Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Is what I am doing beneficial?

My favorite way to enjoy my time at the piano is sitting down with a new piece and trying to sight-read the first page or two. Usually, it's music I've heard before, but sometimes not. Usually, it's a little easier than my level and written in an "easier" for me key.

I would play it a few times, get the satisfaction of having it sound like the butchered slower version of what it is supposed to be, after which time I tire of it and give up. I may come back to it, from time to time, but never with the diligence required to actually learn it or memorize (!) it. I am always on the lookout for pieces to mess around with, knowing I will not have the patience to complete them.

Now that I have a teacher, she will provide the discipline required to get some pieces to completion. But while I am learning the assigned music and getting it ready for, say, a recital, should I continue with the sight-reading noodling activity or is my time better spent doing exercises, learning theory, etc.?

I know some will ask, what are your goals? The answer is, I like playing piano and want to be able to play better. Yes, it would be nice to have a memorized repertoire, but by the time I have memorized it, it's not fresh to me, and I am tired of it. This is why I enjoy sight-reading. But sight-reading is also slow and tedious and you never have a finished product to perform for friends and family.

This question is somewhat rhetorical since there are probably no "right" answers, or the answer is something like "do what you like as long as you enjoy it", but it would be interesting to see if a discussion follows.

Ah, yes, the cry (cri de coeur) of the dilettante! Be patient with yourself; discipline is required, of course, but piano should not be a punishment. Your wish to play more or less "finished" pieces may grow with applied practice, and with it will grow your tolerance of "stale" pieces that have worn out their welcomes. But you will not love it all or know how to proceed, from the get-go.

I would suggest to take the best of both worlds - practise the pieces that you work on with your teacher, so you have a presentable outcome you can perform in front of friends or family. A third of the time you spend at the instrument, sightread and play whatever you like in whatever tempo you wish. I can't see any harm in having fun at the piano. (Sorry for answering more or less what you already anticipated! :-)

My teacher encourages me to sight read "as much as I can"* on a daily basis just to improve my reading skills.

*after I practiced everything I had to practice and when I start "feeling bored".

He told me to get the metronome out, look at the page/pages, see how much slower than performance speed I need to go to read.. then start the metronome and start reading trying to keep up, eventually keep the count and let the notes or bar behind but keep the pace as necessary.
Later go back to the tough spots and play them until they feel easy and repeat the process. Mark the metronome speed somewhere on the score and the date. Move on.

Ataru,
Interesting! I am guessing this is to make sure you keep the tempo and not get bogged down in the details on your first go. I am nowhere near being able to do that though, and the thought of a ticking metronome terrifies me as it completely throws me off for some reason. Maybe because I have never learned to practice with one.

It's because even if you count out loud, it's natural to slow down in difficult areas and the metronome keeps you honest.
You can sightread anything... meaning... anything.

mikrokosmos 1 at 1/4 speed is a good example.

I second Ataru's suggestion on sight reading. It is a great way to stay fresh, have fun, and learn a lot. But, the pieces you are sight reading sound way too difficult. My teacher assigns pieces that I can play through at 60 bpm and bring up to tempo within 3 or 4 days of reading through once or twice a day. Then each time I do that successfully he picks another slightly harder piece. Each week or two I get new material, which I love, and there is a steady improvement in skill without really noticing. The material you're trying to sight read sounds like a piece I would practice for 3 or 4 weeks. Maybe try some sight reading exercises that are clearly below your level for a few months. Just a thought. And the metronome is extremely helpful after a bit of use.

Yup. You get to decide your own priorities.

If you _want_ a memorized repertoire, you'll have to spend the time to build it up. There are no short-cuts.

If not, keep sight-reading fresh material. Lots of players can't sight-read very well, and it's a skill worth developing.

When I re-started piano, I got copies of the AMSCO "Library of Piano Classics", and just started reading through them. It was a good re-introduction to the instrument.

INBoston,

If you enjoy the noodling as described, great, have fun. But don't confuse this with real practicing or sight reading, because it really isn't either. You might call it "reading" practice, but mostly I would just think of it as having fun at the piano. (By the way, I really enjoy this kind of noodling too, and set aside time for it every day... separate time from my "real" practice.)

Once you start lessons your teacher should keep you busy with material that will have to be approached in a more disciplined and focused way. Whether it is pieces, etudes, exercises or scales, a good teacher will keep you stretching your abilities. If she doesn't, then I would be worried. Once you have two or three pieces going at once, in various stages or learning and varying difficulty levels, along with whatever technical work might be assigned, you may find a lot less time available for noodling.

Of course YMMV and always just IMO.

good luck,

Jim

Thanks everyone, all good points. Quick question... if you know the melody and have heard the piece played before, does it count at sight-reading? Obviously, I find it easier to sight-read something if I know the way it's supposed to go.

This is one of the reasons I continue to use Piano Maestro for sight-reading practice. The app's metrics keep me honest and continuously progressing by giving me short-term goals to shoot for.

Everything new counts in some way to improvement... but you already recognize by your post, that sight reading where you do not know the music is a greater skill developer, as you can't rely on anything external/historical to help with the melody and rhythm.

If you are sight-reading a familiar melody, I would recommend raising your own personal standard with the first play-through, as it is easier when familiar. I did this for awhile as I was looking for new piano hymn arrangements for church preludes.

There is a ton of music, at every level, that will not be known to you. Imslp has, for free download, more than you can ever use.

I'm going to give you an additional suggestion here because I start seeing a pattern that I see in few of my adult students.
SLOW DOWN with the extracurriculars.

I know it's absolutely hard, but you have a teacher, USE IT

In my case I'm assigned to sight read because I struggle learning new repertoire, therefore my teacher wants me to read as much as possible (after I'm done with my assignments) to get used to different music and to be able to get it into the fingers very quickly. But his (and mine) specialization is in cooperative piano.

I'm saying this here because while it's great to have interests and always dig around what can be done, what can be improved and so on.... sometimes we end up (as adults) missing the big picture, meaning, maybe the teacher has a plan in mind, and not necessarily is going to get disclosed for several good reasons, but staying on that track and practice it is necessary for success.

From your signature, sorry for being blunt, I don't think you are much advanced and what you would like to do might come later in your path, after you developed a good technique and doing a lot of "extracurriculars" won't cause you to pick up a whole lot of bad habits.

No offense taken, I am not very advanced. I don't yet know if my teacher has a plan per se, but I guess we will see as we develop our teacher-student relationship. Right now she simply wants me to memorize and perfect a recital piece and is having me start learning another piece from a different genre. I am making sure my priorities at every practice are those pieces. Everything else is at the end when I get "bored".

Certainly it's easier if you know what the result is supposed to be. Personally, I can't imagine trying to play something I'd never heard before -- because I've heard so much, and there's so much of it that I like and want to play.

The rare times that I find something I'd never heard before, usually there's a good reason nobody ever hears it any more. ;-)

Hi John
I'm surprised by your statement that you don't hear much new to you that you want to play... other than Big Band, what are your interests? Maybe a good thread would be 'What Is New To You Thread' as there is so much potential repertoire out there.

I believe it does count as long as you've never played it before.

My piano teacher was telling me how it's much easier to sight read pieces you are familiar with (that is to say have heard and know the melodies of).

It's because I've been a commuter in LA most of my life. I've pretty much heard everything that was ever somewhat popular, just listening to the car radio. KGRB in the old days, KMZT today, the stuff I haven't heard is either the NSG material from the past, or today's rap/hiphop/etc.

Other than big band/broadway/cocktail bar stuff, I do like a lot of classical music. I love Rach, but know better at 68 than to think I could ever actually play more than some simplified excerpts.

Hi JohnSprung, I used to live in Aliso Viejo, CA, and listened to classical KUSC all the time, while I commuted to UCI; they (KUSC and UCI both) still hit me up for contributions, even though I now reside in AZ. I liked having KMZT, as well, especially during pledge week on KUSC!

KMZT is amazing -- they have the cleanest AM signal I've ever heard anywhere. The end result is better than some of the FM's.