William asked:
for piano, i need to get working on my sightreading, i have my Royal Conservatory of Music Grade 10 piano exam comming up in 1 year and my sight reading is really bad VERY BAD are there any ideas to get this fixed in a year
Tags: Conservatory Of Music, Royal Conservatory Of Music, Sight Reading
Learning to Read Music
Please search the completed questions – I have given this advice several times in great detail. This is a learned skill like any other – with the proper methods, patience, and practice you can get very good at this.
Learning to Read Music
Playing scales fast requires lots of hand strengthening exercises. There are books that help you do this, but you basically have to do these exercises every day for a long time.
For sightreading, try what I did – listen to a short piece of music on a CD once, take out the sheet music, and read all the way through it. Once you’ve mastered that, try just reading the notes. It helps if you know where each key is instead of having to look down in the middle of every measure. Again, you’ll have to do this for a while until you’re ready.
Good luck!
Sight Reading Music
grade 10???? I didn’t know it went past grade 8??!
Practise is my only suggestion. It’s the only way forward!
How to Sight Read Music
Sounds like you rely on your memory more than sight, once you have learned a piece. Perhaps if you challenged yourself by picking a new piece every day to sight read/play it might help you.
How to Sight Read Music
For sight reading, I would recommend that you practice new music that is at least two levels below your current performance ability. This should be music that you have never played or listened to perviously. You might find the following resources helpful:
Complete Series of Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Book 10=
Sight Reading & Rhythm Every Day, Book 6
To improve your scale-playing speed, practice the scales with correct fingering. You’ll find that the same fingering patterns often repeat themselves in other scales. If you are making mistakes, slow down the tempo until you can play them perfectly, then increase the tempo from there. Start with C Major or A Minor and progress to more difficult scales, adding one sharp or one flat each time.
In order to play the scales quickly, you will need to feel a pulse. If you’re playing two-octave scales, play them using 8th notes. Use triplets for three-octave scales and 16th notes for four-octave scales.