This way they already have a sense that words flow left to right, and that letters have sound and words have meaning. Hopefully parents have spent many hours reading aloud to their child while pointing to the words on the page. Even before that, the kids who go to Kindergarten are expected to have a pretty good grasp of speaking and understanding spoken English. As I mentioned in a previous post on acquiring musical literacy, Kindergarten doesn’t start with reading full sentences. One major reason that kids struggle with sight reading is that they don’t have a solid foundation. How to Get Better at Sight Reading – Building a Solid Foundation Before Starting a Sight Reading Practice Learning to sight read opens up a whole new world of musical experience for you and the people around you. It’s also endless fun to be able to open a book of music, whether Christmas carols, Broadway tunes, hymns, folk songs, pop music, or anything else you’d like, and gather friends and family around you for a sing-along. We can put it together in less than an hour because I know how to sight read music. It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen the song before or not. People know they can come over before church on Sunday morning and run through the song a couple of times with me, then perform it during services. Fortunately, I had sight reading practice and already accompanied my high school choir for many years, so I was able to do a pretty good job.Īnother way that sight reading skills have been useful for me is in accompanying singers for musical numbers in church. The teacher wanted to focus on the singing without the distraction of a botched accompaniment. If I didn’t keep up with the singer, the voice teacher would not be pleased. Sometimes the voice teacher would throw me an opera aria I’d never seen before, and I would have to play it on my first try. I paid my way through college using my sight reading skills as an accompanist for voice lessons. Sight reading is a very practical and enjoyable skill. You can learn to sight read!ĭevelop lifelong music skills. Should we just give up in the face of all this challenge? No! Instead, realize that this is a many-year journey. Sight reading asks a lot! It’s a very, very complex brain function that can take many years to master. You have to translate rhythmic language, pitch language, don’t miss a beat, and keep in time. Not only that, with an instrument like a piano, you can have both hands playing at the same time with each hand doing something completely different. When reading music you have to play in time. It won’t change the meaning, at least not very much. When reading music, your eyes scan left to right, and also up and down.Īs you’re reading a written language, you can pause when you want. For multi-pitch instruments like the piano, you’ll even see stacked notes which are to be played simultaneously. The horizontal dimension records tempo and the vertical direction records pitch. On the other hand, in music there are two dimensions. To read, you decode letters, words, or symbols written in a line. English and other written languages are one-dimensional. Some people make it look easy, but it wasn’t easy to learn! When you sight read you decode a very complex language. Sight reading is an extremely complex skill. What Makes Sight Reading Seem Like Magic? Even if you’re a beginning pianist, start now so you’ll be able to enjoy the awesome benefits that sight reading will bring. It takes many years to develop the ability to sight read music. They’ve mastered the art of reading music. They can take a written piece of music they’ve never heard before and play it perfectly the first time. Some musicians have what seems like a magical skill. Using our sight reading practice tips will help you learn to sight read with confidence
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