I wish all of my students who are resistant to sight-reading would read this excellent article by Derek Polischuk, of the Michigan State Piano Pedagogy Blog: Musical Understanding through Sight Reading. At any given time, I have a handful of students who are naturally very musical and have a good ear for music, but lack strong sight-reading skills. They love laboring measure-by-measure to learn a song that’s really hard, but balk at putting in the time to learn easier pieces that I assign them for the sake of building their reading skills. If only they could catch a glimpse of how much faster they could learn hard songs (and how many more they could learn!) but making a concerted effort to develop their sight-reading skills…Can anyone else relate? Anyone have some brilliant solutions for students like this?
For all those who despise sight-reading…
Share and enjoy!
I’ve struggled with how to get my students consistently sight-reading for years… just a couple of months ago, I came up with what I hope (!) is a brilliant idea: I have gathered a nice-sized stack of pretty easy Middle C songs, and at the beginning of every lesson, I say, “Okay — give me back last week’s sightreading songs, and choose 3 new ones for this week.”
The assignment is to play JUST ONE a day, and only one time through. After 3 days, they start over again with the same songs. I planned it this way to remove all the fear and pressure… in addition, I tell them that I will never ask to hear the pieces.
So how do I know they are doing it at home? Judging by the eagerness with which they search through the pile each week for new songs (saving me the time and decision-making-process of choosing FOR them, and also giving me an extra minute to glance over their lesson sheet from last week), they are indeed playing them at home. Sometimes as they return music to the pile, they mention that they made copies for themselves. (These are all songs I have written up on Finale. A few of them can be found on my slowly-accumulating FREE collection at http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/beginner-piano-music.html.)
Of course, the songs are SUPER-EASY for most of the kids. But I decided to start this way to see if we could build a new habit easily. And there are lots of Middle C songs with sharps, flats, ties, and other things to trip students up.
Soon it will be time to start “Pile #2,” with music just a little bit harder. So far, I’m pretty pleased with how it’s going.
Dana
I had two siblings students whose mother does not understand this. When they went back to Europe during the summer vacation, I lent them books to sightread. In the fall they came back, their mom burst at me for giving them music that insulted her kids intelligence and asked me why their children still played such low level music while friends in Europe who began at the same time were so much better?!?! I explained to her the purpose of the sigthreading material before they left and all throughout their study with me from the very beginning. Apparently it did n’t sink in. Also it was not fair to compare kids’s playing so I had no answer to that. She refused to let her kids play sightreading music though they desperately need to improve. They are not coming back to my studio in the winter. It’s sad. I am very sure they will quit piano soon.
I love how your blog is not only applicable to piano teachers. As a voice teacher, I also find that sight-reading is such an important skill. I use small sight-reading excerpts for my students, but I feel that they aren’t really motivated by these to practice sight-reading on their own. I really like Dana’s approach- it seems very fun! I will try this with my students and see if I notice any improvement in their sight-reading… thanks!
From the perspective of a parent:
) (Words a mother loves to hear!) After six months of playing new music every week, they are playing many pieces which, at the beginning, they would have said there was NO WAY they could play. They are able to play some very tricky timing sections on the first run-through, and their familiarity with the notes is so much better. Guess I’m just saying I know sight-reading works, and so do my girls!
I have two girls, 15 and 12, who have lots of music talent and very little formal instruction. Sight reading is the one thing that has helped them improve dramatically! Each week they play chamber music with some older lady musicians — mostly violin/flute. At first they were very intimidated and did not at all look forward to going, but now they thank me every week for taking them.
One of my girls has a beginner violin student, and I will give her Dana’s suggestion. What a great idea.
I stumbled across your blog, and what a find. So glad you are here. Will be back.