In the weeds

Tricks and concessions to make before (or after)
the wheels come off the cart

Warming up. As with many things in life, when you start a sight reading session, remember that you need a few minutes to warm up. Consider your first efforts to be just that--a warm up as you refocus your attention to music.

Exclude some notes if you need to. Keep moving forward (after finishing go back to the trouble area and sight read only the trouble spot-go very slowly and focus on your muscle movement--easy and comfortable).

Slow down. It’s ok to slow down once you have started a piece. Slow down and count out loud.

Spoiler Alert/Use it in your favor. Each musical composition has a more complicated part involving modulation or chromaticism, whether it is a measure or several measures long. It is often located two thirds of the way through a composition. Knowing this you can be prepared for the inevitable.

Switch to playing one hand, until you are comfortable then re-introduce the hand you stopped using once you are able to.

Keep going,  do whatever it takes to keep going until you have finished the piece.

          More on leaving notes out...

Deciding to leave notes out: is just fine, perfectly legal,

not a crisis. It happens.

  Here are some common circumstances in which leaving notes out occurs. Sight reading often means adapt!

Shared note/s between hands, when the right and left hand share a note/notes learn to let the right hand play, not the left.

Thumb passages; when the thumb has several notes to play in succession. The thumb is not a leader. Learn not to be surprised when it does have a starring role, adjust for this.

Wide leaps often in the bass as an accompaniment. A coordination problem.

Arm crossing left over right, or right over left. An unusual circumstance.

Hands in the same area, over/under one another

When the bass clef (left hand) musical line moves to and is written in the treble, the the treble (right hand) to the bass clef

Reading syncopated music

           Disonance --when it doesn’t sound right and distracts you from your sight reading. Bach, temperament, early music.



A few thoughts on sight reading Bach's keyboard music:

             Bach--tap or count as you go the division of the beat that you can manage to sight read. Count it as a beat, don’t bother counting the division whatever it might be. Leave note note out if you have to, drop a hand and bring it back in. Bach wrote the most difficulty music on all levels, and he wrote the music of his time; contrapuntal. For the keyboard that means that both hands take on near equal leading roles--it can be hard to play for these reasons. Definitely go slow.

Reading ahead: a beat, a measure? It depends.

Reading ahead is essential, but it is up to you to decide how much ahead works for you.

Some skim read a piece before sight reading but if you are new to sight reading look for only the most basic information*:

*The key

* The meter

Unusual rhythm

 *Readability (print too small? Do you have good lighting? Always stack)

Phrases

 Repetitions and/or sequences

*Accidentals (and natural signs) not in the key

 Clef changes Look for small clef signs imbedded in the score

*High and low notes. Ask yourself,  are there ledger lines above or below the bass and treble clef?

 Key changes-- Key changes are not common, but when they do occur, the new signature is written into the cleffs, it is canceled by natural signs and the original key is restated.

Rhythm changes

 

    Cadences (usually every fourth measure, not always)

*The end. Is it the last few measures, or does the piece end elsewhere?