Music Teaching Tips

No one is hopeless at sight reading. Rather, most people find some aspects of it challenging and, once these are pin-pointed, progress can be made. Typical problem areas are: cluster chords with a lot of accidentals, other complex-looking chords such as diminished 7ths or half diminished chords (with or without accidentals), moving parts in both hands, leaps, keys with many sharps or flats, double sharps or flats, polyrhythms (e.g. two notes in one hand while the other is playing three). The trick is to take one of these at a time and work at it until it is no longer a problem.

Sight reading is really a matter of recognising what you already know.

Once players understand that they are really only playing bits from pieces they already know, but put together in a different order (and in perhaps another key) confidence can be built — and confidence is one of the most important elements needed. To this end it is important that students understand what they are playing in each piece they learn and learn to recognise it on the page. I recall a wonderful teacher from the Royal College of Music (who enjoyed a reputation for being eccentric) insisting on his pupils reading their scales from the copy. Most pupils memorise their scales, or even learn them by ear in the first instance (an excellent idea in itself) and never again see them written down until they have to sight read them in the context of a piece of music. Small wonder they then find them hard to recognise!