Sight Reading Tip #4: How to Practice Sightreading

By Anne Sullivan 

Sightreading is the easiest thing to practice. 

Sight reading is also the hardest thing to practice. The difficulty is that just sight reading a piece may be valuable sight reading experience, but it doesn’t teach you very much. It’s like constantly taking a test and never being allowed to study for it. So that’s why I’m going to give you a sight reading study plan. It’s a way to practice sight reading that allows you to learn, not just try, and it’s something you can do every day in just a few minutes.

First, choose a line or two in a piece you have been practicing. Choose a line from the middle of the piece rather than from the beginning. Yes, I know this isn’t exactly sight reading, after all, you know the piece. This is practice to develop your sight reading skills. That’s the point. Once you’ve chosen the lines you want to play, follow the steps below. Don’t skip any of them, even if they seem too basic. These are the habits you need to develop to be a good sight reader.

1. Check the key signature and set your levers or pedals.
2. Check the meter (time signature) and tempo and count a few bars to get the feel of the music before you start. 
3. Count and tap or say or hum the rhythm of the passage.
4. Keeping that rhythm in mind, play the bars keeping the tempo steady - don’t stop, don’t check the notes or fingering, just do it. You can choose to play hands separately or hands together.
5. Play the passage again the same way. You can play it as many times as you like but always the same way: playing, not fixing as you go. This may go against the grain - you want to fix and get it right. But that’s precisely the instinct you need to suppress in order to sight read well. 

The next day you can do the same steps with a different passage, possibly from a different piece. Of course, you can also use these steps with a piece you have never played before. That’s actual sight reading!
 

There’s one more item on your sight reading “to do” list. I want you to learn the sight reader’s motto. You should probably copy it and put it on a note on your music stand. Here it is: your attention should never be on the note you just played, only on the one that comes next.