Sight-reading Basics part 1: Learning Your Instrument

In my previous post, I offered an article on sight-reading, on some theories of what makes a person a good sight-reader.  Regardless of how natural your aptitude is, any musician can and should strive to become a sight-reader.  Personally speaking, I got through my first dozen years of lessons solely on the merits of my ability to use my ear and to memorize.  I would all but panic if you gave me something to play for the first time expecting it to be anywhere close to good if it was any more than half my current performance level.  Then came college and scholarship requirements, which included accompanying, which furthermore included a lot of sight-reading.  I would come in around week 4 of the semester and would be handed the piano part for the first time while the vocalist or other instrumentalist would already be getting up to tempo and mostly done learning their part.  By necessity, I had to get better.

It's a good thing that I did.  In my career, I've been asked to sight-read a LOT.  As a professional musician, it's probably the one aspect of my musicianship that would most cause questions as to my competence if it were still weak.  Someone who can play by ear is respected, but there is understanding if you happen to be a musician who doesn't play by ear.  If you can't sight-read well, this speaks of inexperience.  No matter how much music experience you have, you still have to practice specifically to get better at sight-reading.  It doesn't just happen.

Don't worry.  This looks impossible to me as well!

In part 2 of this series, I'll talk about some of the things I did to improve my own skills as far as reading the music and playing it.  They aren't any different than what the vast majority of teachers will tell you.  However, there's a very important skill they forget to tell you, and that's KNOWING YOUR INSTRUMENT.

One of the biggest keys to success with sight-reading is keeping your eyes on your music.  However, you can't very well keep your eyes on the music if you don't know your instrument well enough to play comfortably without looking at it.  A violinist has to know where to press each string and operate the bow without looking.  A brass player has to know valve combinations without looking.  A woodwind player needs to know two hand fingering combinations and where the holes/keys are without watching their hands.  As a pianist, you need to know the keyboard so well that by knowing where your hands are when you started, you know where every other key is at all times.

Let's start with the very basics.  Do you know your keys?  Furthermore, can you name each letter (along with sharp or flat as needed) without looking.  It all starts with the black keys.  If you know your two groups of keys well, then you can use your fingers to find the 3 black key groups and 2 black key groups to determine which of the following letters you are playing.

If you need to work on your keys, an exercise I recommend is 5 times daily to take each group, go up and down the keys PLAYING and SAYING ALOUD the letters as you play (CDE going up, EDC going down).  You can also start on any letter, play and SAY going up until you get to the letter where you started an octave higher.  (ABCDEFGA going up, AGFEDCBA going down.  Then go to BCDEFGAB, CDEFGABC, etc)

You can also make flashcards of the keys to the left by drawing a blank set of the keys, placing an X on the key you want to name and printing the letter name on the opposite side.

Also, you can go to my favorite website for helping: musictheory.net

One of the exercises is called Keyboard Note Identification.

When you go to that game, you'll see the online game which looks something like this.

Simply put, you name the key that is highlighted as fast and as correctly as you can.  Please remember that SPEED is just as important as ACCURACY.  Your goal is to get to the point where you do not have to consciously think to name the key.   Until you get to the point, you will not be able to take your eyes off the keys and know for certain what you are playing.  If you only want to work with sharps (or flats) or just want the white keys, you can go to the settings button at the top and uncheck the ones you don't want as choices.

One other exercise is to take a 5 finger position such as (C-D-E-F-G), then play up and down the pentascale without looking at your fingers.  Then move your hand so that each finger is 1 key higher than it was before and recite (D-E-F-G-A) up and down.  Then start with E, etc.  At some point, Start with C, then jump to E, then G.  Then start with C, jump to F, then B.  Keep requiring greater jumps.

Last but not least, there are the two blind key challenges.

#1:  Look up at the ceiling, or close your eyes.  Randomly play a key and name what it is with your eyes closed.  Even if you think you know what it is by the way it sounds, confirm by feeling around for the nearby black key groups.

#2:  For those with great ears, this is a bigger challenge.  Close your eyes or look up and away from the piano, choose a letter at random (such as G).  Reach down, feel your groups, and play the G correctly on first attempt without looking.

Good luck!  Learn your instrument, and you'll be ready for the next steps in the basics of sightreading.