Sightreading, also known as prima vista playing, refers to playing the correct notes on a musical instrument while reading the notation at first sight or glance (at the tempo written). It is a skill that can be learned but requires practice to master.
For the WINTER 2024 Season, I’m offering two 8-week online courses in sight reading on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons: one for pianists and one for fingerstyle ukulele players. Both courses take place in Zoom and start as soon as six people register. There’s a tuition discount for those with the 2024 Annual Subscription to 3 Chord Thursday.
Two goals: sightreading and “flow”
When I taught group piano class at UH Maui College in Hawaii, I had two goals for my students.
- Learn to sight read
- Experience “flow”
I believe that students abandon playing the piano if it’s a struggle to read music. It takes too long to learn a piece of music.
“Flow” is about being in the moment and forgetting the struggles. Anyone who has experienced “flow” in playing music, competing in sports, or any activity that requires effort is totally immersed in it and will remember what it feels like. Read more about it HERE.
Playing music should not be a struggle. But reading music often is.
Sightreading strategies
Having observed how students read sheet music and play on the piano, I notice that they are not employing the best strategies.
How is reading music different from reading text? You have to do something while you read the sheet music. How is that different from reading a map while you’re walking?
How do you read a map to get from point A to point B? Do you need to know every single location on the GPS? No, you just need to know where you start, where you’ll end up, and a few critical paths. You don’t need to know the coordinates but you do need to expect the tricky intersections, the relative distance and milestones, such as “go straight for 5 miles” and “make a sharp needle pin turn to the left.”
Pianists who struggle at sight-reading try to find every single note on the piano and miss the big picture. Information overload!
Similarly, ukulele players who are slow at reading tablature take longer to learn the music than those who can sightread. It takes the joy out of fingerpicking.
Sightreading skills for all levels
In every music class I teach, there have been as many skill levels as there are students. Thankfully, the strategies for sightreading apply to all levels. So I welcome pianists and ukulele players at all levels to learn this important skill.
In a physical fitness class, the teacher will sometimes offer different ways to do an exercise. Everyone has his or her own limitations and preferences. Use different weights. Use stretch bands of different resistance. Similarly, in a music class, I offer different ways to play a piece.
When teaching sightreading to students of different skill levels, I use different arrangements of the same piece. Everyone benefits. Everyone learns.
One-hour class in Zoom for 8 consecutive weeks
Each one-hour session will comprise of class instruction and breakouts for individual time with me (the teacher) in a separate breakout room. You can also video record yourself to get feedback.
As with all classes, I accept requests and I custom-arrange music for the participants.
All class sessions are recorded for review and replay. We will have a separate Google Drive Folder (Directory) reserved for all handouts and links to recordings, so you can easily find what you missed.
Register and get more information
Register for Sightreading Piano:
8 Tuesday at 4:00 PM EST from 23rd January 2024 (with individual instruction on either or both 13th and 20th February) . 8th and last class on 19th March 2024.
Bachelor thesis for piano teaching diploma on sightreading piano by Anne Ku (Utrecht Conservatory, July 2008) short extract (1 page PDF), long original (39-page PDF)
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