Piano Sight-Reading Development with 25 Exercises

Please carefully identify all intervals in each sight-reading example BEFORE attempting to play any notes on the piano/keyboard.  I would recommend either printing out the Schafer sight-reading examples and color-coding each different interval (as demonstrated in these analysis videos), or, you could use software on a computer (preview, paint, etc.) or tablet (Forscore, etc.) to make your markings.

By identifying intervals for each sight-reading example, by the end of this course, you will rapidly recognize intervals and read with more confidence!  :)

Please practice tapping along to these practice videos while practicing metric counting.  If early examples are too easy, double the speed!  If any exercises are too challenging, try first at half-speed!  Go for accuracy and flow instead of speed... but if you are always playing perfectly, challenge yourself to go faster.

When transitioning to the practice videos, you may also wish to try tapping rhythm in one hand while playing the other hand on the piano, and vice-versa.  This gives your brain a chance to focus on note/interval recognition in one hand, while still processing the rhythm for both hands.  Use this as an intermediate step as the exercises become more challenging (especially when you feel that hand coordination becomes a stumbling block!)

Even though the first sight-reading exercise may seem quite simple, please remember that you are also building a foundation for a systematic approach that you can apply to any reading example.  Therefore, please try to follow this practice method:

1) Make sure you have already completed the interval analysis video (or completed your own analysis)

2) Make sure you feel proficient with the rhythm video (even at double-speed!)

3) Find your hand positions before starting

4) Play hands separately the first time through, keep eyes ON the music score, and stay with the beat!

5) If step 4 is successful, attempt to play hands together at half-tempo

6) If step 5 is successful, attempt to play hands together at normal tempo

7) If step 6 is successful, challenge yourself to try the reading example again at 1.5 or 2x the tempo.

***While this may seem VERY pedantic, this process is very honest and will help you on any exercises that give you trouble in this course.  If you can already play a reading example perfectly on first glance, these steps may be skipped at your discretion, as long as you are prioritizing accuracy and flow.