt equivalent pieces and try to gather the information of which finger to use and which note to play with only a brief visual scan through the piece before playing.

13. When students can effortlessly read melodies at the simplest level, they should be then encouraged to start reading simple two hands pieces, taking care to continue rhythm study that will keep ahead of the rhythms presented in their pieces to sightread. The greatest reward for sightreading is successful ensemble work. Students should not try to memorize their sightreading pieces- save that for performance repertory, which may be at a higher level than their sightreading practice. Above all be encouraging and require that the sightreading practice takes five to ten minutes of each practice session. Progress is inevitable.

Being able to sightread is fun! Not being able to sightread and still trying to progress is being on the fast track to burnout.