Five Levels of Sightreading

Improving your reading skills with a few games

Learning or improving your sightreading is like learning a language. The goal is to speak that language without having to translate the information first. For example, when you learn “buenas días” in Spanish, you want to say it, hear it, and read it without first translating those words in your mind to “good morning.” The translation might reassure you that you are correct in using the words, but it also slows you down and keeps you from becoming a fluent speaker.

It's the same in music. You want to see and play directly, and not see the notes on paper, translate them into names and finger numbers, make sure you've got it right, and then finally play – you won't have time to do all this and stay in tempo. Practicing sightreading helps you learn the language. It's amazing, and not a little miraculous, that spending time reading many examples, as on this site, can really build your feel for “speaking the language.”

Note: if you’re really uncomfortable or mystified by reading music at all, or would like an easier way to approach it on the violin/fiddle, I’ll be talking about that next time.

Below are five levels you might like to try, to assess your own sightreading practice and improve it. They start on the basic level and move to the more advanced. Once you can do Level 1, hang onto those ideas as you add Level 2, and so on. This is a progression. At the end are a few additional ideas for using these sightreading exercises. You can also get a lot out of making up your own games, too!

One rule: Don't look at your instrument — keep your eyes on the notes and patterns you are reading. Part of sightreading is learning to trust yourself to play without looking at your hands, your instrument, or to allow your eyes to be distracted by other sights. It's good practice to focus, and helps make sure you don't lose your place.

Another tip: Accept your pitches (and sound quality) without wriggling around to fix them. Timing (Level 1) is the top priority. Improve your pitches and sound on the next pass through!

Level 1: Rhythms Only

Choose a tempo, and try simply tapping out the rhythm of the passage you're sightreading. Your goal is to see the rhythms of each beat and each measure, never to focus on one note at a time, since there is no rhythm in a single note — rhythms are only meaningful when they connect one note to another. The length of a note is nearly always determined by when you start the next one. There’s a joke about this — John boasts to Sally that he can play super-fast notes. “I can even play 64^th notes!” he says. Sally says, “Great, John, let's hear ‘em.” So he plays her one.

Level 2: Note Profiles

Keep the rhythm you worked on in Level 1, and now try playing or singing the passage purely by note profile — is each note the same, higher, or lower than the one before? What is the general shape of the notes in a beat or measure? Don't worry about getting the notes right, just make sure you focus on playing them in time, and play the general profile of the notes as they go higher, stay the same, or go lower. Again, try to see the profile of a whole measure at a time, rather than worry about one note at a time.

Level 3: Focusing the Picture

Before trying this level, take note of the key signature and play a scale in that key. Make sure you know where the half-steps are. There might be only one or two pairs of half-steps in the passage you are sightreading. Now start your sightreading on the correct note, and play as you did in Level 2, with good timing and a sense of the profile of the music. Good timing means you will not pause or slow down if you're not sure of a note – instead, you may need to guess about the notes, though you will not be guessing about the timing or the note profile (higher vs lower). You may make a note mistake, but don't allow yourself to make a timing error. If you find this difficult, try slowing your tempo, or keep the same tempo but play only one or two beats or measures at a time.

Level 4: Seeing Intervals

Now make an effort to notice the intervals – know what a Scale looks like (consecutive notes moving from a line note to a space note or vice versa) and what a Third looks like (moving from a line note to the next line note up or down, or moving from a space note to the next space note higher or lower). Jumps that are bigger than a Third are a little more difficult to recognize, but you will absorb them as you get more practice seeing them. For example, a Fifth moves from a line note to two lines away, or from a note on a space to two spaces away.

Level 5: Names of Notes

Try naming the notes as you play them. This is optional in sightreading, because it is not essential to the language of seeing and playing music. But it is a useful skill, and a good challenge for the brain. By adding this extra layer, you can test your focus on sightreading to see if you can read the rhythm and note patterns while also thinking or even saying the names of the notes.

Additional ideas

Try these to add extra value to your practice. without losing focus on sightreading:

• Play the above games faster than usual

• Play deliberately slower than usual

• Play with beautiful tone throughout

• Start very quietly, get louder, then end quietly. Then try the reverse!

• On a stringed instrument, try bowing such that every measure starts downbow

Make up some of your own games if you like. With each level, and each new perspective you try, you build more confidence in your sightreading.