More about sightreading

ShiroKuro

So, after all the discussions we’ve had in recent threads about sightreading, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own approach and how to step up my game in terms of how I practice sightreading.

One thing I noticed watching that Tiffany Poon sightreading video is just how musical she sounded… but when I’m sightreading, I think I sound really hesitant. It seems like, even at a slow tempo, one should be able to play with musical intention, and that intentionality should reduce the sense of hesitancy.

Or maybe, even though I’m playing slowly, I’m still playing too fast for true prima vista sightreading and maybe slowing down would be enough to reduce the hesitancy? And if so, does that mean maybe the pieces I’m sightreading are still a little too hard for my sightreading ability?

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I guess my question is actually three questions:

1) How to increase musicality and decrease hesitancy while sightreading?

2) How important is musicality while sightreading?

3) Where do you think the “sweet spot” is in terms of difficulty? If something is a little harder such that I really have to play so slowly that it impacts the musicality, would I benefit more from picking easier pieces, or is there still benefit to using slightly harder material for sightreading?

BartK

I'm glad you asked because this year I have made breakthroughs in this exact area. I wrote about it in The Sight Reading Thread.

ShiroKuro 1) How to increase musicality and decrease hesitancy while sightreading?

I found that having the metronome always on when sight reading forces me to keep going and reduces hesitations in the long run. I just have to deal with whatever happens on the spot. It's an entirely different experience than slowing down to figure out something complicated.

Tapping out the rhythm also helps prime your mind to what the music should sound like. Nothing ruins musicality more than a supposedly dotted rhythm where the short note is hesitant and ends up being longer than the long note. 😉

ShiroKuro 2) How important is musicality while sightreading?

I think it's very important. Maybe for beginners it's enough to be able to get the notes but the goal of sight reading should be to convey a good first impression of the piece in all its musical aspects.

ShiroKuro 3) Where do you think the “sweet spot” is in terms of difficulty? If something is a little harder such that I really have to play so slowly that it impacts the musicality, would I benefit more from picking easier pieces, or is there still benefit to using slightly harder material for sightreading?

I did both and both are useful. If you struggle just to get the notes it's hard to have any brain power left to think of musical aspects obviously, so I think it's a good idea to go back to very easy material and try to get all the dynamics and the mood of the piece right. On the other hand, more difficult pieces are also a way to improve your pattern recognition skills and teaches you to simplify on the spot. I admit that I'm not very good at the latter but I swear that my chord recognition speed has increased a lot since I started trying to read music with thick textures.

ranjit

ShiroKuro One thing I noticed watching that Tiffany Poon sightreading video is just how musical she sounded…

She sounds very musical in general. Her tips to learn music theory and so on are valid but I don't think they explain the musicality because plenty of people sight read at high levels but aren't very musical. Personally, I feel like musicality while sight reading comes from being able to "hear" or "pre-empt" the music better. To improve musicality, I've found it helpful to read music that I have heard before and know well but haven't played, and also to follow along with the score when you're listening to a familiar piece.

ShiroKuro 1) How to increase musicality and decrease hesitancy while sightreading?

Reading easy, familiar pieces helps to save bandwidth for musicality. I feel like increasing musicality and decreasing hesitation are at opposite ends of the spectrum. When I'm focused on accuracy, not hesitating and constantly looking forward, it is rather stressful and hard to be musical. It's easier if you allow yourself pauses or slowing down if you get lost and kind of zone out and take in the music.

2) How important is musicality while sightreading?

It depends on your goals imo. I think it's very important if you're using sight reading to expand your knowledge of musical styles and repertoire.

3) Where do you think the “sweet spot” is in terms of difficulty? If something is a little harder such that I really have to play so slowly that it impacts the musicality, would I benefit more from picking easier pieces, or is there still benefit to using slightly harder material for sightreading?

I think that to some extent, deciphering patterns in the music, and musicality, are two separate things. So it makes sense to train both.

iternabe

My thoughts after watching Tiffany Poon explains how she sight reads is her final advice contains no magic. Know your harmony! Know your scales and arpeggios! Know your chords! Know some music theory!

But then, her meaning of "know your ..." is on a complete different level! Her proficiency in those basics is just like instincts. At one point she said her minds are much faster than she talks. I wonder if her musicality in sight reading is simply because those basics barely consumes any of the bandwidth in her mind.

ShiroKuro

Thanks everyone for the comments so far!! I’ll comment more later but before I forget…

@ranjit your comments are helping me this about hesitancy. Because I want to think that slowing down or other things we do to increase accuracy shouldn’t automatically result in sounding hesitant….

I need to think about this more.

And also I definitely need to record myself so I can think about whether hesitant is the best descriptor for what I’m hearing in myself when sight reading.

thepianoplayer416

Somebody like me who is playing at an intermediate level is not going to pick up everything sight-reading a piece. The first time I'm focused on just reading & learning the notes without dynamics, pedals and everything else that makes a piece come alive. The last piece I worked on was an arrangement of the Christmas tune "What Child is This" based on the "Greensleeves" melody. The sheet has consistent pedal markings. Playing it through the first few times didn't use the pedal at all.

Recently came across an online video from Taiwan from a teacher Ms. Jiang 江老師. It's a sight-reading challenge featuring advance students. The book contain compositions by the Japanese animator & filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki 宮崎駿. Ms. Jiang would open a page and the student would read through the piece to the best of his/her ability. After each performance, the student would talk about how he/she felt when playing the piece. Of course not everybody made it to the end of the selected piece. The first piece is "Magical Princess" 魔法公主.

Sorry there is no English subtitle for the video:

The end of the video the teacher played a piece out of the book. Based on the Chinese dialog, many students mentioned finding the right chords as being important to reading through the piece.

pianoloverus

How musical one can sound when sight reading a piece depends on how difficult or easy the piece is in terms just playing the correct notes/rhythms and on one's musical understanding. Everyone, including Tiffany Poon, will sound less musical when sight reading a piece where just getting the notes and rhythm correct is a big challenge simply because more of their mental energy will be just focused on the notes and rhythm. And everyone will sound less musical when sight reading a piece at a faster tempo because at that tempo it's more difficult to deal with the notes and rhythm. Everything else being equal (meaning how difficult the notes and rhythms are for the pianist) the pianist with the greater musical understanding will sound more musical than a pianist with lesser musical understanding.