Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [sight-reading]

Playing or singing a piece directly from sheet music, without prior rehearsing or studying.

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What is good software for learning how to sight-read?

I'd like to learn how to sight-read on my own, but practicing the same song over and over again just causes me to memorize it, and filling out worksheets is boring. Is there any good software for learning how to sight-read? I'm envisioning…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
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How can I improve my piano sight reading?

I am 25 years old, and I started learning piano about 6 months ago. I really want to play the piano well, but it takes me so long to be able to play any piece of music. In the meantime, I'm using a pencil to write the note letter next to the note I…
iddober
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As a guitarist, how can I learn to sight-read music?

I'm learning guitar right now, mostly from Justin Sandercoe's free online lessons, starting from the beginner's course. He has a lot of good tips for how to practice and drill chords, and scales, but he doesn't have much information on how to learn…
Brian Campbell
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Can people really sight-read advanced pieces?

I find it hard to read a staff and play it on the keyboard fluently. The most common scene for me is that I read one note on the paper and then lower my head and find out the location of that note and knock it. It seems even harder when playing…
Robot Dreamer
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6 answers

How do experienced pianists sight-read chords?

I enjoy sight reading, since it lets me "play" the piano without having to spend hours going over the same passage to get it right. However, I'm still progressing and have difficulty reading pieces with chords that have 3 or more notes, especially…
Michael Stachowsky
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Unknown notation - thick horizontal bars between notes

I haven't the faintest idea of what these bars could mean. They're thick and mostly horizontal with a slight tilt. Some sort of run perhaps? How do you effect the dynamics/notes these bars are referring to? EDIT: For reference, this specific…
Tanaki
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Is it really mandatory to practise sight reading at the piano?

I have seen many questions & answers regarding practising sight reading the right way etc. But I couldn't find the answer to my question whether it is even that important to practise sight reading. What I mean by practising sight reading is for…
Stallmp
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I sight read at 20 bpm, and not getting any faster

I'm working through Berklee Press' Modern Method for Guitar 1. I start every new piece at 40 1/8th notes per minute, so 20 bpm. 40 bpm (1/4 notes per minute) is the lowest my metronome goes, so I just make each tick an 1/8th note instead of a 1/4…
Frank Henard
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Fast Chord Identification

How would someone go about identifying chords quickly and efficiently? While sight reading, I would often come up to some strange chord and try to decipher it. It normally takes me (what feels like) ages to figure out what chord it is. I have seen…
Dasaru
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Is there any midi software that can display in real-time the notes I play next to the "real" score?

I'm pretty new to the Piano, and pretty bad at sight-reading (but getting better:)) Still, sight-reading a new score takes me an awfull lot of time, especially when I don't "hear" the thing I'm supposed to play. I know there's some software you can…
Brann
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Why don’t piano teachers teach the chord method of playing to young children and adults?

I have been playing piano since I was 10 and now I am 43. I have never really been good at sight reading sheet music. I have recently been researching alternative methods of learning songs fast as sometimes learning one piece of sheet music took me…
Jennie
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C in Treble or Bass Clef

I see a 'C' like sign in the beginning of the staff. What does it mean?
rajath
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Notation - when to use staccato vs rests

I'm arranging a piece of music I wrote for string quartet, and I'm not sure what the most practical way of notating the following rhythm is. I'm self taught and rarely use written music, so I'm not sure how a classically trained musician would…
Innealtoir
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Is it ok for a choir to learn by listening?

I'm in a high school choir and we just got a new teacher. He is adamant that we don't listen to rehearsal tracks or recordings, because "real musicians don't." Is there merit to this? Is it better to learn a piece by working on rhythms and notes…
Nicole
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Should sight-reading be emphasized less for piano instruction with new developments in technology

I realize this post may be controversial. I've been playing for about eleven years. I'm somewhere at the amateur/intermediate level. When I started sheet music was the only medium available. Since then, nearly every single song ever made has been…
prettykitty
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