When you are ready to learn a new piece of music for the piano, do you find that you spend days or even weeks carefully reviewing each note? Does the frustration of this process make you long to simply give up on the piano completely and give up on your desires of creating lovely music? Do you watch other people play the piano and wish that you could read the music as quickly and easily as they do? With the tips offered here, you can enjoy those same skills. All you need is the desire to learn and implement these tips.
1. Practice sight reading! Just as with any other skill, the more you practice, the better you will get. Also, when you focus so much on memorizing the music that you will perform for other people, your skills at sight reading new tunes can fade. To keep your sight reading skills high, make it a point to also play new and fresh pieces. Taking the time to sight read new piano sheet music just for fun and for the sight reading practice will help your skills at sight reading to rapidly expand and grow.
2. It doesn't have to be perfect! When sight reading music, it's okay to cut yourself some slack. You will miss a few notes, or play a dynamic or tie slightly off. It's okay and natural for this to happen when sight reading. The main thing is to keep going. Don't stop to correct yourself. Corrections are for serious practice. The main idea is simply to keep going and get a good feel for that point.
3. Focus on rhythms! When you are able to see a rhythm and quickly understand that, your sight reading skills will greatly improve. In order to quickly understand what the rhythms should sound like, you may need to focus more on that particular element. If you are practicing and find that you are facing a section where you really don't know the rhythm, it's okay to take a moment to consider what it is about that section that is causing problems for you. Look at the core note values, see if you can identify common rhythmic figures. Another tip that can help you improve your sight reading is to focus on sight reading pieces that are within the same time signature. Once you are really comfortable with a basic 4/4-time, then you can move on to 3/4, 6/8 and other time signatures.
4. Work on the clefs individually! If notes rather than rhythm is presenting a challenge, it's important that you take the time to work on each clef by itself. Once you are comfortable with each clef, you can combine the two to enjoy the beautiful melody. If you are struggling more with the bass clef then give your right hand a break. Play on reading just the notes of the left hand, even ignoring the rhythm if you need to..
5. Work on one key signature at a time! Many less advanced piano players find it hard to determine which notes should be flat or sharp. When you focus on a single key signature for an extended period of time, it will be easier for you to identify which notes should be sharpened or flattened. You will find that your hands will begin to take on a life of their own as they fly across the black and white keys completely naturally. Combine this tip with scale exercises and you will find that your sight reading skills will improve even more quickly.
0 comments:
Post a Comment