Transcripts
1. An introduction to sight-reading: Hello and welcome to my class. My name is Ben and I studied music at the
University of Oxford. And in today's class, I'm going to help you a little with your piano sight-reading. So the question of why
we need to sight read is quite an important one as a performing musician
here in London, part of my job is that
I have to turn up to various rehearsals with
instrumentalists or with singers, and simply be able to look at music and to be able to
read it very quickly. And these skills of
sight reading and ones that I've developed
over a number of years. But I wanted to create a short-course that tried
to pick out some of the key elements in order to help you to improve
your site to reading. You might be doing it
for fun or you might be progressing as a
player to the extent where one day you're
gonna get paid to do it. So I hope that what's
contained within this course you will find useful as we look a bit
at sight reading.
2. Playing with strong rhythm: So first things first, let's look at the rhythm. As I'm always
telling my students, the rhythm is the key
element of any piece. And if you can really crack the rhythm with
strength and with confidence, then you're going to find that the piece comes
across really nicely. People often try and look at all the little details of getting every single
note in the right place, but their rhythm, the pulse width which they
play a piece really varies. And the trouble with that is
it's always going to sound a little bit shaky.
Let me demonstrate. You get the idea. If that rhythms not strong
from the outset, you're going to
sound like you're lacking in confidence
a little bit. We've got three main types
of note value in this piece. I'm going to refer to
them by the English name. So I'm going to say minimum,
crotchets and quaver. In the US system, minim is a half-note, crotch it is a quarter note and quaver is an eighth note just in case there's
any confusion. So let's look at some
of those first rhythm. So if we look at the right-hand, right at the very beginning, we start with two quavers, followed by five crotchets. Now, taking music away from the piano can be a really good way of getting to know it. So my first suggestion would
be to clap that first, the first 2 bar at
the right time there. Let me demonstrate. So I'm
going to count myself in. I'm gonna say 12. And then I'm going to come
in with clapping, that first right-hand rhythm. So I want to do, why don't you have a good one? Well done. Now you'll
find that this comes back a lot of times
through the piece. This combination of
quavers and crotchets. That phrase happens twice,
actually, doesn't it? So we get 2 bar and then
another 2 bar sort of copied. The thing about sight
reading is once you start to see patterns
established in their music, it can make things a lot easier. So look for those patterns. You'll find a lot of
the phrases here. Start with the eighth
notes, with the quavers. So then, and then on the second
line, third bar. Yeah, so look for those
repetitions in the music. You'll often find them in music, especially from the Classical
periods such as Mozart. The music has a lot of patterns, pre-established
patterns that can help you with your plane. Now, we've spoken about the rhythm of the right
hand a little bit, but let's think a bit
about the rhythm. In the left hand. We have fewer of
these quaver pickups. The left-hand sounds like
this at the beginning. That's our rhythm. So whenever
you see that the squiggle, that means one beat of rest. So right at the beginning there, the very first thing
the left-hand does is arrest is nothing. So pauses. I think it's easy to forget the silences and the
importance of those in music. Sometimes people think that music is all about playing
as much as possible, but it's very easy to forget
that the silence is just as equally important
part of the music has in fact, the music itself. So this is just a brief look at some of the rhythms
in this piece. Again, what I suggest
to my students is clapping and the rhythms that you find
particularly difficult. You can do this away from
the piano wherever you want, but really establish a
strength in the rhythm.
3. On pitch: So now we've spoken a
bit about the rhythms. It's onto the juicy stuff, the actual notes, the pitches. So pitch in music is the way
in which we can describe the highness or lowness of a sound on the
keyboard, on a piano. Most full-sized
panelists have 88 keys. I have a particular student who likes to count them all out. Before they begin to you. You could do that
if you choose to. But the very highest sounds, right down to the
very lowest sounds. And the pitch is the
way on the stave, on the five lines of
music that we notate. Now, in this video, particularly on sight reading, I can't really go delve into all the details about pitch because it's
quite an art form. But here are some of the basics. Music for the piano is
notated on two staves, so each stave contains
the five lines, and the right-hand plays On a, on the upper line. This is identified by the, what we call the treble
clef at the beginning, otherwise known as the G clef because the origin of its starts on the G
line and then sort of circles around the
left-hand plays from the bottom of those two staves and starts with the bass clef, otherwise known as the F clef. If you look very closely
at that bass clef, there are two
little dots that go either side of the
line, which is f. Now in both the right-hand
and the left-hand, every single note has a letter. Forgive me, every single line, and every single
space has a letter. And there are various different
rhymes to remember these, but let's start with
the right-hand ones. For the right hand,
for the lines. I like to use the rhyme, every green bus drives fast. So your bottom line, ie, every, and then going up, every green bus drives fast. Within those five lines, there are four spaces. And space rhymes with face. So quite an easy
word to remember. So there's inner spaces
of the right-hand, shown by the treble clef, our face, F, a, C, E. Now sometimes the notes
go above and below. And again, we won't
get into all of the detail about this because it can be a little confusing. But one easy way to remember is that an every space and every line there
is another note. If we were trying to work
out the very first node to the right hand in this
particular piece of Mozart. Well, we know that the top
of those five lines isn't F, every green bus drives fast. And if we know that
that top line isn't F, We then got to count up to find the first notes
in the alphabet. So we go f space above it is G. Our first floating
line above that is a. And then just above
that is our B. So our first note is a B. So when you go above and
below the main five lines, there's a little bit of
working out to do sometimes, but that will come
in due course, the more practice you do. Now, that's the right
hand, the left hand. Let's consider the left
hand for a minute. So the lines of
the left hand have a rather nice one or rather cozy memory tool
to remember this, the left-hand lines or granny
bakes donuts for Alice. So your bottom line, granny, granny baked donuts for Alice. Within that, we have, again the four spaces
and a nice one. In the UK, all cows eat grass or your spaces
within those five lines. Now, for these pneumonics, you might choose to come up with a different system
of remembering, and that's absolutely fine. But something that you
can really remember. Now, when you first start
to play and sight read, you'll find that you're
needing to work. You need to go through the
mnemonics and work this out. You'll soon start to notice that that particular note
connects with this note on the keyboard and you'll
start to see patterns. Similarly with rhythm. Do you remember we
were looking at repeating patterns
in the button. Well, the same can be true
here in the inner pitch. Let's take an example. I'm going to miss out
the very first two notes of the right hand. I'm going to look
at what comes next. So yeah, that's our
first full bar. And then the start
of our next bar. If we then miss out, then the next two
notes we get this. So there's two ideas
together sound like this. This we call a sequence. A sequence in music
is where we have one idea plate that
is then repeated, but slightly higher
or slightly lower, in this case, the second
version is slightly lower. Sequences like rhythmic patterns come back through a
piece all the time. That an easy way to have a quick advanced knowledge
of what's coming up. I don't know if you
get what I mean, but if you know a
sequence is happening, you can almost be looking at the next phrase because
you know what I mean? Because it's already,
you're already in the process of
understanding it. So one of the keys with sight reading when it comes to pitch is always to
be looking ahead. If you know that a
sequence is happening. Great. We'll be reading into
the next section. Let's have a listen to
how those two phrases sound with the other two
notes put in the quick in it. So again, we have a sequence
and we've worked out that our very first node to the right hand is
a high note, is B. And the end of the second part starts slightly lower on an a. Why don't you, if you
feel comfortable, you could do two things. You could either
clap that rhythm, these first 4 bar to check that your rhythm is good.
That's very key. Or you can actually have a
go at playing the piano. They first 4 bar.
4. Checking the score - hands together: When I'm working with a
lot of my piano students, many of them find, oh, I can play the right-hand on
its own when I'm reading, I can play the left-hand on it. So it's when you're putting both hands together that
things get really difficult. So here are just a
couple of thoughts about how you can first start
to put things together. The first thing is a practical thing about how
you're looking at the notes. If you're identifying every
single note as you go, It's actually very
difficult then to read both lines
at the same time. So what I try and encourage
my students to do is take in as many notes as you possibly
can see a bigger pattern. So do you remember
we were talking about sequences in the music. So this idea, there's patterns that repeat slightly
higher or slightly lower. So try to see those five notes as one
phrase rather than B, C, D, D. If you're painting
by numbers like that. And you're very, you know, you've got your
magnifying glass, you're looking at
every single note is difficult to process
all the information. Try to step back
and think right, it's just a phrase that I'm then going to
play because then you'll notice a correlations with
other parts of the music. For instance, at that moment, the left-hand has
exactly the same phrase except it's ten notes lower, starting on a, G, C, Remember our left-hand spaces. All cows eat grass. So starting on the G there. Remember F sharp. We put those two ideas together to actually does a lot of similarities to in the right-hand
and the left-hand. If you are going
through and working at every single note, the
left-hand note, Oh, that's a G. And then rather than seeing two parts that are
moving at the same time, I think the most important thing about sight reading
is to look for these bigger patterns because that will then enable
you to make music. There's nothing worse than
just having a workout. Every, every single thing. Yes, these skills don't
just come overnight. You can't just open a Chopin Polonaise or something and expect
it to be perfect. They take time and you need to immerse
yourself and lots of music, which is why I always
say to my students, have a big pile of music next to the piano
ready to go? Yeah.
5. To conclude: I've just got some
concluding thoughts on sight reading and the reasons
behind why it's important. And some things to help you with your practice
as you go about it. The first thing to say is that sight reading
is about opening a huge catalog of music
and really opening your eyes to the world of
music that's out there. I really dislike it
when students see it as a horrible chore as part
of an exam or something. It's really difficult,
it's really hard. And yes, it is a skill like learning a language that
needs to be blurred. But if you can go into it with enthusiasm and play
tunes that you like, if you have a particular
favorite song, then use that sheet music
and play through that. There's no need to be playing something that
you really dislike. Obviously, if you have
to play for an exam, It's, it's slightly different. The other thing people forget
is that insight reading. You're doing the best
that you possibly can in the time that you have with the information
that you have. This idea that it's going
to be an absolutely note. Perfect performance is
never going to happen. The thing about
music is there are always imperfections
along the way. And that's arguably
something that makes it exciting and keeps it fresh and keeps us going back and trying to play other pieces
and striving for more. So don't worry if on your first attempt to
playing this Mozart, it doesn't sound
like Mozart at all. The point is that
further down the line, when you've rehearsed these
skills, you practiced them, you've practiced your rhythms, you've learned all of your treble clef and
bass clef notes, you've managed to get
the hands together. It will be a more
rewarding process. So don't be disappointed if your first attempts
at sight reading on. Perfect. Now, there's a
fine line isn't there between sight reading
something for the first time and
taking it away, practicing it, and
then playing it again. The thing about sight reading
is that it should just be your very first site of the piece and you're giving
your best impression of it. So depending on the situation,
I'll give you an example. If you're playing for
a, an instrumentalist, you're a collaborative
pianist and you want to accompany Florida or something. And I would say if you are
really limited for time, sometimes it is just a case of missing the odd
note out in order to keep the fluency because the key thing is that the
piece keeps on going. That's, I think one of the
main concluding points to say, you must keep going no matter what happens in sight reading, you've always got to
keep moving forward. So there's no point
just getting to a chord and stopping and
abandoning it and giving up. You've got to keep
moving forward. So I think that's key. Anyway. Thanks very
much for joining me on this brief look at a beginner's
guide to sight reading. I hope that you
found it useful and leave me some comments
and some feedback below. If there's other videos, other pieces you'd like to
have a look at and to improve, then I'd love to help. Thanks so much for watching
and see you again.
Ben Lewis-Smith, Musician
