Totally. This was me Dr Hall. I managed 5 years of piano and didn’t pick up sight reading at all - literally nothing and now it’s all I want. Im awful at it but cracking the most basic piece as ‘reading’ is so exhilarating. I have literally dropped everything to learn to read now and I’m so glad. Like you say, no joy in the ‘repertoire trap’ for months on end and it just gets forgot anyway. I can understand why people especially kids turn away from piano out of sheer frustration in the end if sight reading is never taught. Thanks for your attention to Sight Reading. I have your book.
This is me too. As a child, my teachers did not give me the advice to work on easy pieces to master sight reading. I am tackling it now, and I've made so much progress in just four months. Sight reading is reading!
Nina Keilin - so great to hear of your progress in 4 months. I’m 6 weeks in. I can feel the beginnings of an understanding and a (slow) reflex action to what I see on the page. It’s crazy that reading music is being left to chance so often and that many of us emerge from the system without reading fluency. So glad for the discussion and help about it on this channel. It’s very motivating and a relief to be honest! Good luck with it all!
@@TheSIGHTREADINGProject I came back to elaborate on my comment and your reply. I also wanted to develop the skill to read music as a reflex--the way I do with typing. I finally made the connection that they are similar and that the same repetitive practice that helped me master typing would help with sight reading. I am now at the stage where I do not have to laboriously think about what each note is for the main clefs and some upper ledger notes. Working up to more fluency and speed. I have also ordered the book.
Nina Keilin - me too, I am a typist! Interestingly with my viola I can sight read well in 1st position in a few keys after just 18 months. It’s a wonderful thing, a real taste of what it could be like with piano (it’s much easier to read viola than piano being 1 melody line and smaller geography of the instrument). I no longer have that feeling of loosing repertoire when I don’t play it for a while as I can just open music and play. This is where I’d love to be with piano. Good luck. We will get there
So I can learn to improvise classical and jazz styles on my own by first learning music from the masters. My goal is to be able to improvise a prelude in all 24 keys.
Hi Cory, I don’t see the link you mentioned below the video, maybe it was removed.. if you have a chance can you please provide the link again? Many thanks, I really love your channel.
I wish I had the ability and genius of Tom Brier. His improvisational skills are absolutely incredible. There is a reason he is so revered by so many. So, that's why. I would like to sight read as well as Tom Brier, but, wouldn't we all?
Which exercises should i focus on? You have Franz Liszt scales in chords Carl Tausig study no. 91 Better than Hanon Major Minor Augmented Diminished triads and inversions Exercises from the Sight Reading and harmony.
I'm looking forward to reading your article. My piano teachers over the years have all told me that I am a good sight reader but if I make any comment about how to learn to sight read they say "that's not how you do it". I'm always tempted to say something back but I don't bother. Already some of the things you have said aline with what I think.(I know I'm not an authority haha) but it will be interesting reading the article.
21Cauzzie - yes it’s interesting about the teachers - I was begging my teacher to help me, taking books in (including this one and the Harris ones) but it was just repertoire, repertoire and I was getting slower and slower. I long to find a teacher that embraces it as a topic and can teach in a structured way like this because I do go down worm holes left to my own devices!
@@TheSIGHTREADINGProject THIS! My teachers were awful about this. They would sort of make fun of me for not being good at sight reading but they had no pedagogical ideas for helping. They were probably frustrated that it made their teaching look bad. Of course, this was 50 and more years ago.
Nina Keilin - Yes it’s crazy - when I hit grade 5 and we did my mock exam and the sight reading was horrendous, my teacher casually said ‘you should be able to play in any key now Kathryn’. It was never acknowledged that we don’t necessarily just ‘pick up’ sight reading through repertoire pieces. And like you say, no approach to fix it was suggested, nor the space to read broadly. Like Dr Hall says, when someone places repertoire ‘homework’ on you constantly you just don’t make (or have) time for reading as well. Not that reading was ever mentioned or set as homework! It’s such a massive task to sort out now but anyway, never mind, I’ happy to be finally sorting it out. Really happy 😊👍
Dr. Hall, what are your honest thoughts on Tom Brier as a pianist/composer? I see a lot of people wanting to play like him, but do you believe he is beneficial for younger musicians as a model?
From what I know, Tom was in a car accident last year and he may not be able to play piano any more. So first off, I express sympathy for him and his friends and family. I don't know Tom personally but have heard many performances of his on UA-cam. I really like many of his compositions (all ragtime) from what I have heard. But I have never been a huge fan of his playing. First off, any pianist who only plays ragtime and no classical is suspect in my opinion. It shows a very limited musicianship. Secondly, his sound is often harsh and not very refined. Third, he plays everything too fast and he barrels through everything like a truck driver. This is where "classical sensitivity" is very useful, which he lacks on all counts.
Hi I would like to ask you a fundamental question about double flats and sharps I find it difficult to get clarity on. For example Chopin op 27 #2 in five plats. there is a B double flat here and there throughout...now, since the B is already flat in the key signature which makes it Bd and then to double flat this note makes the actual note Ab ( two more semitones lower,) OR is the key signature cancelled out and the Bbb is actually A that is played. Thank you, Mervyn
Hi Dr. Hall, I recently purchased your “sight-reading and harmony” book. I have small hands; therefore, I can’t reach the chords in higher level. Should I rewrite and split them among both hands or should I roll them?
Hi Cory, I'm based in the UK and tried to buy your Sight-Reading and Harmony book - however when I tried to use the discount voucher it says it's expired? Are you planning any more vouchers as buy from the UK it's quite expensive.
Thank you so much for this post. I have returned to teaching after about a ten year break and have been soaking up information through You Tube and various online sources. I appreciate your common sense approach to music instruction. I have one very talented transfer student in particular in their first year of instruction who has managed to learn Grade Two pieces but who is facing very real struggles in the area of sight reading. To my mind, it is as if I have two different students to address....one who has expectations of learning more and more difficult pieces and the other who needs a good grounding in basic music reading. My instinct is to incorporate a beginning method program and allow the student to move quickly through it to shore up reading. As the student moved so quickly with their previous teacher, I need to determine exactly where the gaps are. My question is, What method book ( or other material)would you use for this purpose? The book you mentioned in your video is too complex at this point even at the 1-2 level.
Here is an excellent collection of exercises for sight-reading or note-reading for Grades 1-2. They are all based around C with no sharps or flats: ks4.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/e/e9/IMSLP105780-PMLP215814-Kohler_opus_190.pdf
That's OK, if you can manage both at the same time. The problem is that it is so "addictive" working on big, difficult pieces for long periods of time and most students aren't able to give it up for easier music in the fear that they will be criticized for playing music that is "too easy". There are too many pianists with great technical abilities who can play difficult pieces at around Grade 10, yet unfortunately their sight-reading is around Grade 2 or 3.
BachScholar Firstly thank you for your reply. i completely agree thats why im buying the books you recommended right now :D but there is one question that i have and its whether your sight reading book with spiral binding will ever be available in germany?
BachScholar - this is completely true and exactly the sort of student I was. I binned everything 6 weeks ago just to focus on the reading as with any repertoire expectation on me I just would not settle to reading. 5 years of always ‘meaning’ to get around to reading practice but never managing to until I was like the wood cutter that never sharpened the axe!
I don’t think you mean to come off this way, however, this video seems to suggest that some of us should swallow our pride and accept that we will only be able to play easier music, so that is what we should focus on. Abandon all hope ......?
I am a beginner adult, just beginning to learn sight reading. To me sight reading is a game, I am not a gamer, BTW. I only played one game all the way thru, 25 years ago, and it was at the advent of immersive computer gaming. As opposed to learning something more useful and valuable like playing the piano, spending about 3 weeks trying to top out in the game left me with not much more of an empty wasted-time feeling, a feeling that didn't leave me, at least enough to mention, here. Thanks for the video - a question, what are the "grades" you speak about. As an adult learner do I want to know about this?
@@MrFartyman44 Thanks - I am much wiser now, with your comment - googled around and learnt a lot... As an adult, I would like ot know I have achieved certain competencies, maybe this is the way. Cheers
He is talking about pinao grades in general I think because I have explored several different grading systems. Grade 1 in one method for example Royal Conservatory of Music and ABRSM are s;ightly different ABRSM is harder that RCM but it is not so way off that you can't consider it around a grade 1ish level. Most grading systems are similar. Think of it as Grade 1 easited Grade 10 hardest that is all you need to think.
I use the "eyetrainer" when I am practising sight reading ... it covers the keys and my hands, stops me looking down and makes me concentrate on what my fingers are doing in relation to what is on the page in front of me ... www.eyetrainer.co.uk
Even if you can't sight read and even if one does not want to sight read,that person will still be a musician. Here in India,people mostly play pieces by ear grasp pieces very quickly and faster than this person.There are great people like Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney who can't sight read,but still are great. So let that person shut up!"If you aren't good at it ,you cant get better" this sentence is wrong.Actually you can!With due respect for him,he is wrong!I know that he is a brilliant teacher as well as a pianist and composer.he is 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.But the explanation was wrong.Hope you can understand. i am sorry for my rude language!
I never said one is "not a musician" if you can't or don't want to sight-read well. When you say most people play by ear faster than me, you are implying that "playing faster" is the most important thing music. Well, try playing a Paul McCartney song faster than everyone else and you will be laughed at. Playing fast is not very important in the large scheme of things because there are very few piano pieces that are as fast as possible. Also, I said "If you aren't good, then you CAN get better" not "can't" get better.
BachScholar ,Oh my gosh,I am sorry I thought that you said Can't but you said Can.I agree the other things.And BTW the article was brilliant.Thank you!
Totally. This was me Dr Hall. I managed 5 years of piano and didn’t pick up sight reading at all - literally nothing and now it’s all I want. Im awful at it but cracking the most basic piece as ‘reading’ is so exhilarating. I have literally dropped everything to learn to read now and I’m so glad. Like you say, no joy in the ‘repertoire trap’ for months on end and it just gets forgot anyway. I can understand why people especially kids turn away from piano out of sheer frustration in the end if sight reading is never taught. Thanks for your attention to Sight Reading. I have your book.
This is me too. As a child, my teachers did not give me the advice to work on easy pieces to master sight reading. I am tackling it now, and I've made so much progress in just four months. Sight reading is reading!
Nina Keilin - so great to hear of your progress in 4 months. I’m 6 weeks in. I can feel the beginnings of an understanding and a (slow) reflex action to what I see on the page. It’s crazy that reading music is being left to chance so often and that many of us emerge from the system without reading fluency. So glad for the discussion and help about it on this channel. It’s very motivating and a relief to be honest! Good luck with it all!
@@TheSIGHTREADINGProject I came back to elaborate on my comment and your reply. I also wanted to develop the skill to read music as a reflex--the way I do with typing. I finally made the connection that they are similar and that the same repetitive practice that helped me master typing would help with sight reading. I am now at the stage where I do not have to laboriously think about what each note is for the main clefs and some upper ledger notes. Working up to more fluency and speed. I have also ordered the book.
Nina Keilin - me too, I am a typist! Interestingly with my viola I can sight read well in 1st position in a few keys after just 18 months. It’s a wonderful thing, a real taste of what it could be like with piano (it’s much easier to read viola than piano being 1 melody line and smaller geography of the instrument). I no longer have that feeling of loosing repertoire when I don’t play it for a while as I can just open music and play. This is where I’d love to be with piano. Good luck. We will get there
To learn music faster, and to play like tom brier
Lol. Wouldn't we all?
Yes
Your sight reading and harmony book I can't find anything better out there for sight reading. It is just the best
Thank you!
Content start at 4:27
So I can learn to improvise classical and jazz styles on my own by first learning music from the masters. My goal is to be able to improvise a prelude in all 24 keys.
Hi Cory,
I don’t see the link you mentioned below the video, maybe it was removed.. if you have a chance can you please provide the link again?
Many thanks, I really love your channel.
I wish I had the ability and genius of Tom Brier. His improvisational skills are absolutely incredible. There is a reason he is so revered by so many. So, that's why. I would like to sight read as well as Tom Brier, but, wouldn't we all?
Which exercises should i focus on?
You have Franz Liszt scales in chords
Carl Tausig study no. 91
Better than Hanon
Major Minor Augmented Diminished triads and inversions
Exercises from the Sight Reading and harmony.
I'm looking forward to reading your article. My piano teachers over the years have all told me that I am a good sight reader but if I make any comment about how to learn to sight read they say "that's not how you do it". I'm always tempted to say something back but I don't bother. Already some of the things you have said aline with what I think.(I know I'm not an authority haha) but it will be interesting reading the article.
21Cauzzie - yes it’s interesting about the teachers - I was begging my teacher to help me, taking books in (including this one and the Harris ones) but it was just repertoire, repertoire and I was getting slower and slower. I long to find a teacher that embraces it as a topic and can teach in a structured way like this because I do go down worm holes left to my own devices!
@@TheSIGHTREADINGProject THIS! My teachers were awful about this. They would sort of make fun of me for not being good at sight reading but they had no pedagogical ideas for helping. They were probably frustrated that it made their teaching look bad. Of course, this was 50 and more years ago.
Nina Keilin - Yes it’s crazy - when I hit grade 5 and we did my mock exam and the sight reading was horrendous, my teacher casually said ‘you should be able to play in any key now Kathryn’. It was never acknowledged that we don’t necessarily just ‘pick up’ sight reading through repertoire pieces. And like you say, no approach to fix it was suggested, nor the space to read broadly. Like Dr Hall says, when someone places repertoire ‘homework’ on you constantly you just don’t make (or have) time for reading as well. Not that reading was ever mentioned or set as homework! It’s such a massive task to sort out now but anyway, never mind, I’ happy to be finally sorting it out. Really happy 😊👍
Very helpful information sir. :) Thankyou...!!!
Thanks Dr. Hall, is this book, the well tempered Hanon, listed for purchase on BachScholar ? I didn't find it. Thank you.
www.bachscholar.com/books/the-well-tempered-hanon
Dr. Hall, what are your honest thoughts on Tom Brier as a pianist/composer? I see a lot of people wanting to play like him, but do you believe he is beneficial for younger musicians as a model?
From what I know, Tom was in a car accident last year and he may not be able to play piano any more. So first off, I express sympathy for him and his friends and family. I don't know Tom personally but have heard many performances of his on UA-cam. I really like many of his compositions (all ragtime) from what I have heard. But I have never been a huge fan of his playing. First off, any pianist who only plays ragtime and no classical is suspect in my opinion. It shows a very limited musicianship. Secondly, his sound is often harsh and not very refined. Third, he plays everything too fast and he barrels through everything like a truck driver. This is where "classical sensitivity" is very useful, which he lacks on all counts.
Hi I would like to ask you a fundamental question about double flats and sharps I find it difficult to get clarity on. For example Chopin op 27 #2 in five plats. there is a B double flat here and there throughout...now, since the B is already flat in the key signature which makes it Bd and then to double flat this note makes the actual note Ab ( two more semitones lower,) OR is the key signature cancelled out and the Bbb is actually A that is played. Thank you, Mervyn
The last one is correct. You don't count the flat in the key signature.
The Art of Sight Reading link no longer works - is it elsewhere?
Hi Dr. Hall, I recently purchased your “sight-reading and harmony” book. I have small hands; therefore, I can’t reach the chords in higher level. Should I rewrite and split them among both hands or should I roll them?
Either take the tenor notes with the right hand, or if those are too far just transpose them up an octave.
BachScholar Thank you.
Thanks for making this
Hi Cory, I'm based in the UK and tried to buy your Sight-Reading and Harmony book - however when I tried to use the discount voucher it says it's expired? Are you planning any more vouchers as buy from the UK it's quite expensive.
I do not have control over the vouchers for the hardcopies, unfortunately.
Thank you so much for this post. I have returned to teaching after about a ten year break and have been soaking up information through You Tube and various online sources. I appreciate your common sense approach to music instruction. I have one very talented transfer student in particular in their first year of instruction who has managed to learn Grade Two pieces but who is facing very real struggles in the area of sight reading. To my mind, it is as if I have two different students to address....one who has expectations of learning more and more difficult pieces and the other who needs a good grounding in basic music reading. My instinct is to incorporate a beginning method program and allow the student to move quickly through it to shore up reading. As the student moved so quickly with their previous teacher, I need to determine exactly where the gaps are. My question is, What method book ( or other material)would you use for this purpose? The book you mentioned in your video is too complex at this point even at the 1-2 level.
Here is an excellent collection of exercises for sight-reading or note-reading for Grades 1-2. They are all based around C with no sharps or flats:
ks4.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/e/e9/IMSLP105780-PMLP215814-Kohler_opus_190.pdf
Thank you very much!
hey Cory the memorial 20 code only gave me like 3 dollars off
When some else has to tell you why you want something.. If you’re that far gone then playing the piano will be far above your IQ.
Huh.... Misleading video. It s just an ad.
what if i work on a big piece like you mentioned in the video and work on sight reading parellely
That's OK, if you can manage both at the same time. The problem is that it is so "addictive" working on big, difficult pieces for long periods of time and most students aren't able to give it up for easier music in the fear that they will be criticized for playing music that is "too easy". There are too many pianists with great technical abilities who can play difficult pieces at around Grade 10, yet unfortunately their sight-reading is around Grade 2 or 3.
BachScholar Firstly thank you for your reply. i completely agree thats why im buying the books you recommended right now :D but there is one question that i have and its whether your sight reading book with spiral binding will ever be available in germany?
I have no idea about where it will be available. The printing and shipping is not under my control but is done by BachScholar's book producing agent.
BachScholar - this is completely true and exactly the sort of student I was. I binned everything 6 weeks ago just to focus on the reading as with any repertoire expectation on me I just would not settle to reading. 5 years of always ‘meaning’ to get around to reading practice but never managing to until I was like the wood cutter that never sharpened the axe!
@@BachScholar me in a nutshell
Because I want to better than my music teacher.......
Hopefully
That's the goal, yes?
I don’t think you mean to come off this way, however, this video seems to suggest that some of us should swallow our pride and accept that we will only be able to play easier music, so that is what we should focus on. Abandon all hope ......?
There's nothing wrong with playing easier music. I didn't mean to sound sarcastic or derogatory.
I am a beginner adult, just beginning to learn sight reading. To me sight reading is a game, I am not a gamer, BTW. I only played one game all the way thru, 25 years ago, and it was at the advent of immersive computer gaming. As opposed to learning something more useful and valuable like playing the piano, spending about 3 weeks trying to top out in the game left me with not much more of an empty wasted-time feeling, a feeling that didn't leave me, at least enough to mention, here. Thanks for the video - a question, what are the "grades" you speak about. As an adult learner do I want to know about this?
I think he's talkign about abrsm exams
@@MrFartyman44 Thanks - I am much wiser now, with your comment - googled around and learnt a lot... As an adult, I would like ot know I have achieved certain competencies, maybe this is the way. Cheers
He is talking about pinao grades in general I think because I have explored several different grading systems. Grade 1 in one method for example Royal Conservatory of Music and ABRSM are s;ightly different ABRSM is harder that RCM but it is not so way off that you can't consider it around a grade 1ish level. Most grading systems are similar. Think of it as Grade 1 easited Grade 10 hardest that is all you need to think.
I use the "eyetrainer" when I am practising sight reading ... it covers the keys and my hands, stops me looking down and makes me concentrate on what my fingers are doing in relation to what is on the page in front of me ... www.eyetrainer.co.uk
You are wrong,BachScholar.👎🏽👎🏽
could you explain why? i am legitimately curious
Even if you can't sight read and even if one does not want to sight read,that person will still be a musician. Here in India,people mostly play pieces by ear grasp pieces very quickly and faster than this person.There are great people like Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney who can't sight read,but still are great. So let that person shut up!"If you aren't good at it ,you cant get better" this sentence is wrong.Actually you can!With due respect for him,he is wrong!I know that he is a brilliant teacher as well as a pianist and composer.he is 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.But the explanation was wrong.Hope you can understand. i am sorry for my rude language!
I never said one is "not a musician" if you can't or don't want to sight-read well. When you say most people play by ear faster than me, you are implying that "playing faster" is the most important thing music. Well, try playing a Paul McCartney song faster than everyone else and you will be laughed at. Playing fast is not very important in the large scheme of things because there are very few piano pieces that are as fast as possible. Also, I said "If you aren't good, then you CAN get better" not "can't" get better.
BachScholar ,Oh my gosh,I am sorry I thought that you said Can't but you said Can.I agree the other things.And BTW the article was brilliant.Thank you!