Improving sight reading for Piano

[Writingdizzy]

My dd (6), has been learning to play piano for a year now. We have had a setback and had to restart from beginning when we swapped teachers just in feb/March.

Neither my husband nor I play any instruments and therefore we find it difficult to challenge dd when she’s practising piano on whether she’s playing the notes correctly or not. All we can correct is when she reads the notes wrong. She seems to be less confident on sight reading and regularly makes mistakes and so wanted to get some views on how to help her improve this. It will allow more fluent playing without staring at the Piano keys as she does so often currently.

Also, how do I encourage her to practise more often without losing my rag in the process.

We are not facing this issue with her 2nd instrument (violin) for which she’s nearing grade 1 exam this July.

My 6 yr old does the same instruments but is the other way round, she will sight read on piano but won't on violin! Making mistakes is to be expected though, particularly when sight reading. And two instruments at 6 is a lot, any music at this age needs to stay fun I think.

What sort of pieces is she learning? Is she at a stage where she's needing to read lh and rh together? That's really hard too. At least on violin you're generally reading one note at a time!

What got DD going sight reading on piano (and we're working on with violin) was playing lots and lots of easy music. Not necessarily sight reading books even, just any old beginner book. Something she won't need to look at her hands for so she can concentrate on reading.

If you don't play, perhaps try learning yourself a bit too from your DD's beginner books? Might give you a different perspective!

I can read the notes and so can correct her when she’s reading them wrong but I can’t tell on the piano. She’s having to read both Lh and RH and play them together.

Her teacher is insisting that I don’t sit with her and that she needs to play/practise by herself. Except the motivation doesn’t seem to come automatically whereas violin she’ll happily practise and we never need to cajole.

I would expect lots of mistakes if she's sight reading hands together and has only been playing a year. Being able to do that at all is really good. And only 6 as well!

What do you mean by you can't tell on the piano, you mean you can tell she's playing the wrong note by listening but not by looking at her fingers? I think that's the normal way anyway, I can play the piano but I would spot wrong notes by listening not looking too. Even if it's me playing!

6 seems very little to me for practising on their own too. Do I gather you're not entirely sticking to that advice if you're trying to help with sight reading and pointing out wrong notes? At the end of the day, if she's not that keen and you can't find a way to tweak things to make it more fun, maybe give it a break for a while and just let her enjoy the violin.

Out of curiosity if she's been playing the piano a year and violin is her second instrument, how long has she been playing violin?

What I meant is that I do not know if she’s playing the correct ‘key’ on the piano for that particular note ie is it middle C or further down as an example. I can only gauge that it doesn’t sound right by listening.

She started violin abt 2 months after piano but has taken to it really well, so much so that she’s grade 1 ready. My husband sits in on violin lessons but piano she goes in on her own.

I generally do not to sit down during practise time at home but for example the other day I noted that she wasn’t following the instruction of moving left hand over. I spotted this because i watched her play one piece and then questioned what she did for l.h.o part as I couldn’t see her doing it and she says she simply forgot. Drove me absolutely potty.

Typically how long does it take for someone to reach grade 1 in Piano and what kind of concerted effort are we talking about here - roughly how much time each week?

I am definitely no expert at this, but would it help for you to just learn the notes on the piano keyboard? You can get a paper overlay that you put along the top of the keyboard if you like. Some people put stickers on their keys, but that is a bit drastic if you have a nice piano!

I know a little piano/can read music a bit, but was always weak on the bass clef. I am now helping my child to learn an instrument in the bass clef, so that is improving my own knowledge.

I recently got the 'Notes teacher' app on my phone and that has helped my own skills. I play a little game on it most days and it builds up your knowledge by adding a new note each time, along with a speed element so that also supports sight-reading.

She's 6 - give her a break. My daughter was 6 when she started, took G1 when she was 7 but it often takes younger children up to 2 years to reach G1. At 9, she's now G4/5 but she loves playing. We used the Paul Harris books for sight-reading.

I found that sitting next to her while practicing was good to begin with but I play the piano so we used to make stuff up together and it was fun. I no longer sit with her and she'll happily practice properly by herself but it took about a year.

Me getting cross was a sure fire way of making her not want to practice.

Oh, and we have a set time from practice and this is every day. 7:30am guitar practice, 8:00am piano, she leaves for school at 8:35.

Due you mean sight reading ie sitting down at the piano with a piece of music she has never seen before and playing it straight off?
That is what is meant by sight reading. I think with a year of lessons, at age of 6, that is a bit much. I know there is some sight reading at Grade 1 exam, but that will be at a much simpler level than the pieces that they learn for the exam eg only playing LH or RH separately, with very little hands together. and will only be a few bars of music.

I think you're expecting too much. Typically 2 years to get to grade 1, practicing a few minutes every day. Some take much longer. Sight reading hands together is beyond grade 1.

For boosting sight reading skills though, if you do want to intervene - lots of easy music. DD went through the first 3 books of Piano Adventures (which DS had previously used but DD wasn't) alongside her lesson music. Not polishing, just reading then moving on. She found those more engaging than actual sight reading books which are a bit formulaic. It's when you find something they'll pick up just for the fun of it that things really take off.

Thank-you, I will look up the books.

Right now, she first reads the notes (hit and miss), then practises each hand on its own and then both hands together.

Sometimes she reads all the notes perfectly well and plays without no issues. Other times, there’s either pause between certain notes or she’s paused because she’s checking if her fingers are on the right keys.

Silly typos, I meant ‘plays without any issues’ not NO issues.

If you have an iPad some of my young students love the app called Piano Maestro. Starts very basic, you progress to playing hands together and you have to be in time, fluent and hit the right notes to progress through the levels. I usually use it for the fun activity at the end of my lessons.

Please don't focus on grades too much or try to progress her too quickly. There's more to playing the piano confidently than just running through the grades. She's only 6, at that age most of my students even struggled to out 2 hands together. Just let her get on with it. 10min practice at a time, twice a day (eg once in the morning before school and once in the afternoon). Also try to make it a bit of fun, does she ever get to play nice songs that are fun for that age? Rather than just notes and scales. Very important to keep motivation up in my experience.

Agreed re piano adventures books, they're good for that age.

Are these my first Piano adventure books? I am looking up on amazon and slightly confused as many appear with same name.

It's the Faber ones. this range

Though you're probably best starting with "my first" here - they're specifically for 5&6 yo

There's also more info here
Sorry for the multiple posts

Brill thanks so much.

Second Paul Harris.

We did Piano Adventures Primer, Level 1, Level 2a etc. The Lesson books only. I think if you're aiming for sight reading practice with a child who's already able to read music, I wouldn't personally go for the "my first" ones, the Primer is already a gentle start. (Saying that very tentatively as I'm not a piano teacher by a long shot!) The pre-notation pieces in the Primer are still fun though, and they get to play all the keys, which DD liked as her teacher's book started with just 5 finger position with thumbs on C.

The way you describe your DD reading music sounds normal to me at this stage. DS reads like that too, he did well in grade 1 last term. He's getting there slowly.