Sight-reading, also called a prima vista (Italian meaning “at first sight”), is the ability to read and perform a piece of music you’ve never seen or played before. This could be a piece you’ve never played before, a piece you’ve heard before but not played before, or a piece you’ve played but haven’t committed to memory.
FOR MORE INFO >> What Is Sight-Reading?
When sight-reading, try to look at least one beat ahead which can mean looking several notes ahead, depending on the piece. To do this effectively, learn how to read groups of notes.
FOR MORE INFO >> How to Look Ahead when Sight-Reading
If you’ve been playing piano for a while and you still can’t sight-read music, it could be due to several reasons:
FOR MORE INFO >> 10 Habits to Avoid When Reading Music & How to Break Them
Learning to sight-read is a long process. How long it takes you to learn sight-reading will depend on how much time and effort you devote to reading music every day. If you only sight-read once a week, it’s going to take you much longer than if you sight-read every day.
FOR MORE INFO >> How Long Does It Take to Learn Sight-Reading
Emmanuelle Fonsny, or Manu, is a piano and violin teacher, composer and accompanist based in Sydney, Australia. She is passionate about sharing her love of music and her sight-reading and practice tips to help other pianists become more confident sight-readers.
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