Then, move on to the next piece while focusing on rhythm. We must start with the simplest music (even if you’re not a beginner) and read each piece only twice (this is one of the most important principles). The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. “As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. Once the principles are fully conceptualized, you won’t need to memorize this process because you will naturally be led to practicing this way. There is no specific name for this method because it is based on a true understanding of the principles of sight-reading. It is also for intermediates, some advanced players (depending on sight-reading ability), and teachers who’d like a solid approach to teaching sight-reading. A few teachers said they wouldn’t attempt to teach it because they were rotten sight-readers themselves.”Īfter years of lessons, I finally found a teacher who really knew how to teach sight-reading and since then, I have seen exponential growth in myself and in my students’ sight-reading abilities. Some did not even recognize it as a skill apart from the acquisition of repertoire and just said that students would get better with more years of lessons. Many cited the reason being that instruction in teaching the skill is not included in the method book series that they use. “The majority of teachers in my study said that sight-reading was not included in their program because they didn’t know how to teach it. Dianne Hardy, Assistant Professor of Music Education and Piano at Dickinson State University, explains in her study regarding teaching sight-reading: While most teachers agree that sight-reading is one of the most important skills you need to develop, few actually incorporate it into their lesson plans or suggested practice routines. ![]() ![]() ![]() Maybe you’ve been playing for years and still feel like reading music is the piece of the puzzle that will always remain unresolved. Maybe you’re intimidated by how difficult it seems. How was this possible?Ĭan you relate? Do you feel like your sight-reading is improving at a snail’s pace, if at all? Maybe you have focus problems like ADD that you feel gets in the way. Over ten years of lessons and I still couldn’t read fluently from a level one book. Today she joins us from to share about her journey of learning to sight read and the important lessons she learned along the way. Lara Mirinjian is a pianist, piano teacher and fellow sight reading fanatic.
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