Sight-reading Tips Piano Pages  William Wieland
  • Sight read every day. (Refer to the bottom right.)
  • Before you play:
    • count and quietly clap the opening rhythm and any difficult rhythms.
    • play a cadence pattern and/or scale in the key of the piece.
    • quickly scan the music for any obvious patterns, first in the right hand then the left hand.
  • Play slowly.
  • Look ahead.
  • Keep going. Hit a few wrong notes rather than hesitate, stutter or stop. Rhythm is more important than pitch.
  • Watch the music, not your hands. Occasionally have someone shield your hands from your field of vision.
More Tips

4 Sight Reading Tips Liszt Wants You to Know

How I Learned to Sight Read (Despite Years of Piano Lessons)

READING MUSIC Some tricks from Margaret Fabrizio (YouTube)

5 Steps to Mastering Sight-Reading (Jazzadvice)

How to Sight Read Music (wikiHow)

10 Tips and Tricks for Sight Reading Music (Musicnotes)

10 tips to improve your sight-reading (The Strad) 		Music for Sight-reading:

Orchestral excerpts offer challenging material.