Beginners and Intermediate Students

I teach my beginners and intermediate students "guide notes" first.
I start with middle C, high C, low C, G form G clef and F from F clef . Form there, we start reading short pieces with seconds only. They are not supposed to name the other notes (around ttheir guide notes) but just describe them as "second up, second down". After they master that, I inroduce the thirds , fourths and so on. The same thing applies to the guide notes. After they master the mid C, low C, High C, F and G, I add another set at a time: low G (from F clef) and high F (from G clef). Next, I add what my kids call high-high C and low-low C. we keep using the same strategy adding one interval at a time.
For rhythm, I make them tap both hands together from the beginning. If they can play hands together, they can tap them together too.
As they improve, we start "mapping" the pieces (always short). They have to draw lines for both hands that describe the movement and rhythm of their music. I let them use their imagination as far as their maps go. Each student is different. These maps are also great to memorize pieces.
I use a book which was suggested to me by an OMTA adjudicator called "Accelerando". They have a series of progressive technical exercises (always two lines long) with rich rhythms and key signatures. I realy recomend them. They sound very nice two. My students love them!

Duets

Duets are a wonderful way to practice sight-reading.
The first duets I use are Pozzoli (the Italian composer, not the Mexican soup) called "Sorrisi Infantili" and Diabelli "Melodious Pieces". They are all in 5 finger position. At this point, my students are also practcing 5 finger patterns in all keys.
Later, I add Kabalevsky's "Favorite piano duets for beginners" and Dello Joio's "Family Album".
There is an amazing selection of nice duets from the 20th century and contemporary composers.
The next step should be learning scales and modes and mapping those as well.

Observing myself

I always advice students to sight-read music a notch below their level. During my readings about this subject, I have bumped into this same advice several times. I however, realized that I am resisting or ignoring this important detail. Aside form the hymns, I have been trying to challenge myself with difficult pieces. Today, I spend a couple if hours sight reading lower level pieces. It was very rewarding and I had the chance to observe my reactions in a more efficient way.
Here are the results:
- I was able to look ahead (some) and use my "buffers" (this was very exciting)
- I could perceive notes and patterns from my parafoveal area (outside the fovea) as if I could GUESS the notes.
- I can read the bass clef much better then the treble
- I read polyphony easier then homophony
- When I play the hymns, I use my keyboard so I can turn the sound of and this works very well. On the other hand, without picking at the keyboard at all (although I rarely do it) things get very complicated. The visual sense is vital while the auditory sense is not a necessity while I sight-read.

"The effects of skill on the eye-hand span during musical sight-reading"

The article by S. Furneaux and M.F. Land (Sussex for Neuroscience, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK) is one of the very few papers written about sigh-reading dual-staved scores since the 1940s. Weaver (1943) and Van Nuy & Weaver (1943) have looked into sight-readers reading two staves. Sloboda (1974) and Truit at al (1997) both have looked into single-staved scores and sight-readers. Sloboda looked into *EHS of pianists without looking and measuring eye movement. His results are likely to be overestimated (we will discuss it later).
This paper is unique because it measures EHS in *note index, *time index as well as the*time delay aspect of sight-reading.
The results were:
"- professionals showed a 4 notes index versus the amateurs who showed a 2 notes index
- the time index varied with tempo therefore, the length of time that information is stored in the musicians *buffers is related to performance tempo rather than skills, but that professionals can fit more information into their buffers."
It is a fascinating article that shows the zig-zag movement of the pianist's eyes in very informative graphs (you should take a look at them). Ot was found that pianists do not read the two staves together. I realize that my theory of us pianists having to make choices as we sight-read is very likely since our eyes zig-zag and move not only horizontally, but vertically. I would like however, to find an article about these abilities to make choices where two pianists are analyzed while sight-reading the same score. What king of zig-zag is more effective?

*EHS = eye hand span
*note index = number of notes between hand and eye
*time index = time between fixation and performance
*time delay = how long the information is stored before the actual performance
*buffer = a temporary memory area used when transferring data between devices and programs operating at different speeds

"Chunking Behavior"

I have yet to read more about "chunking". It is still too early on my quest. So far, I have just bumped into "encourage chunking behavior" without further explanations besides finding the definition of it.
For "chunks", I use a lot of Czerny, Clementi ,Kabalevsky, Tansman, Pishna, Berens and Heller with my early intermediate students (to complement their sonatinas Clementi, Diabelli, etc). For advanced intermediate students, I work on Sacarlatti, Haydn, Diabelli, Burgmuller.
I, on the other hand, have been avoiding working on my "chunks". Today, however, I found an excellent Czerny (a Chinese edition) which is perfect for more advanced musicians. It explores "chunkings" to exhaustion and it has wonderful fingering. You also have to work very hard on the geography of the keyboard (they go through several key signatures).
It is useless for me to go through studies that I use with my students because I know them too well.
I will start working on them daily and post here my results.

The book ( you probably know it already), is called Schule des virtuosen Op.365

I am currently reading another research about sight-reading which studies pianists reading two staves. It is called: The effects of skill on eye-hand span during sight-reading music (Royal Society) by S. Furneaux and M. S. Land.
I will post the conclusions later on.

Surprising research results are GOOD news for me!

I have read an article called "The Perceptual Span and the Eye-Hand Span in Sight-Reading Music" by Frances E. Truitt, Charles Clifton, Jr., Alesander Pollatsek, and Keith Rayner - Journal of Visual Cognition, 1997, 4(2), 143-161. Department of Psychology - University of Massachussets, Amherst, USA.
The conclusions which do not differ too much from another experimental studies give me a lot of hope. Maybe all I need is more practice.
The researchers, concluded that "pianists do not need to see more than the whole measure that they are fixating in order to perform normally and the eye-hand span is a little more than one beat". They say, and it is true, these results are " at odds with the belief about sight-reading among musicians which is that their eyes need to be well ahead of their hands".
The authors state that the center of fixation is only one note ahead of the hands and that "the maximal region that musicians obtain information from is about 3-4 beats ahead of the note being played". Sight-readers, they say, rarely extract information ahead of the measure being played.
The authors also say that musicians are "seduced by the illusion that detail can be extracted from a wider region of the parafovea and periphery than is actually possible". While sight-reading, the eyes STAY VERY CLOSE TO THE NOTE that is being played.

The developmental optometrist I am in contact with has sent me this article. I am going to meet with her to get acquainted with the machines they use for measuring eye movements so I understand it better. She also wants to see some of my piano scores since I have told her that although this research was done with pianists, they have used only ONE line music which differs a lot from the pianists reality.

I would like to thank Sara and Lisa for the nice comments. Can you give suggestions that I can try during my practice?

Two month review

I have seen another blog about sight-reading on the internet. The blogger has practiced two hours of sight-reading a day for a whole year and did not seem happy with the results. I am under the impression that she is not an advanced musician. She is probably young and based on the repertoire she was playing, she is very likely an intermediate piano player. I had the feeling she was only focusing on the "same old rules".
I am however, very happy with my results after only two months of practice.
This week, I will dedicate myself to review the new things I have found out during these months which are helping me a great deal.
These things are:
- warming up with all arpeggios and modes (for wise fingering choices).
- making sure I read accidentals ahead of (or instead) of the notes.
- reading high chord down/up and low chords up/down
- dividing chords with more then 3 notes in two sections (a triad and then, the remaining of it)
- playing a wide variety of styles.
- keeping track of common tones.

Surprising research results

A reader has just asked me about the optometrist.
I have been reading a scientific article she sent me and the results are very surprising.
I will share details about it after I read it a second time.
The optometrist has invited me to meet at her office so I can see the instruments they use to measure eye movements. She also sent me a list with several other articles. As I read them, I will post what I find here.

Marlos Nobre's Piano Music

Marlos Nobre, a modern Brazilian composer, was the person who triggered my interest in improving my sight reading skills along with my friend 'B' who gave me the idea to start this blog. If you are interested in knowing more about Marlos Nobre, you can go either to Wikipedia or to his web site. He is a wonderful composer and I am addicted to his music.
Marlos Nobre uses sophisticated Brazilian rhythms and sight-reading some of his music can be a challenge. I have been working on a piece where sometimes I have to read 3 lines and- believe it or not- 12 notes at the same time. As a Brazilian, the rhythms come easily to me. However, reading his music is often a nightmare. Since I love this composer so much, I had to come up with a plan.
While working on a piece called Ciclo Nordestino #4, Op.43 - Maracatu, I faced great difficulties. Both left and right hands have to play 5 note chords each and very fast and chromatic passages.
After a lot of headaches, I found a way to read the chords in a more effective way. I am sure good sight-readers do this same thing I am about to describe although I have never heard about it. Maybe they do it without being aware of it?
I decided to read the chords in two steps. First I read the 4 notes stacked above each other, then I add (read) the remaining note. This works wonders. However, I still struggle with all the chromaticism. Maybe one day....
In this same piece, there is another very fast chromatic chord section with 3 lines to read in addition to the super fun but difficult rhythm. In this section, the chords have 5 notes each that I have been reading by dividing them in an inverted triad (which is easy to read) plus a third (also easy and familiar). If you try this, you will be impressed with the results.
The same thing can be done with 4 note chords. This accounts for my second "chord reading" break through.
I am never thought I would improve this fast!

See the post "Sight-Reading Chords" for more information about this subject.

More about hymns

Yesterday I started practicing the 20 hymns without stopping between each of them . This way, I have to change key signatures very fast. I also have been paying more attention to the common tones. The bass and tenor voices are less eventful and they have more common tones than the soprano and alto. This has been very helpful and I can feel my eyes reading the left hand ahead giving me more time to focus on the right hand.
After I play the hymns and the Scarlatti, I play through some Broadway songs. They modulate a lot and after the hymn practicing, I have been much more sharp when changing key signatures.

I have been reading all music styles. The Broadway pieces, Copland songs along with Latin music, are great for rhythm.

Rules?

I am starting to think that there are no strict rules for sight-reading.
I have been trying to play and teach my students to read chords down/up all my life and here I am now, experiencing a lot of improvement with my new way of reading chords. However, even my new way should not be set as a rule. The truth is, we should be making quick decisions as we read. I hope with practice I can get better at it.
The same thing applies to the fingering. There are several ways of doing them. A quick decision also has to be made.
Today, as I sight-reading a few Scarlatti Sonatas, I found it impossible to keep my eyes always on the score. There are several jumps that I could never have played without looking at the keys. I did not have any problems going back to the score. There is plenty of time to do it. Maybe this "rule" about never looking at the keyboard should be enforced only with beginners.
What do you think?

Hymns. God help me!

As I have mentioned before, my main problem reading music is seeing vertically. Therefore, I have started my sight-reading practice going through hymnbooks. The treble and bass clefs are separated by the words, making the distance from one to another even greater then on a regular piano score.
Other advantages for playing hymns:
- They are short and I can go through many different key signatures in a short period of time.
- The four-part writing keeps me busy.
- They are simple enough that I can focus on looking ahead and I can still remember the past so I know where I am on the keyboard.
Disadvantages:
- I really dislike the way they sound. Most of them seem to have the wrong time signature.
I play 20 hymns to get my eyes “warmed up” but since this process is so painful to me, I reward myself with one cherry after each one. Thank GOD for cherry season!
The other day, while my daughter was sleeping, I practiced them on my keyboard with the volume turned off and guess what? I could still hear them in my head and they were still bad.
When I die, if God happens to be waiting for me, I’ll let him know about my twenty hymns a day in a quest for forgiveness and admittance to heaven. If I do have to tell this tale, I’ll leave out the rewards for playing the hymns in an attempt to sound more dramatic. I am sure if He is there, He is not watching “every detail”. Let’s not exaggerate…
If you and God disagree with me, try playing a “Mexican style” hymns. Jesus Cristo!
- If they are not helpful, at least I can guarantee you will get quite good at playing 10ths on the left hand ☺ (Maybe this should go on the advantage list).

Wagner Songs

After the hymns, I play through some Italian songs and Wagner songs. These are “music” to my ears. I highly recommend them. The Italian songs are less challenging to read than the Wagner songs. Wagner is very chromatic, touching upon yet another problem I have: remembering accidentals other then the ones on the key signature.
Right after a new person is introduced to me, I forget his or her name. It is something I can’t help. My brain immediately sends me a message telling me that I didn’t pay attention to the name. Well, this very same thing happens with the accidentals. Much like when I see the new person and don’t remember their name, when I play an altered note and the same note comes back in the same measure, I don’t remember it. Wagner makes me work very hard on it.

After the songs, I play Scarlatti. I have already gone through all Haydn Sonatas.

I had another major break through. I will right about it next time.

Fingering

My ability to improvise good fingering while sight-reading comes from my technical skills.
Everyday I go through all arpeggios, scales in thirds, major and minor scales as well as all the other modes. Lots of pianists neglect practicing the modes, therefore missing a great opportunity to prepare fingering for all "situations".
I recommend sight-reading through Scarlatti sonatas. They are very challenging because one can find pieces of scales, modes and arpeggios throughout them. I use a Schirmer edition which does not have fingering forcing me to apply my technical skills.
Scarlatti is also good because one will have to move and skip all over the keyboard. Besides the scales and arpeggios, Scarlatti wrote a great deal of musical patterns (i.e. broken intervals) into his sonatas.

My attempts to read high chords down/up and low chords up/down, is turning out to be very successful. I am thrilled!

tchau now

Sight-Reading Chords

My first try sight-reading everything from top to bottom was frustrating. I found myself making eye movement choices as I read. I've found that the most efficient way is to read high chords down/up and low chords top/down. By doing this, I can keep my eyes between the two staffs, in a more central position. If I have discipline and if I can be consistent, I believe this is more effective method (at least for now...).
Try it with Hymns. They are simple enough that one can have more awareness of the eye movements.


See also the post " Marlos Nobre's Piano Music" for more tips on reading chords.