The Sight Reading Progress Thread

Sophia When I sight read something for the first time, it sounds just like that (Ok let's be honest here, much worse in most cases). I definitely don't add dynamics or rhythm etc.

Emphasis mine but I think this is a serious mistake that beginners make.

So, I didn't point it out in my previous response because, like Pallas, I think this should be a progress and encouragement thread, but leaving out rhythm is the wrong thing to do. Rhythm is the most important aspect. It's more important to get the rhythm right than to get the notes right. This is why I suggested clapping out the rhythm with a metronome in the other thread. Once you have the rhythm then you can add the notes, not the other way around.

Okay, I'll go back to lurking and encouraging now.

Pallas
and

Agreed. I find that the important thing is to be at least somewhat "musical". For instance, you might speed up or slow down while still feeling the musical line. Or you might stop and collect your thoughts if it's going out of control.

That said, Bart had a really good experience sight reading with the metronome. So it might work as well. It depends on where you are and how you do it. For me, it felt like I was working a typewriter when I tried it a year ago, and just didn't work somehow because I felt disengaged from the language of the music.

Rhythm or notes: what is more important?

I'll answer this question first from the point of view of a professional sight-reader. If you're accompanying an opera rehearsal, or playing chamber music, both are equally important. If you play the right rhythms, but the wrong melody and harmonies, the piece will be unrecognisable. Ditto if the melody is correct, but the rhythm is random.

But that's not all. Let's say you have a passage marked pp, vivace and all in staccato. If you play every single note right, with the correct rhythms, but you play ff, lento and with lots of pedal, it will be a disaster.

So, in order to be a good pro sight-reader, do you need to get everything exactly right straightaway? No! You scan the music, get a good idea of how it should sound, and concentrate on the essentials. You may leave out a load of notes, or get some details of the rhythm wrong, but you produce something recognisable, you stay together with your colleagues and you make music.

That's the goal to aim for in advanced sight-reading, but if you're near the beginning of your sight-reading journey, it will be too much for you to try to assimilate everything at once. Quite possibly your brain will freeze up, and you will achieve nothing.

What should you do? Work on each element separately first:

If you want to work on rhythm, just clap or tap the rhythms.
If you want to work on harmony, find a piece with a lot of chords and enjoy the progression of one chord to the next. To hell with the rhythm!
If your left hand is weak in sight-reading, read just the left hand part. You can also find simple pieces for left hand alone, for example here.
And so on...

Give it time. As you become more fluent in each element, it will become easier to put them together.

Finally, a big bravo for anybody who has the courage to record their sight-reading and post it for all to see and hear. You have my undying admiration!

Ok then, since you are all so terribly brave... here is mine. It is the first part of my "next up" Alfred piece: Deep River. So not really two levels below my skills (because there ARE no two levels below my skill). I wasn't brave enough to tackle the second part because that one I'd definitely need to puzzle on a bit longer and probably play each hand separately a few times before trying to go through it.

I wish you guys could have seen Simba's stare at the end... like he was telling me "what on earth are you trying to do here?!" But unfortunately his face was just above camera.

Lol! So true!

At least I excelled in not impressing anyone, not even Simba

Oops sorry cross posted with you ranjit!

Think you're good at rhythms, eh? Try clapping out this one

It took me a couple of tries to get it at a very slow tempo.

Edit: I'm not trying to diminish anyone's accomplishments or deny those who feel they have to practice note reading first but if you want to eventually sight read more advanced music you have to practice more difficult rhythms too.

Also I don't want to leave the impression that I'm always sight reading rhythmically correct. My sight reading is far from that good, with lots of slowing down and stopping. I can only do it strictly in time when it's really easy which for me is something like RCM 4 or 5. But I made a lot of progress since I started trying to play in strict time.

I can sort of vouch for the fact that WieWaldi was teasing you dear Pallas, I know I was And I also agree that the joke has gone far enough now. I'm sure we all love you dearly and want you to feel comfortable

Actually I found that I may have a book that is in between C C C C and "next piece" so I'm going to attempt that today.

I still find it incredibly brave that we're all sharing videos of our baby steps. It's the stuff nightmares are made of.... you know the type where you suddenly find out you that you are expected to give a public speech in front of a large audience and you have no idea what you are supposed to say. Scary thought, that!