How to Sight-Read Better & Pick up Songs Immediately

Sight-reading is a useful but sometimes under-appreciated piano skill. One of the best reasons to improve your music sight-reading skills is that there is more music composed for the piano than for any other instrument, as well as the fact that the versatility of the piano means you can play almost any song on it!

Sight-reading sheet music is an essential skill that every teacher at Loudlands Music Lab includes in their curriculum. If your sight-reading skills are top notch, a vast repository of great music is at your fingertips (so to speak). Better sight-reading skills enable you to get up to speed more quickly on the music you want to eventually polish and perfect. Being a good sight-reader is also invaluable for collaborative pianists; for example, if you want to accompany singers and other musicians, church choirs, or theatrical productions, sight-reading skills are a must. I was once called upon to sight-read the entire score of a musical at the last moment for a production that had lost its keyboardist due to illness. Boy, were the cast and director appreciative!

sight-reading doesn’t have to be perfect

The skill of sight-reading differs from reading, practicing and perfecting a piece in that the goal isn’t necessarily to play perfectly, but to play well enough. Naturally, what “well enough” means is open to interpretation. I’m certain I made many mistakes sight-playing that musical, but not so many that the singers got lost or that we didn’t end the songs together! In other words, my piano sight-playing skills were sufficient to get the job done.

Like skills such as playing by ear or improvising, the skill of sight-reading falls on a spectrum. For example, you may be able to sight-read well in keys with one or two sharps or flats, but struggle in those with five or six. You may be able to sight-read well in 4/4 or 3/4 time, but find 9/8 or 5/4 more challenging. You may sight-read classical-era sonatinas well, but struggle with the more contrapuntal music of J.S. Bach. In this sense, sight-reading is no different than playing – the piano and the music composed for it is so vast that no one can ever completely master it all. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a skill worth cultivating! 

There are some basic strategies that will help you improve your sight-reading regardless of the genre or required skill level of the material, and as a teacher I regularly try to include it in my online piano lessons for adult beginners.

Useful Skills for sight-reading music

There are numerous skills involved in sight-reading music:

Reading & “eye” skills 

Basic reading skills include an understanding of time signatures, note durations, basic rhythms, and intervals. Advanced skills include the ability to read ahead of where you’re playing, and when you do need to look at your hands, the ability to quickly find your way back to where you are in the music, which will be slightly ahead of the point when your eyes left the music!

Technique & keyboard recognition 

Cultivating a kinesthetic familiarity with the keyboard helps you keep your eyes on the page, rather than your hands. 

Ear skills

Better ear skills help you recognize when you’re making mistakes, such as playing notes that aren’t part of the key, and, in advanced cases, even being able to mentally hear what you’re about to play (which is the goal of every musician).

Theory skills

An understanding and recognition of standard five-finger patterns and common piano pop chord progressions (e.g. ii-V-I) can take your sight-reading abilities to a new level.

Often, the left hand is playing the accompaniment, while the right hands mostly plays melody. There are some accompaniment patterns that have been established over the centuries that piano music has been composed, so knowledge of these patterns can help you take what looks like dense left-hand material and break it down into familiar patterns that you can mush more easily pick up. 

Obviously, the better a player you are, the more advanced the music you’ll be able to sight play. However, this doesn’t mean that better players are automatically better sight-readers. Playing and sight-reading are two distinct – though not unrelated – skills.

5 Tips to improve sight-reading music

1. Sight-read new repertoire that you’ll be practicing.

If it’s too difficult to sight-read hands together, sight-read one hand at a time.

2. Use a progressive approach but challenge yourself sometimes.

It’s often most useful to sight-read material you can play decently well – say 80% correctly at a reasonable tempo. This means you’ll usually be sight-reading pieces that are significantly easier than the ones you’re practicing. However, consider occasionally challenging yourself by sight-reading more difficult repertoire. As a young teen, I became captivated by the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, which was quite challenging for me. After purchasing a book of his complete rags, I began to sight-read all of them, practicing and polishing the ones I liked most. I’m sure I played terribly at first, but this project improved my sight-reading skills dramatically.

3. Continue mastering theory.

The more you learn about and master music theory, the better the foundation you’ll have for successful sight-reading.

4. Sight-read regularly.

If possible, don’t make sight-reading another exercise you must do. Instead, make it a reward for finishing a productive practicing session.

5. Continue improving fundamental musicianship skills.

Endeavor to consistently improve your ear skills, technique, rhythmic skills, etc., and continue to practice and play consistently harder repertoire.

There are many free or inexpensive sight-reading resources that are useful for adult pianists, including children’s method books, scores at your local library, and free sheet music online. There are also sight-reading method books and apps available to support your mastery of this fundamental and incredibly useful musical skill.

sign up for piano lessons near quincy, ma

Before you begin sight-reading, it’s important to know the basics of playing piano and interpreting sheet music. And what better way to learn than under the guidance of a professional piano teacher? When you take private piano lessons at our local music school, we’ll customize your lesson plan to match your learning style and experience — no cookie-cutter piano classes here! Sound good to you? Schedule a trial piano lesson near Quincy to meet with our team and get started on your musical journey.

Doug Hanvey is the founder and lead teacher of Creative Keyboardist.