Patience is a virtue

The big picture

  Skill and time

   Learning to read music is a skill--a skill most people can learn and imrove on. It takes time.

   Patience

   Why must so many of us be so impatient about learning? Impatience really chokes up the process. Stay calm, patience works and makes learning so much easier.

   Practice

   Yep it’s often said and I’ll repeat it here-- ‘put in a little bit of effort each day to gain the experience which you will need to sight read music reasonably good. Fifteen to Thirty minutes  will add up to good growth over time.

    Benefits

    The benefits of learning how to sight read are 1.) you will be able to learn a new piece of music much faster, 2.)you will learn to keep going no matter what --finishing counts, and 3.) you will have access to so much more music than you do now as a non reader.  

    Reasonable expectations

    Please note--there is a big difference between sight playing and sight reading. Sight playing means playing a new piece very musically as if you’ve played it before--this requires a lot of experience, natural talent and/or acquired skill. Sight reading means playing from start to finish a reasonable rendering of the piece. This means reading the entire piece without stopping, dealing with mistakes, choosing what to include or leave out, if necessary, as you progress to the end, and, finally,  playing as musically as possible considering the the complexity or ease of the piece and your own skill level. A beginner shouldn’t expect to sight play--just getting through a piece is good enough!