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So far this year I have taken a Sight Reading test using Piano Marvel every day. My score is slowly trending upwards, but is still very volatile on a day by day basis.

Excellent to hear you're all persevering!
I'm hanging in there too...I've missed about 5 days total since Jan 1st.
I've been noticing that when I'm away from the piano and thinking about a piece of music I'm working on, I no longer visualise my hands playing in my head, now I visualise the score. That's got to be a good sign

I'm sure it's a good sign Suzy.

I'm still sight reading every day and didn't miss any other days since my last report. I'm on my second run through the RCM Four Star Level 6 and I think I'm making progress.

All right, congratulations to everyone who is "keeping on keeping on"!

I've been signing up on a month-to-month basis, and I didn't sign up for March, not thinking it would make any difference… But somehow it must provide some little psychological impetus!

Maybe I have to admit, once a non-sight reader, always a non-sight reader, and I have to battle the addiction to not-sight-reading, every day.

How are we doing sight readers? Any reports of progress?

I'm still at it....although I've missed a handful of days. Not zooming up in levels or anything...just slow plodding progress. Story of my life!

I am still doing the Piano Marvel SASR test almost every day. It sometimes gets to gone Midnight and I realise I haven't done one today, but I am doing the vast majority of days.

My scores peaked at 560 about a month ago - and now float up and down between about 450 and 530 (boundary between advanced beginner and intermediate is 473). I don't seem to have made continual progress recently and I definitely have off days (failing a test at around the 350 mark for no apparent reason - 3 strikes under 80% is when the test ends, and that failed tests means only 2 strikes left to drag the score up towards the 500 mark ).

I could do with taking a sight reading boot camp, but so involved with getting new stuff into my fingers I haven't had time.

I'm still at it every day. I have only missed one day in January. So nothing to report.

Currently, I'm going through RCM Four Star Level 7 and Piano Sight Reading 3 by John Kember. The former is slightly above what I can do (which is good) but the latter is quite a bit more difficult. I have to do a few runs hands separate and then go very slow when hands together. But I am slowly making progress, I think. I can sight read things that would have made me stumble like a drunken man just a couple of months ago.

That's good news Qazsedcft
I lucked into a dozen little repertoire books at my sight reading level at the good 'ol thrift store, that will keep me going for a while. Most of them seem good...I definitely have more motivation when I have a stack of enjoyable material to play. I've been marking and setting aside ones I like, or that seem to have a good learning aspect to them. Next year I think I'll do the '40 Pieces a Year' and I'll have my selections ready

Keep it up!

Well, my good streak ended with the few days vacation I took. I reported my abscence in the MOYD thread so I might as well report here too. Five days missed. That's a total of six in 2018.

I'm back at the piano today with renewed vigor.

I'm not yet good enough to sight-read, though I'm slowly getting there with all the reading practice I'm putting in! Hope to join you folks in 2019, keep up the good work!

Thanks Keselo
Hard to believe the year is almost half over...I haven't been strictly keeping track, but I haven't missed more than a dozen days for sure. Yesterday was one of them, I spent the whole of Sunday ignoring my usual practice so I could obsessively learn Last Date in Floyd Cramer style...it was the most fun I'd had in ages. It's good to rebel every so often

Just checking in to see how things are progressing for anyone on this thread...still plugging away I hope! Love to hear some updates...for better or worse

My own update is fairly positive...
From starting in January I can say there has been a definite improvement. It's helping me look more carefully at the score, and the little pieces I'm going through are more likely to be recognisable as the actual music haha...not as dependant on staring at my hands as well. The most valuable thing gained though, is that reading new music is now ingrained into my daily practice...so hopefully it's just a matter of time and dedication to get where I want to be with it. If anyone is floundering for material ( at an early reading level like me ) I'll recommend Czerny's One Hundred Recreations...they're short and very musical

Congratualtions for keeping up. I missed one day on July 6th (I went to a wedding and didn't have time) but besides that I'm still going at it every day.

That's fantastic Qazsedcft! I'd be interested to know how you feel about your progress, that's a lot of sight reading since January
Love to hear how our long-lost OP is doing as well!

Omg, this is definitely something I should do. My sight reading skills are so horrible and I often forget to do it in my piano practice. Now that I have a decent piano at home, I have no excuses not to play everyday anyway (before, I was playing 5 days/week).

Ok, let's start that tomorrow!


I'm kidding.
Let's start now. :P

I've bought many children books from different composers in the past months (Gurlitt, Tchaikovsky and Schumann's album for the young, Bartok's For children). I also have Kabalevsky opus 27, notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and a mix of russian composers easy pieces. That should be plenty of pieces to sight read (I've done some already though). I also printed Shostakovich dances of the dolls (I particularly like the polka, but also the gavotte).

Recently, I've surprised myself with better sight reading skills, so I guess even though I'm not doing it daily, the fact that I'm doing it a little is helping and I should continue more consistently!

But since I've borrowed the Celebrations series book 2 (the old series) at the library friday, I'll start going through this book as my daily sight reading. And train my sight singing too with it!

Welcome to the sight reading challenge Jouishy!

I think I made some progress over the year but it's hard to see progress when you're sight reading every day. Maybe I should write down what pieces I read and compare at the end of the year to see the progress I made. For now I'm still doing RCM Level 7 and I'm also reading some pieces from Microkosmos vol. 2.

Yes Jouishy I hope you get inspired to jump in! It sounds like you have lots of material to get started

I did a few pieces earlier this year from Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young and really enjoyed them ( as learning pieces, not sight-reading ). If you like Valentina Lisitsa, she performs the album on YouTube...

Good luck!

I don't think the OP has been here since February. Hope he is OK.

I've been going through the RCM 5 book this year. Finished it a couple of weeks ago. I do ear training along with the sight reading. I'll be doing some random stuff for the next couple of weeks until I take my exam.

@SuzyUpright ... thanks for reviving the thread! I am in no wise still involved, but I still *like* the challenge idea!

My jazz teacher recently recommended me for a gig at a church, a last minute deal, where I had to learn three jazz oriented spirituals in two days. [Edit: 2 days' practice may be a luxury to some, but it was last-minute to me!] It was the first time I had found myself in that sort of situation, and I had to use everything I knew about reading and listening to learn those pieces! One arrangement in particular. The weekend was pretty stressed out, but the performance went well and I have a few more gigs lined up with them.

I still can't think of the word gig without wanting to put quotes around it… It just sounds so… cool jargon... well word usage hangups aside, the whole thing makes me realize I need to do some more woodshedding on the reading side.

Wishing you success on your exam bSharp(C)yclist!

@ cefinow...Glad to hear it went well ! I find that very inspiring. I would love to be able to play well from a score after only having it a couple days....instead on the long ( and often faltering ) process of memorisation that I'm currently trying to break myself of.