Teaching Sight Reading

[princessmoose]

How do you do it?

A lot of pupils I give sight reading to take a look at it etc and then seem to think that only the notes are important. They ignore the time signature, ignore the key signature, ignore the rhythms, ignore any dynamic markings, ignore any articulation and well ignore everything!

What can you do with pupils like that, who are good playing wise, but hopeless at sight reading?

No matter how many times I tell them what to look for it just doesn't sink in. Do I focus on one aspect of sight reading for a few weeks? Like getting them to clap the rhythm of the piece before they play it etc? I guess it wouldn't be "proper" sight reading because they'd have gone through the piece with me, but would it have any positive effect ?

[anacrusis]

I think it would help. You could also get them to play the rhythm on one note, then get them to do it again and add in the dynamics, and only then get them to try with the proper notes. Paul Harris does good books for piano sightreading exercises - I don't know if they exist for other instruments - and we found these really helpful at home. (Neither of my sprogs is a natural sightreader)
"Our" piano teacher would in any case ask the kids to play an exercise twice - once one day and again the next - still sightreading, not enough time to have learned it, but allowing for some learning of the techniques needed.

[SuzyMac]

It might work. It certainly does with my rhythm-phobics.

I do mock sight-reading in most lessons in any pupil with exams in the coming term(s). I score out of 30, and ask five 2-mark questions beforehand, then give them the usual 30-45 seconds. Questions can be:
What key is this piece in?
What key shares the same key sig?
Clap the ryhthm of bar 3
What does Andante mean?
What are those (point to accent) and how does it change the sound?

You can be as nice or as mean as you like, and you can direct questions to areas you know they need to think about more.

They are horribly embarassed the first time they clap the rhythm well, but then play it wrongly - or happily point out all the F#s and then ignore them when playing! ;DIt seems to work though, it just takes a while for the message to get in sometimes!

I keep a score chart in their notebooks, and point out how much better they get (once they do!).

[princessmoose]

Thanks, those questions sound good Suzy. I might try that.

anacrusis - I've got Improve your Sight Reading by Paul Harris for grade 5 piano and grade 7-8 clarinet, so not really ideal for the pupils but I'll look into his other ones.

I also thought of perhaps giving them really easy sight reading, so say grade 1 or 2 level sight reading so they don't have to focus on the notes, they can concentrate on the other aspects.

[petite joueuse]

As someone who often only notices the key signature when I'm well into the second line (sudden dramatic change of key!), I do sympathise with your pupils.

My piano teacher now insists on me sight-singing the first phrase or so - she gives me the first note and away I go. Don't know why, but I'm more likely to take the key on board if I have to sing, rather than play.

[SuzyMac]

What a good idea! I have some sight-singing-phobics too. I may add that in to my question bank

[anacrusis]

Good idea. We went a grade back for my son to learn from, before going to the current grade. Suzy's questions are good - and if you keep them always in the same order, it might help the kids to remember what they need to ask themselves, over time.
One problem I had with my two is that it was very, very hard indeed to get them to keep going, so I used sometimes to cover up the music with a piece of card as they played - and later of course, you could expect to cover a little ahead of what they are playing.

[princessmoose]

Keeping going isn't a major problem with most of them really. It's getting the sight reading piece to sound anything other than like random notes that my 3year old brother would play ;D.

I will not be making them sight sing, they hate it anyway, no point in inflicting more pain.

[Steve Hopwood]

I find marking and chocolates help enormously ;D

I give the kids a couple of minutes to faff around with a sightreading exercise, then I make them play it to me.

I mark it out of 20; 10 for the notes, 10 for the rhythm. 16 or more and the kid gets a Hero choc. Less than 15 and they have to do another sight reading exercise without any prep time.

Works wonders ;D ;D ;D

You don't want to go to the expense of chocolates, so how about coloured stickers instead for the younger ones and the threat of aural for the older ones?

In either case, I guess being marked will do the trick.

Steve

[princessmoose]

I don't want to use the threat of aural, not because it wouldn't work, but because I don't want have to sit there bashing out aural tests all the time. I hate them as much as my pupils so I'd rather not have to give them out all the time.

Some good ideas though, keep them coming

[janexxx]

I'm not a teacher so don't have any brill examples to pull on but just a thought. Keeping going is something you have to do when playing with others, and a major error in sightreading...could you devise some duets so that they HAVE to keep going.