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.