Probably the Most Important Skill You Should Improve

I'm not sure, but this is probably my first blog post with a clickbait-sounding title.

This post is more observational and reflective, and less about technique or how-to, but I will probably follow up with more articles in the near-future to discuss the technical side.

Not everyone wants to or honestly can become a top-level concert pianist.  Very precious few pianists become virtuosos.  If you stick with piano long enough, you can become a piano-for-hire.  You can be worth the pay to play for churches, voice lessons, choral concerts, etc.  It requires good technique.  It requires some musical sensitivity and intuition.  It requires exploring plenty of early advanced repertoire to bring up your average level of difficulty in experience.  As I've been working many gigs lately, the most recent where I showed up for a 2-hour performance with a flutist and just played from the books she brought without practice, and as I've been doing 3-4 days per week at UNCSA in classes just playing what was put in front of me, I've concluded...

No skill is more valuable to the pianist-for-hire than sight-reading!

Here are some reasons why:

(1) I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  The better your sight-reading, the less time needed to learn the music.  By dramatically improving your ability to play music correctly the first time, you can transform a 10-hour job into learning music into 5-hours.  Actually, if you get good enough at this one skill, you might change it to 2!  If you take two pianists with similar technique, but only one is a superb sight-reader, and give them the same piece to learn on a level that is close to their average experience, the elite sight-reader's first attempt could very well sound like the 5th or 6th day of practice compared to the other person.

(2) If you are a pianist-for-hire, it's EXPECTED!  I don't flex my ego and say "ah, no worries" after being offered the music in advance.  More often than not, I'm not given the option or the time to get it in advance.  I have to show up and play well the first time.  And I promise you that the first time you're put in that situation will be among your most stressful music experiences.  I still remember the sensation of panic, and it probably took 25 or more experiences before it eased up.  Now I enter these situations with mostly confidence.  There is still unease, especially if it's for theatre auditions where I don't want to be the cause of an actor being shaky on their performance when they're trying to land a role.  But I know I can do it!

(3) This is a variation of the first reason, but it needs emphasis.  The music I sightread for hire is not the music I'm spending hours on for myself.  It's what I'm being asked to play for a situation.  If I'm having to practice that, then I have no time for myself on the piano.  On a 250-page book for a recent show, there were about 8 measures(!) I felt like I had to practice.

I can picture your thoughts while reading.  "That's great, David. Good for you!  You're an elite professional, and I'm just learning.  This is out of my reach."

And my response is:  First, I'm not a natural sight-reader.   I entered college with 12-years of piano lessons under my belt, and my sight-reading was so inadequate for voice lessons that I had to take a semester course in the basics of sight-reading.  I learned the basic skills I was lacking in how I approached music, and I used the following summer to explore an exercise that probably doubled my abilities before I left.  Second, I'm not that elite.  There are plenty of other skilled pianists in this area who sight-read even better than me.  Third, it's something I've thought a lot about since college, and come up with exercises to improve this skill for myself.

My next article on this topic will be on what kinds of things you can do to become a better sight-reader.  For now, I hope you're convinced of the importance!