Teach Yourself to Play Piano: On Sight-Reading Pt. 2

Anyone who's had any instruction in sight-reading has been told to read ahead.  This piece of wisdom is crucial yet useless if not further explained.  Of course I would love to read 4 measures ahead, but that's just not in the cards, is it?  It is especially important to instruct young students on how far to read ahead when they're first beginning to read.  At first, it's just one note ahead.  After some experience their little gaze will widen to pick up more and more notation. 

A couple of strategies I've recently come across that will help you stay ahead of the music are using a flexible tempo and reading from the bottom to the top. 

Using a flexible tempo allows you to slow down (not stop) when you come across difficult passages in your reading.  This strategy trains two skills essential for sight-reading.  The first is, of course, reading ahead.  To see that a complicated passage is fast-approaching, your eyes will need to be ahead of what you're playing.  At first you might only be seeing that the difficult measures ahead of you look like Sanskrit, and that your chance of negotiating them smoothly is laughably slim.  Quite alright!  That is where slowing down comes into play.  The second skill you are training is processing the actual notes.  Now of course this should be happening every time you're sight-reading, but if you slow down and take care to understand and play all the notes on your score, your eyes will start to gather more and more information.  Soon the Sanskrit will read like a romance language that you took in college.  You're still translating in your head, but it's easier than Sanskrit. 

Reading from the bottom to the top-bass to treble clef-is something that I have not incorporated into my own practice yet, but I can see its benefits especially for a beginner.  Bass clef is usually more difficult to read for beginners than treble clef, so starting from the bass clef will ensure that they get at least as much bass practice as treble practice.  Another reason for this strategy is that the bass dictates the rest of the harmonies.  If you decode the bass line, faking your way through the rest of the parts becomes possible.  Understanding the bass motion will give young and old readers alike a greater sense of harmonic context.  If we're sight-reading within a context of a key, a harmonic progression, sequential succession, etc., our brains and our ears and fingers begin to know what to expect. 

For a step-by-step how-to guide to sight-reading check out my hubpage, Teach Yourself to Play Piano: How to Improve Sight-Reading Music.  Also, check out this video from a well-known piano pedagogue.  She discusses the flexible tempo strategy and other useful tips.