Instructor
John Proulx
Quick Tip
Beginner
17:22

Learning Focus
  • Reading
Music Style
  • Fundamentals
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Would you like to improve your ability to sight read effectively at the piano? In today’s Quick Tip, Easiest Way to Sight Read for Beginner Piano, John Proulx shares foundational tips for successful sight reading. You’ll learn:

If you typically struggle to read piano scores and sheet music on sight, this lesson will provide you with valuable insights and actionable methods for making big gains.

Intro to Sight Reading

Do you experience frustration when attempting to sight reading a piano score? If so, you’re not alone. Many students find the task of sight reading to be especially challenging. In most cases, these students have not been trained on how to approach sight reading from the proper perspective.

To illustrate the objective for today’s lesson on sight reading, let’s consider a visual puzzle. Take a moment to study the image below. What do you see? Do you detect any order or structure to this seemingly random collection of dots? After you’ve studied the dots for a few moments, go ahead and press the ‘play’ button. As the video plays, you’ll hear the sound of a train approaching. Once the train draws near, the solution to the puzzle will appear.

Pretty cool, huh? After pressing ‘play,’ you discovered that the dots in the freeze frame are not random at all. The same is true in every piano score. When you look at a piano score, if all you see is a bunch of dots, then you’re missing the big picture. However, once you learn to see and interpret the underlying musical structure within the notation, then task of sight reading becomes much easier.

What is Sight Reading?

The term sight reading (also “sight-reading”) describes when a musician attempts to perform a musical score that they have never seen before with the goal of playing without any stops or hesitations. Essentially, to sight read is to perform a musical score a prima vista (Italian for “at first sight.”)

Sight reading has both professional and pedagogical implications. For example, a job description for a choral accompanist might specify “ability to sight-read is a must.” In such cases, sight reading describes a professional proficiency. On the other hand, in educational settings, sight-reading describes a learning activity that is part of students’ musicianship training. In both settings, the activity of sight reading and the goal of sight reading is the same—to play an unprepared score without stopping. However, for students, sight reading is initially more of a musical discovery process than it is the demonstration of an acquired proficiency.

Misconceptions: What Sight Reading Is Not

For many students, the biggest obstacle to sight-reading effectively is a reluctance or aversion to shift one’s musical priorities from those that are most commonly associated with music practice. For example, when students practice, they aim to thoroughly master a piece or passage by means of stopping, restarting, repeating, rehashing, and so on. Sight-reading is quite the opposite. In fact, as strange as it may sound, the goal of sight-reading is not even to play every note! Instead, effective sight reading focuses on interpreting the compositional intent of a musical score and then playing an approximation of that intent.

We can summarize the compositional intent of a score according to Four T’s: tune, time, tonality, texture.

The Four T’s of Compositional Intent

    • Tune: the melody (when applicable)
    • Time: the meter, tempo and rhythms
    • Tonality: the key, chords and cadences
    • Texture: the density of rhythmic subdivisions in the accompaniment

If a pianist can recognize these elements within a score and perform a simplified version of the piece that is faithful to the Four T’s—without stopping—then they have met the essential objective of sight reading.

“Actually, a degree of ‘faking,’ if it is the intelligent kind that depends on perceiving harmonic outlines and omitting only relatively unessential tones, is an important part of successful sight-reading, as any professional will readily confess.” ¹

—William S. Newman, Music Educator & Author

Another misconception that some students have about sight reading is they assume that they should be able to sight read scores that are of the same or similar difficultly level to their performance repertoire. On the contrary, a student’s sight reading repertoire should be about half-as-difficult (or less) as the performance repertoire that are currently able to prepare. Therefore, if you find that you must sight-read a score dramatically below the composer’s intended tempo, then that piece is simply too difficult for now. Your musical development is much better served by successfully sight reading easier literature. That way, you’ll actually hone your musical instincts and increase your confidence in performance.

In the next section, we’ll discuss practical tips that will help you improve your sight reading ability.

How to Improve Your Sight Reading

In most sight reading scenarios, whether professional or educational, a musician is allotted time to briefly scan and study the score. During this initial viewing of the score, your objective is to keenly observe as many of the musical elements as possible, including:

    • Key Signature & Time Signature
    • Clefs
    • Tempo
    • Musical Form (repeats, D.C. al Fine, D.S. al Coda)
    • Melodic Patterns (scales, arpeggios, motives)
    • Chords and Cadences
    • Dynamics & Articulation
    • Rhythmic Subdivisions & Syncopations

In addition to these crucial observations, John Proulx shares 5 practice tips that can help students “get the big picture” when sight reading. If you integrate these 5 practical tips into your sight reading practice, then you’ll be able to better interpret the score before you even attempt the first note!

5 Practice Tips to Improve Sight Reading on Piano

John’s 5 practice tips to improve sight reading on piano are listed below. You can use the links in this list to quickly navigate to a particular topic in this section:

    1. Review Diatonic Triads in Parent Key
    2. Review Inversions of Primary Triads
    3. Practice I-IV-I-V-I Chord Progressions
    4. Write In Chord Symbols on Piano Score
    5. Improvise Accompaniment from Chord Symbols

Let’s start by examining a sample piano score from a popular hymn arranged by John Proulx. Just like the visual puzzle in our opening illustration, take a moment to study this score before you press the ‘play’ button. Be sure to focus on The Four T’s of Compositional Intent within the notation: (1) tune, (2) time, (3) tonality, and (4) texture. In fact, if you’re near a piano, then you might not want to push the ‘play’ button at all. Instead, considering reading through all 5 practice tips in this section and then trying to perform an approximation of this score at first sight.

If you’re a PWJ member, you can download the lesson sheet PDF from the bottom of this page after logging in with your membership. You can also use our Smart Sheet Music to easily transpose the lesson sheet to another key.

Sample Piano Score for Sight Reading

Sample Piano Score to Sight Read

1. Review Diatonic Triads in Parent Key

The root cause of many sight reading errors can be attributed to the fact that students often fail to “think in the proper key” when sight reading. One effective way to remedy this common mistake is to identify which key the piece is in and then to play the diatonic chords in that key. For example, since our sample score is in the key of B♭ major, the example below shows all of the diatonic triads in B♭ major.

Diatonic Triads in B♭ Major

Diatonic Triads in Bb Major - Practice How to Sight Read on Piano

When you are practicing alone, it’s a good habit to go ahead and play the exercise above in the key of the piece before attempting the piece itself. However, in other settings (such as a rehearsal or an audition), you may not have ample time or access to an instrument to physically play this chord exercise. In such situations, much can still be gained by visualizing yourself playing the all of the diatonic chords that are found in the parent key. This will help you prepare to play the specific chord shapes in the key in which the piece is written.

2. Review Inversions of Primary Triads

So far, we’ve determined the primary key of our score and played all of the diatonic triads in root position. Of course, composers and arrangers don’t limit their writing to root position chords. Therefore, another important skill for effective sight reading is to review each chord inversion of the primary triads. In music theory, we use the term primary triads or primary chords to refer specifically to the Ⅰ chord, the Ⅳ chord and the Ⅴ chord. In fact, these chords even have proper names:

    • We call the chord the Tonic
    • We call the Ⅳ chord the Subdominant
    • We call the chord the Dominant

The other diatonic triads in of key (ⅱ, ⅲ, ⅵ, ⅶº) are known as secondary triads. We distinguish primary triads from secondary triads because the primary triads most clearly define the tonality. Simply put, primary chords in tonal music function much like traffic signals on public roads. Certainly, all street signs are important, but traffic signals are preeminent. In the same way, all chords are meaningful, but the ability to play and recognize primary chords is foundational to harmonic understanding. Therefore, students who can immediately recognize the primary triads within a score will more readily be able to navigate the harmony, recognize the cadences and interpret the form.

The following example shows B♭ major, the tonic triad (the chord), in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.

Inversions of Tonic Triad

sight read piano chord inversions

Our next example shows E♭ major, the subdominant triad (the chord), in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.

Inversions of Subdominant Triad

sight read piano chord inversions

Finally, let’s play F major, the dominant triad (the chord), in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.

Inversions of Dominant Triad

sight read piano chord inversions

Great job! In the next section, we’ll learn how to combine our primary triads together in an important chord progression using these various inversions.

3. Practice I-IV-I-V-I Chord Progressions

An essential skill for any functional pianist is to be able to play a Ⅰ-Ⅳ-Ⅰ-Ⅴ-Ⅰ chord progression with good voicing leading by making proper use of inversions. This chord progression is sometimes called a tonicization pattern because it is often used in rehearsals to establish the tonic chord, especially when attempting a vocal exercise or a song in several different keys. Other beginner texts may refer to this Ⅰ-Ⅳ-Ⅰ-Ⅴ-Ⅰ chord progression as a “cadence,” which it certainly is, although that term is rather vague when used in this context. In particular, this progression ends with an authentic cadence, which is what we call any harmonic movement that resolves from Ⅴ to Ⅰ.

In the following example, notice how the Ⅰ-Ⅳ-Ⅰ-Ⅴ-Ⅰ progression is arranged using several different inversions of the primary triads. These inversions are not arbitrary. Instead, specific inversions have been selected so that the chords transition smoothly with minimal leaps.

Format 1

"I-IV-I-V-I

In the Format 1 example above, we began on a root position tonic chord. Now, let’s play another Ⅰ-Ⅳ-Ⅰ-Ⅴ-Ⅰ progression in a different format. This time, we’ll begin with a 1st inversion tonic chord, which we’ll call Format 2.

Format 2

"I-IV-I-V-I

Finally, let’s play one more Ⅰ-Ⅳ-Ⅰ-Ⅴ-Ⅰ progression, beginning with a 2nd inversions tonic chord.

Format 3

"I-IV-I-V-I

Great job! By familiarizing your ears and your fingers with this type of harmonic movement, you’ll be better prepared to anticipate what is likely to come next when sight reading.

Now you’re ready for sight reading practice tip #4.

4. Write In Chord Symbols on Piano Score

Another important sight reading skill involves score analysis. In this step, we want to examine each measure and clearly identify which chord(s) the composer is using. Keep in mind, with a piano score, you’ll need to simultaneously consider both clefs to determine the appropriate chord symbol. That’s because composers often spread out the chord tones across both hands in such manner that neither hand, when taken separately, may contain the compete chord.

If you are brand new to this type of analysis, we strongly recommended that you literally write-in the chord symbols above each measure. In fact, even professional pianists frequently mark up their scores with chord symbols. This allows them to track the harmony and simplify the reading process. However, be sure to use a pencil just in case you need to revise your analysis later.

Here is an example of our sample score for today’s lesson with chord symbols added.

Write in Chord Symbols on Piano Score to sight read better

As you can see, our piano score is beginning to look more like a lead sheet (a short-hand notation format used in jazz and pop music). In fact, the whole point of a lead sheet is to give the performer just the essential information that is needed to play the tune.

This raises an interesting question. What would our sample piano score look like as a lead sheet? Effective sight readers are able to “essentialize” a piano score into a lead sheet on sight. Initially, you may have to practice this skill by writing it out manually with a pencil and paper or with notation software.

The following example shows how a proficient sight reader would visualize the sample score for this lesson.

Piano Score Visualized as Lead Sheet

Visualize Piano Score as a Lead Sheet for Sight Reading

5. Improvise Accompaniment from Chord Symbols

Earlier in this lesson, we discussed how sight reading involves some degree of approximation. Well, once you’re able to visualize a piano score as a lead sheet (Step 4), then you can more easily improvise an accompaniment pattern while playing the melody.

“The priority for sight-reading is making a plausible approximation of the page in front of you, so that the music moves forwards.” ²

—Mark Tanner, Concert Pianist, Composer, Educator & Author

Let’s look at some examples of how one might approach the task of improvising an accompaniment. We’ll consider the first line of our lead sheet from Step 4 for this section. First, let’s simply review the melody.

Melody & Chord Symbols

Sight Read Piano - Melody & Chords

Next, do you remember The Four T’s of Compositional Intent? Just to review, the Four T’s are (1) tune, (2) time, (3) tonality, and (4) texture. Since the tune (the melody) is in the right hand, we want to improvise a left-hand pattern that allows us to easily keep steady time while outlining the tonality. Moreover, whatever we play should have a similar texture to what the composer or arranger has written in the score. However, it is not necessary to play the chords in the exact same register or inversion. In today’s sample score, the accompaniment uses 8th note subdivisions. Therefore, any 8th note pattern that follows the chord changes will work fairly well.

Here is one possibility that you might play when sight reading this score.

Improvised Accompaniment 1

Sight Read Piano - Tip 5

The example above is actually fairly close to the original score. The main difference is that the harmonic texture here is not quite as dense because the right hand harmony notes have been omitted.

Now, let’s consider another possible way to improvise an accompaniment for this piano score when sight reading. The following example still adheres to The Four T’s of Compositional Intent, albeit with a slightly different left-hand pattern. Let’s take a listen.

Improvised Accompaniment 2

Sight Read Piano - Tip 5

Did you hear a difference? If so, that’s great! However, many listeners would not notice any difference at all between Improvised Accompaniment 1 and Improvised Accompaniment 2. Frankly, which ever pattern rolls off your fingers easiest is the one you should use. Lastly, let’s consider one more possible accompaniment pattern.

Improvised Accompaniment 3

Sight Read Piano - Tip 5

As you can hear, each of the improvised accompaniments in this section achieved the goal of keeping the music moving forward without stopping.

🔎 For a deep dive on accompaniment patterns, check out our course on Pop & Contemporary Accompaniment Patterns (Beg/IntInt/Adv).

Sight Reading Resources for Piano

If you’re serious about wanting to improve your sight reading skills on piano, then you’ll want to make a habit of applying the 5 sight reading tips from today’s lesson to your regular practice routine. You’ll also need plenty of additional sight reading repertoire. Fortunately, if you’re a PWJ member, then you already have access to plenty of additional selections. In fact, the songs in the “key courses” of our Beginner Piano Foundations Learning Tracks (Levels 1–3) are perfect for applying the principles from today’s lesson! Moreover, you can change the keys of these tunes with our Smart Sheet Music to create even more sight reading examples.

Beginner Foundations Key Courses

Use the links below to choose beginner scores for sight reading by key signature.

Major Keys:

Minor Keys:

Many mainstream music publishers also offer print resources that are geared specifically toward sight reading. Visit your favorite publishers’ websites to search for sight reading titles that are available in your country.

A great online resource for sight reading is Sight Reading Factor (aka SRF). Click here to access a PWJ coupon code.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you’ve completed today’s lesson on Easiest Way to Sight Read for Beginner PianoIn doing so, you’ve taken a big step toward laying a foundation for improving your ability to read a prima vista!

If you enjoyed today’s lesson, then be sure to check out the following PWJ resources:

 

Thanks for learning with us today! We’ll see you next time.

 

 

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¹ Newman, William S. The Pianist’s Problems: A Modern Approach to Efficient Practice and Musicianly Performance. New York: Da Capo Press, 1986, p. 18–24.

² Tanner, Mark. “It’s Never Too Late to Improve Your Sight-Reading.” Pianist, December 2022–January 2023, No. 129, Warners Group Publications Plc, 18 November 2022.


Writer
Michael LaDisa

Michael LaDisa graduated from the University of North Texas with a major in Music Theory & Composition. He lives in Chicago where he operates a private teaching studio and performs regularly as a solo pianist. His educational work with students has been featured on WGN-TV Evening News, Fox 32 Good Day,...

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