Tiffany Poon Hello Tiffany! Thank you for your videos, you have a positive vibe and your playing and insights keep me motivated to practice! I have a question : do you conciously not look at your hands while sight reading? Is it something that needs to be practiced or taken into account when sight reading?
You are one of three hundred youtube music teachers . I understand this is your personal blog . And I'm a poor fit for this channel . So I will disappear fast . Realnfast
Quick tips that are very efficient : - never look at your hands, you need the spatial recognition / proprioception - learn how to read note aloud or without rhythm the FASTER you can, you have to instantly recognize a note - read ahead, you have to anticipate some notes, a bar or more, being good with the two first points will help a lot with that - when you read ahead, solfège will help you to sing in mind the melody before you play it, so your brain know what's going on and you keep focused - practice ALL your scales, it will gives you natural fingering, so you won't struggle with this when sight reading most of the time (it's also the most beneficial exercise for all skills) - and very important, try to think as little draws, when you read a note, you have to associate the following note as a whole pattern with your hands, it's exactly like reading a word, you only read the first and last letters, and fgirue out wrods wahetver the oredr of the lteters jsut lkie mgaic :D - see the HUGE progresses you will make everyday if you go always out of your comfort zone when sight reading, headaches are a good sign.
What also helps (from my own experience): - Sight-read just below your playing level - Music theory definitely (like you said) - Read through / quickly analyze the entire piece before playing. What is the key? Are there any accidentals? Are there arepeggios or other patterns? Etc. - Try to humm or play the song in your head before playing it and see how it compares! - Try to mix up genres.
@@marywaters9821 I'm the exact opposite because I played drums as a kid, but now when I play piano I become note dyslexic and switch hands without even noticing lol
Maths and chem too , holy shoot . I didn't study , sign up literature , history , , geo or pe and military service at school but yeah , maths , chem , physics , piano are some kinds of languages too !
I was a poor sight reader, and will never be great at it. But one day I realised I was not seeing patterns or except for easy music not seeing complex chords, only the individual notes in a chord. As with reading words and sentences, it helps to train yourself to go beyond de-coding individual notes and begin to see whole phrases, rather like at first seeing whole words rather than letters, then progressing to several phrases or bars. In the end it should be not much more difficult than reading a short sentence. Those who play by ear a lot tend to delay facing up to getting decent at sight reading because they fall back on aural skills and even make assumptions about what the music says rather than actually read it. I did this for years until I owned up!
I know it‘s been about a year since the video was posted, but I just read your comment and I kind of have the same Problem. I wouldn’t call myself a professional or very good player, but probably somewhere in the upper intermediate sector. It became a habit where I‘d know the song by heart as soon as I could play it and then only looked at the sheets for phrasing etc. It sounds like you‘ve improved your sightreading. So would you say it‘s better to read easier pieces, but more of them with less mistakes or let‘s say something like a Rachmaninoff with 8 notes at a time?
Love the part where she says "when you are starting the first couple of years and you go through Mozart, Bach..." I've been 9 months on it and I just get pieces with names like "the sea" or "the squirrel" :P Won´t give up though :)
Theres many simpler pieces by those composers as well! In my last lesson I played my first Bach piece called "Danza" which is pretty simple and I've only been playing for a month. But I agree, the initial pieces are somewhat boring even though there's some interesting yet simple ones by renowned composers, than we end up never hearing about
You could NEVER dissappoint us Tiffany. I appreciate your 5 points very much as I need to learn new pieces for church and last Sunday was the worst sight reading of my 60 piano playing years. Thanks for your encouragement.... I will learn them. And thanks so much for being not only a beautiful pianist but also a lovely person :).
Sight reading is super fun! If you know how to make it funny. Try to sight read a piece you havent read before, just analyse the chord progression and try to improvize on this. After you made it, read it all the way through. Thats the best thing I ve learned and reading music became real fun, because now its not a reading, but understanding music.
I'll get there someday It's like when you really start getting hold of a language. You can memorise things in a language, but after reaching a certain level you need to learn to read, and slowly, as you read more, you start to understand how it's done, and soon you can read from just snippets of text and fill in the gaps beautifully
1:00 1. Keep reading: get the language of music. 2:22 2. Keep going after making a mistake: get a sense/feel of the entire piece. 4:02 3. Listen to music: pick up patterns. 5:22 4. Know your scales: learn basics. 6:28 5. Know music theory: learn chord progressions.
This is the most enlightening (not just one of the pieces of) advice on sight reading. Now I have the urge to tackle my next piece of sight reading. Thank you so much, Tiffany.
Thank you, Tiffany. Hopefully, anyone here, inspired by your video, will be able to sight-read as perfectly as I do. If some don't know, I've read whole orchestral scores that I also played with, of course, paying attention to all of the different important voices of the instruments.
Fantastic video and wonderful advice Tiffany! This video helped me get over the stress of sight-reading because it let me know I don't need to be perfect...I can stumble through measures and be light-years away from perfection but knowing it is still worthwhile makes it so much more enjoyable.
Summary 1. Keep reading. 2. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. 3. Listen to a LOT of music. 4. Know your basics. 5. Know some music theory. 6. Reward yourself!!
Hi Tiffany. I so enjoyed your playing the Moonlight. I played this when I was about thirteen, and my father always requested it. How he would have loved watching you play. He died many years ago long before iPads were even thought about. I’m sending all your videos to my two little granddaughters who are just at Grade 3 level - you will inspire them I know. Many, many thanks from a very grateful Grandma. Jo Hulme
Those are great tips, I recommend every music student to watch this video. Tiffany is a good teacher. Concerned about "bad sight reading"? I'll quote my late piano teacher who said that flawless sight-readers never practice enough to be top-performers. Therefore: No worry! :-)
A great resource for sight reading that boosted my ability noticeably is a hymnal. I use the baptist hymnal and it is a master class on hand positions and chords and the songs are very simple and musical
Sean I agree, the church hymnal is a great way to improve ones' sight reading skills. You have to read multiple notes instantly and keep the pulse moving at a singable tempo. No stopping. My teacher always said to read the chords from bottom to top and continue to look ahead and even if you make a mistake to just keep going. I remember I was 7 or 8 years old when introduced to hymns and at 10 was playing weekly in church 5 hymns for the adult Sunday School to sing before they started the lesson of the day. This was accomplished along with my regular assignments from my piano teacher. I am now 63 with a lifetime of sight reading. To those frustrated with their sight reading.....be patient and it will come. One important thing to remember that was mentioned earlier is to practice sight reading music one to several levels beneath your ability. If you can't read perfectly the first time find something easier and work up from there. Slow down as well.
Hi Tiffany! I've been watching your videos for a long time now! I started playing piano when I was 6 and never paid attention to scales and theory. After watching your videos, I got the courage to tackle these things! You have no idea how much you have helped me overcome those fears (I have many memories of my mom and my teacher forcing me to play scales for hours). My sight-reading has also gotten much better with practice. Thank you and keep doing what you're doing!
Thank you, Miss Poon ! Your suggestions are very inspiring. I am an old fogey who retired not that long ago and who has resumed playing piano after a several decades long break. Like for many conservatory students at the time when I was studying, the emphasis was on learning pieces, studies and technical stuff (chords, scales, arpeggios) with an immediate view toward passing exams. Out of the 100 percent mark, sight reading was only 10 percent so it tended to get pretty well passed over with the result that, while my playing was fairly advanced, my sight reading was really close to non-existent. I have recently started to try and remedy that situation by sight reading daily. Rather strange to be sight reading things from big book "easy piano" collections while at the same time practicing fairly difficult pieces (Debussy Arabesques, Schubert impromptus, Chopin waltzes etc) but I am really finding that it makes a difference - and is really quite fun !!!! I am hoping that in maybe 5 years my sight reading will be approaching your level. Thank you again for a most enjoyable and informative video. You have just taught an old dog new tricks :-) Subscribing now ….
When i was sight reading bartok's "With drums and pipes", i also found a lot of patterns there... quite unusual patterns, but hey, it helped☺. Especially the middle section of the piece is quite challenging, and sight reading it isn't particularly easy either, but all in all the piece is still quite doable. Also hearing the piece a couple Times helped me a lot. Have a nice day, i'm going to practice bartok's sonata now...😂😁
The one thing that I think that Tiffany omitted to mention was ,and I think this is very important, exactly WHY being a good sight-reader is so important. Erno Dohnanyi in his very useful book "Essential Finger Exercises" talks quite a bit about the importance of improving your sight-reading.Some of the reasons and benefits he outlines are 1) The acquisition of a wide knowledge of musical literature. This is important for the development of artistry and culture in ones playing 2) The improvement of one's technique. Because one has to find the notes quickly without looking at the keyboard and ones sense of the "geography" of the keyboard is improved. He recommends that one must play each piece no more than three times and then move on to the next piece.We are not trying to perfect these pieces.This is left for the development and perfecting of our repertoire pieces. Sight reading practice is very different to preparation for performance pieces. But it is a terribly important part of our training to becoming a well rounded,artistic,and musically knowledgeable pianist.Do lots of it.Solo pieces ,accompaniments, chamber music, orchestral reductions ,duets, everything that you can lay your hands on.And ,as Tiffany, says, KEEP GOING, no matter what.
I agree on music being a language. However, for me, it‘s more like a medium to convey someone‘s emotions and thoughts, just as she said that sometimes it‘s hard to „get“ the piece or the author‘s style, it‘s because we‘re „reading“ his thoughts directly. It’s their individual pattern of thinking and it‘s just as specific as spoken language, if not more authentic when it cones down to conveying „raw“ feelings. To me, it‘s a very abstract, yet interesting way to convey information. It‘s an intimate information with universal meaning, certain chords or combination of notes are mellow, sighing, sad, heavy, happy etc. You take in those emotions with a completely different way of „taking in the information“
Great tips, Tiffany! Another tip, which might be considered an advanced technique, is to always read ahead of what you are playing so that your brain has time to process the visual information.
It all boils down to practice and the number of hours we put in. I am a computer programmer, and although I never spent any time learning how to type ( I guess no one does it anymore anyway), I type with all 10 fingers and at a phenomenal speed that some of my non programmer friends find terrifying. I think its all because of muscle memory and some of the tips she just gave us. Put in the hours and it will become natural for the fingers to find the right keys. Right now, my aim is to be able to play the piano ( at least read the sheet music) as well as I could type on a computer.
I can sight read Bach and Beethoven pretty good, but when I get to Rach, I fail miserably when I have to remember the accidentals for the measure. Yes, my memory is that bad. Usually I hear the wrong note and then determine the correction. BUT this doesn't work with Ligeti which makes Rach look like Bach. Same applies to memorization. Bach and Beethoven, rich with patterns compress nicely for easy memorization, Ligeti (I wanted to learn a couple pages of Devil's Staircase to shock people when I have a chance to play) for me is uncompressible since there are no patterns requiring 10x to 100x more time to memorize and maintenance. I know this is a very cruel thing to ask, but if you've never seen Devil's Staircase, I'd love to see how well you do. (Or something equivalent if you already know DS.) You have a wonderful attitude and are tremendous gift - I'd say I hope you never change but I really mean I hope you continue to grow and enlighten.
Hit Tiffany, great video! What worked for me is buying Dover editions of the Following: Bach WTC All 3 Brahms books Both volumes of Beethoven Sonatas all 3 Bartok books And lastly, the "20th century Piano Classics" - which contains a piano reduction of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony. I try to play through each of those books at least once a year. But if someone wants to cheat, just playing through the Bartok books a lot will improve sight-playing dramatically.
Thank you !! You are doing a lot of good. First of all your videos are always positive in their approach. Like this for example: dont blame your self if you mistake, keep pushing, reward your self and so on. Adding your humour and warmth its very inspirational. Both in what you say and to watch too. A lot of life there:) And then yes, i think the truth about sightreading. Patterns, knowledge, training and maybe kind of intuition of what comes next. I will share this on my fb profile as there might be other piano interested watching as a good example of your videos. Have a nice evening^^ One of the op 72 Grieg Norwegian dances. You have probably not played them before, so good at sight reading:)
Nice video! It's the same for contemporary; knowing your scales or even being able to identify them is really important. Since I personally grew a habit of playing by ear, not sight-reading, music theory was the most important (even though it was painful getting through it heh). Keep up the great work!
It took me 5 years to master my sight reading (but sometimes I still struggle, especially those sheets that are hella hard). It takes years to really master it, just practice everyday UwU
If you are a bad sight reader the best way to learn is to read very very simple sheet music, always without watching the keyboard and not stopping playing until the end of the piece. Once you can play really simple songs then upgrade to a bit more complicated level. I was awful at reading and learnt a lot with a method called PianoMarvel (I don't have anything to do with them, no spam). It's the best way I found to start learning the basic process of recognizing chords fast and being able to position the fingers in the right place. I've been practicing for two years now for 15 minutes a day or so and can sight read intermediate-advanced level pieces, so playing is more entertaining. But I don't really study any piece I play tbh
Ok , I need to read , read , read , read ans read, ok Tiffany 😂❤️ I Love you , I want you to be my piano teacher ! And I wanna say thank you, because you make me wanna practice more everyday, and you and your practice videos make me won over 10 piano competitions since 2 years.❤️ My level actually in piano is that I can easy play Chopin « heroic » Polonaise ( and too much Chopin oopsie ) 😂 So thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️. I LOVE U , YOU LOOK SO ADORABLE, and you are an amazing and really talented pianist ❤️❤️❤️❤️. All my pianist love from a french piano student since 4 years ❤️💕☀️☀️ ...
Read the sheetmusic of pieces you don't know so you can't fake anything playing it by ear. Look at the key and time signature before playing a note. "6 flats, oh, Gb, or its relative Eb minor. 12/8... Compound time signature, 12 beats (4 pulses) per measure, eighth note gets the beat." You need to understand this before you start. Can you play the Gb (Eb natural and harmonic minor) scale? Do that before you start. Play a slower tempo than indicated unless you're sightreading for a grade (still play it a bit slow. I always preferred accuracy over speed.) Eyes should be scanning ahead a measure or two for fluency. Read a passage from any book aloud. How do you recite it fluently the 1st time? Because you're not reading what you're speaking. You're reading, then speaking what you already have read. Absolutely agree with Miss Poon about sightseeing constantly, and repeat, repeat, repeat until you're driving your family and neighbors crazy.
The most important thing with sight reading is to know your key signatures, followed by knowing your ledger lines, then knowing that if an accidental is added, that it applies to the rest of the bar unless otherwise denoted. Overall tip is that you should always try to read ahead by about a bar
always hated sight-reading no matter what. every year on abrsm exams,i always got always got low points on sight-reading ahaha but now i'm motivated to practice more on sight reading
Well, I don't know, but I (a piano student) can tell you why I am not that good at it: I played by ear for very long because I played only easy pieces (was a lazy child.. :D) which I knew by heart immediately when my piano teacher played them once (until I was about 12, then I started to take it more seriously). Some of my colleagues have been sightreading for much longer, either because they had to or because they're not as good at playing by ear as I am :D (I imrpovise and play by ear every day since I'm a small child).
So, you are a lucky person! When you can play by ear. I use Klavarskribo when I was 6 till now, 63. It look likes Synthesia but On paper. Sorry, I do not speak english
KU K tbh, I was half joking, I know all the scales and a good bit of theory but I think my problem that I don't read music enough, I do it like twice a week which is very little, I only learn pieces (even hard ones) by reading, I'm just super slow and laggy at it
I can't speak for you. I'm the worst sight reader I've ever met. A casebook in sight-reading crappiness. I started learning piano at 13 (I asked for lessons as a 13th birthday present - my Mom assumed it would be a pretty cheap present - ha ha). I had a great ear then, but still have, at 61, a really really REALLY lousy technique. But, compared to my almost non-existent sight-reading "skills", my crappy technical piano skills are wonderful. I find that sight-reading is very tiring. As soon as I lose concentration (sometimes I never even START concentrating), it all falls apart. I can be destroying some slow Bach, and suddenly I've totally lost any hope of continuity. I've never really thought through the thought processes which are taking place, but something just snaps and I've totally lost it. So your question is my question. Maybe someone out there has a path to sight-reading nirvana. Tiffany has mentioned a couple of things which help a bit, but something is still fundamentally missing in the connection between my eyes, hands and brain.
One nice story of mine is, when I had 1 week to learn the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata for a senior center concert... At the end I played it like only 3-4 times and then sight read it in concert
Thank you so much for all your sight-reading requests!! I made the video: ua-cam.com/video/5Pk8xFEptkU/v-deo.html
Tiffany Poon Hello Tiffany! Thank you for your videos, you have a positive vibe and your playing and insights keep me motivated to practice! I have a question : do you conciously not look at your hands while sight reading? Is it something that needs to be practiced or taken into account when sight reading?
You are one of three hundred youtube music teachers . I understand this is your personal blog . And I'm a poor fit for this channel . So I will disappear fast . Realnfast
thanks, even if i didnt need those advices. You re cute
Plz sight read Chopin nocturne 9 2 thx 🙏
Quick tips that are very efficient :
- never look at your hands, you need the spatial recognition / proprioception
- learn how to read note aloud or without rhythm the FASTER you can, you have to instantly recognize a note
- read ahead, you have to anticipate some notes, a bar or more, being good with the two first points will help a lot with that
- when you read ahead, solfège will help you to sing in mind the melody before you play it, so your brain know what's going on and you keep focused
- practice ALL your scales, it will gives you natural fingering, so you won't struggle with this when sight reading most of the time (it's also the most beneficial exercise for all skills)
- and very important, try to think as little draws, when you read a note, you have to associate the following note as a whole pattern with your hands, it's exactly like reading a word, you only read the first and last letters, and fgirue out wrods wahetver the oredr of the lteters jsut lkie mgaic :D
- see the HUGE progresses you will make everyday if you go always out of your comfort zone when sight reading, headaches are a good sign.
Lucas Teks thank you ;)
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Wow thank you. ❤️
" headaches are a good sign"
I´ll remember that xD
Lucas Teks this is much more helpful compared with the video
Step 1: keep reading!
Step 2: keep reading!!
Step 3: KEEP READING!!!
.........
Step 25: KEEP READING EVEN MORE!!!!
It's so simple yet requires so much grit.
Hey Tiffany, should we keep reading?
@@somebodys7404 No, we should keep reading
I think she'd make a wonderful piano teacher. ❤
Yep. I actually use the things she says to teach stuff to my students. Really awesome.
agreed
Agree. She wouldn't be angry or unpatiently
Rahul I commented her to do piano tutorials on the Steinway before but she never did.
She would be a good teacher. But I bet she’ll be a very expensive teacher.
What also helps (from my own experience):
- Sight-read just below your playing level
- Music theory definitely (like you said)
- Read through / quickly analyze the entire piece before playing. What is the key? Are there any accidentals? Are there arepeggios or other patterns? Etc.
- Try to humm or play the song in your head before playing it and see how it compares!
- Try to mix up genres.
🙌🏾🙌🏾
If you do decide to sight read something, choose a piece you've never heard or played before.
Yes, and then listen to it! Its funny sometimes
I can read notes but I CANNOT read timing for the life of me 😂
I'm about to do that right now.
@@marywaters9821 I'm the exact opposite because I played drums as a kid, but now when I play piano I become note dyslexic and switch hands without even noticing lol
I think there's a lot to learn from sightreading pieces you already know too. You can just focus on reading and nothing else since you're familiar
Friend: How many languages do you speak?
Me: 2
Friend: Really? What is your second language?
Me: M U S I C
Learn French
@@rampgamercracka4258 Why
Maths and chem too , holy shoot . I didn't study , sign up literature , history , , geo or pe and military service at school but yeah , maths , chem , physics , piano are some kinds of languages too !
Learn German
Im guessing ur native language is english.
Yes, no shit.
Me: rewards myself with sleep after one bar of sight reading 😩.
😂
_Princess 0.0 lol😂
Me too, except i am miles from sight reading both hands.
Lmaooo
Lmfaooooo
😂😂😂
Just keep reading.
Thanks for the enlightenment heh.
JUST KEEP SWIMMING JUST KEEP READING!!!!!!!!
Stray kids Stay yessss I was hoping to see that comment!
I was a poor sight reader, and will never be great at it. But one day I realised I was not seeing patterns or except for easy music not seeing complex chords, only the individual notes in a chord. As with reading words and sentences, it helps to train yourself to go beyond de-coding individual notes and begin to see whole phrases, rather like at first seeing whole words rather than letters, then progressing to several phrases or bars. In the end it should be not much more difficult than reading a short sentence.
Those who play by ear a lot tend to delay facing up to getting decent at sight reading because they fall back on aural skills and even make assumptions about what the music says rather than actually read it. I did this for years until I owned up!
That's true and as someone who uses perfect pitch daily,I recommend sightreading 100% AND perfect pitch 100%.You won't regret it.
M
I know it‘s been about a year since the video was posted, but I just read your comment and I kind of have the same Problem.
I wouldn’t call myself a professional or very good player, but probably somewhere in the upper intermediate sector. It became a habit where I‘d know the song by heart as soon as I could play it and then only looked at the sheets for phrasing etc.
It sounds like you‘ve improved your sightreading. So would you say it‘s better to read easier pieces, but more of them with less mistakes or let‘s say something like a Rachmaninoff with 8 notes at a time?
@@henrike16254 ,
Me too
Love the part where she says "when you are starting the first couple of years and you go through Mozart, Bach..." I've been 9 months on it and I just get pieces with names like "the sea" or "the squirrel" :P Won´t give up though :)
Theres many simpler pieces by those composers as well! In my last lesson I played my first Bach piece called "Danza" which is pretty simple and I've only been playing for a month. But I agree, the initial pieces are somewhat boring even though there's some interesting yet simple ones by renowned composers, than we end up never hearing about
Self taught people- b..but the first thing I tried was Fur Elsie?
im a new piano student, my aim in life is to become a professional pianist, to have a concert with my own songs and jazz, thanks to you, subbed
You could NEVER dissappoint us Tiffany. I appreciate your 5 points very much as I need to learn new pieces for church and last Sunday was the worst sight reading of my 60 piano playing years. Thanks for your encouragement.... I will learn them. And thanks so much for being not only a beautiful pianist but also a lovely person :).
Sight reading is super fun! If you know how to make it funny. Try to sight read a piece you havent read before, just analyse the chord progression and try to improvize on this. After you made it, read it all the way through. Thats the best thing I ve learned and reading music became real fun, because now its not a reading, but understanding music.
I'll get there someday
It's like when you really start getting hold of a language.
You can memorise things in a language, but after reaching a certain level you need to learn to read, and slowly, as you read more, you start to understand how it's done, and soon you can read from just snippets of text and fill in the gaps beautifully
1:00 1. Keep reading: get the language of music.
2:22 2. Keep going after making a mistake: get a sense/feel of the entire piece.
4:02 3. Listen to music: pick up patterns.
5:22 4. Know your scales: learn basics.
6:28 5. Know music theory: learn chord progressions.
Wow she’s so cool, such a nice person.
This is the most enlightening (not just one of the pieces of) advice on sight reading. Now I have the urge to tackle my next piece of sight reading. Thank you so much, Tiffany.
Good luck and have fun!!
hello i’ve never clicked on a video so fast wowowowow
Thank you, Tiffany. Hopefully, anyone here, inspired by your video, will be able to sight-read as perfectly as I do. If some don't know, I've read whole orchestral scores that I also played with, of course, paying attention to all of the different important voices of the instruments.
Thank you so much. You have been very encouraging. I am 71 years old. It's very hard, but you have helped me to keep pressing on.
And I'm 75. Is it too late for me?
@@lindabarnes6635 never too late
I do scales and chords with eyes closed. You see a difference within an hour. And you can play notes without looking at your hands much
she is so humble with her talent
Your humility in the beginning is why I subscribed
We need more people like you
Hit the bell in the first 20 seconds. This girl is really cool and laid back.
Fantastic video and wonderful advice Tiffany! This video helped me get over the stress of sight-reading because it let me know I don't need to be perfect...I can stumble through measures and be light-years away from perfection but knowing it is still worthwhile makes it so much more enjoyable.
omg
i’ve been waiting for dis forever!
thx tiffany
Mirtha Legrand october
Summary
1. Keep reading.
2. Don't be afraid of making mistakes.
3. Listen to a LOT of music.
4. Know your basics.
5. Know some music theory.
6. Reward yourself!!
She has the cutest gestures I have seen in someone💖
Hi Tiffany. I so enjoyed your playing the Moonlight. I played this when I was about thirteen, and my father always requested it. How he would have loved watching you play. He died many years ago long before iPads were even thought about. I’m sending all your videos to my two little granddaughters who are just at Grade 3 level - you will inspire them I know. Many, many thanks from a very grateful Grandma. Jo Hulme
When I give up on sight reading I see this video and it gives me confidence that I can read the hole peace through 😊
tiffany! i love how realistic you are and showing us your candid self, apart from giving us this invaluable content.
This is really helpful. Still coming back here after all these years. Thank you Tiffany.
Those are great tips, I recommend every music student to watch this video. Tiffany is a good teacher. Concerned about "bad sight reading"? I'll quote my late piano teacher who said that flawless sight-readers never practice enough to be top-performers. Therefore: No worry! :-)
"i actually dont think iam good (at sight reading)"
girl....🙄🙄🙄
She is comparing herself to other professional pianists, not to mere mortals
Jonas Hec mere mortals 🤣 i’ll take that
A great resource for sight reading that boosted my ability noticeably is a hymnal. I use the baptist hymnal and it is a master class on hand positions and chords and the songs are very simple and musical
Sean I agree, the church hymnal is a great way to improve ones' sight reading skills. You have to read multiple notes instantly and keep the pulse moving at a singable tempo. No stopping. My teacher always said to read the chords from bottom to top and continue to look ahead and even if you make a mistake to just keep going. I remember I was 7 or 8 years old when introduced to hymns and at 10 was playing weekly in church 5 hymns for the adult Sunday School to sing before they started the lesson of the day. This was accomplished along with my regular assignments from my piano teacher. I am now 63 with a lifetime of sight reading. To those frustrated with their sight reading.....be patient and it will come. One important thing to remember that was mentioned earlier is to practice sight reading music one to several levels beneath your ability. If you can't read perfectly the first time find something easier and work up from there. Slow down as well.
What i like with Typhanny, she plays and speaks with her hands 🤩🤩👍
Hi Tiffany!
I've been watching your videos for a long time now! I started playing piano when I was 6 and never paid attention to scales and theory. After watching your videos, I got the courage to tackle these things! You have no idea how much you have helped me overcome those fears (I have many memories of my mom and my teacher forcing me to play scales for hours). My sight-reading has also gotten much better with practice. Thank you and keep doing what you're doing!
this is litteraly a master class.
Thank you, Miss Poon ! Your suggestions are very inspiring. I am an old fogey who retired not that long ago and who has resumed playing piano after a several decades long break. Like for many conservatory students at the time when I was studying, the emphasis was on learning pieces, studies and technical stuff (chords, scales, arpeggios) with an immediate view toward passing exams. Out of the 100 percent mark, sight reading was only 10 percent so it tended to get pretty well passed over with the result that, while my playing was fairly advanced, my sight reading was really close to non-existent. I have recently started to try and remedy that situation by sight reading daily. Rather strange to be sight reading things from big book "easy piano" collections while at the same time practicing fairly difficult pieces (Debussy Arabesques, Schubert impromptus, Chopin waltzes etc) but I am really finding that it makes a difference - and is really quite fun !!!! I am hoping that in maybe 5 years my sight reading will be approaching your level. Thank you again for a most enjoyable and informative video. You have just taught an old dog new tricks :-) Subscribing now ….
Yes please. Bach - Minuet in G.
I agree with finding patterns. Great tips. Very helpful
Tiffany why aren't you my piano teacher? That's exactly the kind of person I need 👍👍
I love this woman. So Talented and a nice person!
You are a tonic for the beginner piano player.
"Clair de lune"
~Claude Debussy
Thanks tiffany😘for sharing
your tips about Sight Reading🎼🎹 it really helped me a lot😊😊
U might not think it, but this was actually pretty interesting and helpful. Keep the vids coming
Oh good, I'm glad. Thank you!!
That little jump at the beginning was so cute!
When i was sight reading bartok's "With drums and pipes", i also found a lot of patterns there... quite unusual patterns, but hey, it helped☺. Especially the middle section of the piece is quite challenging, and sight reading it isn't particularly easy either, but all in all the piece is still quite doable. Also hearing the piece a couple Times helped me a lot.
Have a nice day, i'm going to practice bartok's sonata now...😂😁
You are so encouraging 💖 thank you thank you thank you!!! Could you do a Video on understanding timing.That would be so awesome.thank you.
The one thing that I think that Tiffany omitted to mention was ,and I think this is very important, exactly WHY being a good sight-reader is so important. Erno Dohnanyi in his very useful book "Essential Finger Exercises" talks quite a bit about the importance of improving your sight-reading.Some of the reasons and benefits he outlines are 1) The acquisition of a wide knowledge of musical literature. This is important for the development of artistry and culture in ones playing 2) The improvement of one's technique. Because one has to find the notes quickly without looking at the keyboard and ones sense of the "geography" of the keyboard is improved. He recommends that one must play each piece no more than three times and then move on to the next piece.We are not trying to perfect these pieces.This is left for the development and perfecting of our repertoire pieces. Sight reading practice is very different to preparation for performance pieces. But it is a terribly important part of our training to becoming a well rounded,artistic,and musically knowledgeable pianist.Do lots of it.Solo pieces ,accompaniments, chamber music, orchestral reductions ,duets, everything that you can lay your hands on.And ,as Tiffany, says, KEEP GOING, no matter what.
Great tips shared in the most realistic context...Thanks alot...
I agree on music being a language. However, for me, it‘s more like a medium to convey someone‘s emotions and thoughts, just as she said that sometimes it‘s hard to „get“ the piece or the author‘s style, it‘s because we‘re „reading“ his thoughts directly. It’s their individual pattern of thinking and it‘s just as specific as spoken language, if not more authentic when it cones down to conveying „raw“ feelings.
To me, it‘s a very abstract, yet interesting way to convey information. It‘s an intimate information with universal meaning, certain chords or combination of notes are mellow, sighing, sad, heavy, happy etc. You take in those emotions with a completely different way of „taking in the information“
Great lesson Madam! Thank you for the passion you put in your videos.
I'm doing my level 7 RCM exam very soon.. my sight reading isn't that good but this helped a lot.
Thx Tiffany!
Great tips, Tiffany! Another tip, which might be considered an advanced technique, is to always read ahead of what you are playing so that your brain has time to process the visual information.
It all boils down to practice and the number of hours we put in. I am a computer programmer, and although I never spent any time learning how to type ( I guess no one does it anymore anyway), I type with all 10 fingers and at a phenomenal speed that some of my non programmer friends find terrifying. I think its all because of muscle memory and some of the tips she just gave us. Put in the hours and it will become natural for the fingers to find the right keys. Right now, my aim is to be able to play the piano ( at least read the sheet music) as well as I could type on a computer.
Yess! Thank you!! Have a nice day Tiffany 😊💕
I love your videos, because they're so natural... You are just yourself! And thanks, I always have trouble wth sight-reading... :)
I can sight read Bach and Beethoven pretty good, but when I get to Rach, I fail miserably when I have to remember the accidentals for the measure. Yes, my memory is that bad. Usually I hear the wrong note and then determine the correction.
BUT this doesn't work with Ligeti which makes Rach look like Bach. Same applies to memorization. Bach and Beethoven, rich with patterns compress nicely for easy memorization, Ligeti (I wanted to learn a couple pages of Devil's Staircase to shock people when I have a chance to play) for me is uncompressible since there are no patterns requiring 10x to 100x more time to memorize and maintenance.
I know this is a very cruel thing to ask, but if you've never seen Devil's Staircase, I'd love to see how well you do. (Or something equivalent if you already know DS.)
You have a wonderful attitude and are tremendous gift - I'd say I hope you never change but I really mean I hope you continue to grow and enlighten.
The best video I have seen from you. I like when you are analytical about learning the piano.
Supper informative. I subscribed and shared your page. I am a beginning piano player/sight reader and this helps alot
This is the video that I have been waiting for. Thanks for uploading
great info and advice.... reward yourself too Tiff!
Pavane for the dead Princess. .. You are the best!
Hit Tiffany, great video!
What worked for me is buying Dover editions of the Following:
Bach WTC
All 3 Brahms books
Both volumes of Beethoven Sonatas
all 3 Bartok books
And lastly, the "20th century Piano Classics" - which contains a piano reduction of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony.
I try to play through each of those books at least once a year. But if someone wants to cheat, just playing through the Bartok books a lot will improve sight-playing dramatically.
Thanks! - just what I need to keep on track... and to know to stop searching for shortcuts and do the work you are talking about. Thank you!
Joe.. Agree It is a lot of work for me too. When I stopped using sayings I got 2 times better.
very helpful suggestions. cannot agree more-music is a language.
You are so nice and talented! You're the best UA-cam teacher ever! :)
THANK YOU FOR POSTING 😎
Thank you !! You are doing a lot of good. First of all your videos are always positive in their approach. Like this for example: dont blame your self if you mistake, keep pushing, reward your self and so on. Adding your humour and warmth its very inspirational. Both in what you say and to watch too. A lot of life there:) And then yes, i think the truth about sightreading. Patterns, knowledge, training and maybe kind of intuition of what comes next. I will share this on my fb profile as there might be other piano interested watching as a good example of your videos. Have a nice evening^^ One of the op 72 Grieg Norwegian dances. You have probably not played them before, so good at sight reading:)
Nice video! It's the same for contemporary; knowing your scales or even being able to identify them is really important. Since I personally grew a habit of playing by ear, not sight-reading, music theory was the most important (even though it was painful getting through it heh). Keep up the great work!
me = goes outside for fresh air
everyone on the rocket = somethings wrong , i can feel it
It took me 5 years to master my sight reading (but sometimes I still struggle, especially those sheets that are hella hard). It takes years to really master it, just practice everyday UwU
Thank you for making this video, Tiffany! I found this to be very helpful.
If you are a bad sight reader the best way to learn is to read very very simple sheet music, always without watching the keyboard and not stopping playing until the end of the piece. Once you can play really simple songs then upgrade to a bit more complicated level.
I was awful at reading and learnt a lot with a method called PianoMarvel (I don't have anything to do with them, no spam). It's the best way I found to start learning the basic process of recognizing chords fast and being able to position the fingers in the right place.
I've been practicing for two years now for 15 minutes a day or so and can sight read intermediate-advanced level pieces, so playing is more entertaining. But I don't really study any piece I play tbh
This was lovely, thank you.
I love your videos, they have helped me immensely!
Thank you so much! I'm sure it will help me with my sight reading.
Thank you very much for your sight reading tips, Tiffany! I will start practicing your tips. George.
My problem is weird, I'm used to sight-read so I keep doing it automatically when I should study..ugh!
That's not really a problem. I had your habit when I was a kid :p It just means you love playing music :)
Me too lol
Yes you are good at sight reading
Hope you can make a tutorial for La Campanella and thanks for sight reading tips.
CM Lee just sightreading campanella 😂
@@Max-yp1iw how da hell do u sight read that monstrosity?
Sans Gaster was a joke
@@Max-yp1iw sorry if that kinda offended ur joke.
That was meant to be a rhetorical joke.
Sans Gaster okay haha I wasn’t taking yours seriously either :) but just in case
Love it! Thanks Tiffany!
Ok , I need to read , read , read , read ans read, ok Tiffany 😂❤️ I Love you , I want you to be my piano teacher !
And I wanna say thank you, because you make me wanna practice more everyday, and you and your practice videos make me won over 10 piano competitions since 2 years.❤️
My level actually in piano is that I can easy play Chopin « heroic » Polonaise ( and too much Chopin oopsie ) 😂
So thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️.
I LOVE U , YOU LOOK SO ADORABLE, and you are an amazing and really talented pianist ❤️❤️❤️❤️.
All my pianist love from a french piano student since 4 years ❤️💕☀️☀️ ...
I’ve never seen a hardcover piano book before. Only soft covers!
And the books in the video is really cute! I wonder where she got them from
Years ago, they published piano music "encyclopedias" . It may be those, or they could be piano library books.
Thank you for all of your tips! I would love seeing you sight-read ! ❤️
Thanks for this
Very helpful. I apreciate. You are a great musician and an adorable lady. Thank you,
This was really helpful especially for a self learner like me.
Read the sheetmusic of pieces you don't know so you can't fake anything playing it by ear. Look at the key and time signature before playing a note. "6 flats, oh, Gb, or its relative Eb minor. 12/8... Compound time signature, 12 beats (4 pulses) per measure, eighth note gets the beat." You need to understand this before you start. Can you play the Gb (Eb natural and harmonic minor) scale? Do that before you start. Play a slower tempo than indicated unless you're sightreading for a grade (still play it a bit slow. I always preferred accuracy over speed.) Eyes should be scanning ahead a measure or two for fluency. Read a passage from any book aloud. How do you recite it fluently the 1st time? Because you're not reading what you're speaking. You're reading, then speaking what you already have read. Absolutely agree with Miss Poon about sightseeing constantly, and repeat, repeat, repeat until you're driving your family and neighbors crazy.
The most important thing with sight reading is to know your key signatures, followed by knowing your ledger lines, then knowing that if an accidental is added, that it applies to the rest of the bar unless otherwise denoted. Overall tip is that you should always try to read ahead by about a bar
Great tips! Thanks Tiffany!
always hated sight-reading no matter what. every year on abrsm exams,i always got always got low points on sight-reading ahaha but now i'm motivated to practice more on sight reading
I'm a great fan of your videos, I've played piano for 3 months now and just wanted to know how to get used to playing without looking at the keys
Just keep reading
Just keep reading
Just keep reading reading reading reading
Haha, i was singing it as well 😂😂
Love that intro! 😆💕
Saw Jether same
why am I so bad at reading music???? 😔 😔 😔
Well, I don't know, but I (a piano student) can tell you why I am not that good at it: I played by ear for very long because I played only easy pieces (was a lazy child.. :D) which I knew by heart immediately when my piano teacher played them once (until I was about 12, then I started to take it more seriously). Some of my colleagues have been sightreading for much longer, either because they had to or because they're not as good at playing by ear as I am :D (I imrpovise and play by ear every day since I'm a small child).
So, you are a lucky person! When you can play by ear. I use Klavarskribo when I was 6 till now, 63. It look likes Synthesia but On paper. Sorry, I do not speak english
KU K tbh, I was half joking, I know all the scales and a good bit of theory but I think my problem that I don't read music enough, I do it like twice a week which is very little, I only learn pieces (even hard ones) by reading, I'm just super slow and laggy at it
I can't speak for you. I'm the worst sight reader I've ever met. A casebook in sight-reading crappiness. I started learning piano at 13 (I asked for lessons as a 13th birthday present - my Mom assumed it would be a pretty cheap present - ha ha). I had a great ear then, but still have, at 61, a really really REALLY lousy technique. But, compared to my almost non-existent sight-reading "skills", my crappy technical piano skills are wonderful.
I find that sight-reading is very tiring. As soon as I lose concentration (sometimes I never even START concentrating), it all falls apart. I can be destroying some slow Bach, and suddenly I've totally lost any hope of continuity. I've never really thought through the thought processes which are taking place, but something just snaps and I've totally lost it.
So your question is my question. Maybe someone out there has a path to sight-reading nirvana. Tiffany has mentioned a couple of things which help a bit, but something is still fundamentally missing in the connection between my eyes, hands and brain.
for most people the answer is -> we do not practice it EVERY DAY. that is it in a nutshell.
You explain really well
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS
One nice story of mine is, when I had 1 week to learn the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata for a senior center concert...
At the end I played it like only 3-4 times and then sight read it in concert