There are so many resources and ideas for teaching piano that it can sometimes be overwhelming to know what to include in piano lessons for our students. How much should we focus on learning difficult repertoire? How much off-the bench focus on games and hands-on activities? How often should we be incorporating playing by ear and improvising? But as I’ve been reminded over this past year with our intense focus on developing sight-reading skills with our practice incentive theme Cracking the Crystal Code, there’s just nothing that comes close to supplanting sight-reading as an essential area of focus for piano students.
This article Effortless Sight-Reading by Gerald Klickstein (author of the fabulous book, The Musician’s Way) makes the case well and offers practical suggestions for developing this skill. In summary:
- Start with Elementary Material
- Practice Sight-Reading Daily
- Instill Fundamental Habits
- Scan first
- Count mentally
- Look ahead
- Keep going
- Express the music
- Minimize effort
Read the article for more detail on each of the above points. And if you’re looking for a fun way to help motivate and guide your piano students to develop excellent sight-reading skills be sure to enter the giveaway to win a free Cracking the Crystal Code practice incentive theme package by this Friday!
Susan says
thanks for the book recommendation (Gerald Klickstein’s)!
natalie says
You’re welcome, Susan! It’s a wonderful book with so much practical help for musicians!