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WEEKLY UPDATES:

-All lessons are now online until December 2nd! Keep an eye on this space for further updates

-CHRISTMAS BREAK: Monday, December 21st 2020 to Sunday, January 3rd 2021

 RESOURCES

IMPROVE YOUR SIGHT READING!

Got a grade exam coming up soon? Do you still feel insecure about the Sight Reading task?
Here you will find a very simple method to improve your sight reading skills :)

STEP 1 - RHYTHMIC READING

The very first step to improve our reading skills is to build confidence in reading the RHYTHM!
A good way to achieve this is by “tapping” the rhythm of the piece on your legs, on the edge of the piano or on any surface you wish.
At first, start by tapping the rhythm of the right hand and of the left hand separately. Remember to go at a slow and comfortable tempo, keep a regular pulse, don’t rush or slow down, an try to be as accurate as you can by counting in your mind. After doing this you can try tapping the rhythm of right and left together.
Once you get more confident, you’ll be perfectly able to tap the rhythm of the two hands directly together, skipping the “hands separately” step.

Check out this short video in which I demonstrate the process on an easy sight reading exercise.

STEP 2 - KEY SIGNATURE, SCALES, ALTERATIONS. WHERE DO MY HANDS GO??

It’s very important to asses the tonal context in which you are! We do that by checking what key the exercise is in, so that we can figure out the scale that is going to be used.
-The first thing is looking at the alterations (sharps and flats) that are written at the beginning of the piece, just before the time signature.
-Then we figure out if we’re using the minor or major scale associated with those alterations, by looking at the last note of the piece.
-Finally, we check out where our hands need to go by looking at the first note of the piece and at the fingering assigned by the book. You’re now ready to go! :)

EXAMPLE: In the example above, n. 7 “Dancing”, we only have one flat (Bb). What are the scales that only have one flat all the way through? That’s right, F major or D minor. Let’s take a closer look: there are no extra alterations written within the exercise (which could make us think of a minor scale), and the last note for each hand is F. Therefore, we can safely assume that the exercise is in the key of F major.
Finally, let’s look at the position of the hands: the right hand is meant to be placed with your pinky (5th finger) on the A just above the middle C. The left hand is meant to be placed with the pinky (5th finger) on the F immediately below the middle C. Now, after you’ve placed your hands on the piano take a closer look at them: while the right hands is “safe”, on our left hand we have a B (specifically, under our 2nd finger). WATCH OUT! Every time you play that not it’ll have to be B flat and not B natural! You better place your finger on the correct note right away.
Now you’re all set!

STEP 3 - DYNAMICS, ARTICULATIONS

It’s also very important to asses the kind of dynamics (piano, forte, crescendo, diminuendo) and articulations (legato, staccato, accents) that the exercise requires us to produce. Remember that overlooking at these things could mean a lower mark!!
Take a moment to notice all these details, and remember to to your best effort to introduce these elements in your performance.
EXAMPLE: in n. 8 “Andante” from the Grade 2 Sight Reading book, here below, there’s quite a few things to take care of! Notice how the piece progresses from forte in the beginning to piano at the end with a gradual diminuendo in the penultimate bar,
Also, notice how most of the piece is supposed to be played staccato, while towards the end you have two normal notes in the left hand and two legato passages in the right hand.
These changes in dynamics and articulations are quite dramatic and very very noticeable!! So it’s very important to produce them when you’re playing the piece

STEP 4 - ONE MINUTE TO PREPARE YOURSELF!

Now that you’ve done all these preparatory steps it’s time to get down to business! At the exam you’ll be given have one minute to check out the piece before you’re asked to actually play it for assessment. What can you do in this time? You are allowed to “rehearse” sections of it, so start by checking out the most tricky bars (where you may see loads of notes or articulations or an intricate interlock of the two hands). Try to be smart about it! You don’t want to give the impression that you’re actually already playing the whole piece, or you’ll be told off.

NOTE: If you’re at Grade 4/5 level, by now you should be comfortable enough with your skills to “sing” (out loud or in your mind) the melody of each hand individually, In this case, you can just play the first note and then try to read the melody by singing it. This is a very important skill to develop!! Not only it’ll help you for sight reading, but it’ll be also part of your Aural assessment.

To practice at home, set a one-minute timer for yourself and try doing all this, but only after you’ve done all the other tasks! It should be much easier and you should feel in control of all the other aspects of the piece.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

On the day of the exam, you won’t have time to comfortably do all these tasks - you’ll only be given one minute to check out the piece and then you’ll be asked to play it. This is why it’s very important to practice all these steps regularly at home and to become very fast, efficient and comfortable with them!

What’s the best way to exploit the only minute you’ll have to prepare yourself? My personal advice is the following: first of all take a few seconds (10-15) to check out dynamics, articulations, alterations and position of the hand. Those are typically the first things we forget to produce during the sight reading, and the examiner will surely notice if you miss any of those!
If you see any passage that looks particularly challenging with the rhythm, it may be worth doing the tapping step just on that bar/passage.
If you think the rhythm is all clear, just try to rehearse the two hands individually when you are in grade 1, 2 or 3. By the time you do grade 4 you should already be skilled enough to rehearse directly hands together, where needed - but it’s also very important to SING (even just in your mind) to get an idea of what is should sound like.

Good luck and be patient! The more you practice, the better you’ll get :)

EXTRA RESOURCES:
-Check out this Sight Reading exercise book, full of great preparatory exercises. Here’s the link to the volume for Grade 1, you can find the volumes for the other Grades in the “similar products’ section of the page
Amazon Link