Sight Reading hopeful for PGS

[dewman]

If im not good at reading it to begin with im not going to notice the patterns. its like a cat chasing its tail.

[sw1tch73ch]

I have not tried that sight reading assessment tool. I do have to wonder though, what the instruction they are providing, or if it is only a way to score your practice with some sort of number. PGS gives you a percent correct score, which isn't a standardized assessment, but it is a way to judge how you are doing. Plus there is generally text on each screen before you hit play that describes what you will be doing. In time, it does teach you how to sight read if you are using all the tools it offers.

You can turn on and off the Finger Numbers. You can turn on and off Letter Names - you can have either on or neither on. I recommend using all three modes.

You can speed up and slow down the tempo. Play with a slow tempo at first. Maybe even study the music before you play to get a sense of what you will be playing. You can click on the notes on the sheet music with your mouse to see where they are on the piano. After you study the note positions, and kind of make a mental map of the song (going up going down, going left and going right, whichever idea works), you should be making neural connections regarding the note on the screen and the key on the piano. If you turn on note letters, you should start to notice the pattern there, too.

An important aspect of sight reading quickly is deep knowledge of the keyboard, how the octaves work, how to find each note of the 7 available letters (and their respective sharps or flats), the two black keys and three black keys are landmarks to finding the notes on the piano. You can even use a landmark kind of idea on the sheet music (you start with the mnemonics, perhaps, but learn to see the notes in the music one landmark at a time and build up your understanding of sheet music). If you are a Rookie, understand this will take time and practice, and there are few shortcuts to making the mental maps that make reading easier. Study, landmark, understand are the most effective here.

Remember, the keys on the piano and the notes on the sheet music aren't moving around while you play. The 88 keys are always the same. The lines and spaces on the sheet music are, within the respective key signatures, always the same.

[FlatPanda]

Remember, the keys on the piano and the notes on the sheet music aren't moving around while you play.

Well... on the sheet music they will move around, when the clef changes, but that's again: not rookie level

[dewman]

I have not tried that sight reading assessment tool. I do have to wonder though, what the instruction they are providing, or if it is only a way to score your practice with some sort of number. PGS gives you a percent correct score, which isn't a standardized assessment, but it is a way to judge how you are doing. Plus there is generally text on each screen before you hit play that describes what you will be doing. In time, it does teach you how to sight read if you are using all the tools it offers.

You can turn on and off the Finger Numbers. You can turn on and off Letter Names - you can have either on or neither on. I recommend using all three modes.

You can speed up and slow down the tempo. Play with a slow tempo at first. Maybe even study the music before you play to get a sense of what you will be playing. You can click on the notes on the sheet music with your mouse to see where they are on the piano. After you study the note positions, and kind of make a mental map of the song (going up going down, going left and going right, whichever idea works), you should be making neural connections regarding the note on the screen and the key on the piano. If you turn on note letters, you should start to notice the pattern there, too.

An important aspect of sight reading quickly is deep knowledge of the keyboard, how the octaves work, how to find each note of the 7 available letters (and their respective sharps or flats), the two black keys and three black keys are landmarks to finding the notes on the piano. You can even use a landmark kind of idea on the sheet music (you start with the mnemonics, perhaps, but learn to see the notes in the music one landmark at a time and build up your understanding of sheet music). If you are a Rookie, understand this will take time and practice, and there are few shortcuts to making the mental maps that make reading easier. Study, landmark, understand are the most effective here.

Remember, the keys on the piano and the notes on the sheet music aren't moving around while you play. The 88 keys are always the same. The lines and spaces on the sheet music are, within the respective key signatures, always the same.

But it has to be repeated enough for you to learn it. which is why i suggested making daily exercises and the test like the SASR to do it everyday enough so you can learn and test can tell you if you are improving or not. i have improved over the last 16 days using it. while its still not great im getting more comfortable with reading sheet music. repetition is the only way to learn. You have to learn the patterns and what the intervals look like, what the chords look like, arpeggios, scales. it can only be done through repetition. You arent going to learn it with 3 or 4 lessons on a particular topic. And usually after a few times memorization takes over and the person is no longer reading it. it has to be lessons people are unfamiliar with.

[sw1tch73ch]

But it has to be repeated enough for you to learn it. which is why i suggested making daily exercises and the test like the SASR to do it everyday enough so you can learn and test can tell you if you are improving or not. i have improved over the last 16 days using it. while its still not great im getting more comfortable with reading sheet music. repetition is the only way to learn. You have to learn the patterns and what the intervals look like, what the chords look like, arpeggios, scales. it can only be done through repetition. You arent going to learn it with 3 or 4 lessons on a particular topic. And usually after a few times memorization takes over and the person is no longer reading it. it has to be lessons people are unfamiliar with.

The point is, if you can't read sheet music at all, then you certainly won't be able to sight read it. Learn to read the music the PGS way, and you will have all the tools you need to read standard sheet music, and if you practice that you will improve. The assessment offers very little in the way of instruction, if any, so if you can't read yet, you will fail the assessment completely. If you can read but too slowing, then what you need is practice, which the assessment can be, but you don't need it to practice, and you don't get tips to improve, just that you need to improve.

The assessment is part of a competing product to Playground Sessions and you have to use that learning tool to get much benefit from the assessment, or you could use PGS. But until you can actually read music, the assessment is pointless. If you can read music, you don't need PGS or any other program, you just need to put a piece of paper with music on it in front of yourself and practice reading. I'm not saying not to use the assessment, but if you are ready for the assessment, you are likely already more advanced than needing Playground Sessions.

[dewman]

But it has to be repeated enough for you to learn it. which is why i suggested making daily exercises and the test like the SASR to do it everyday enough so you can learn and test can tell you if you are improving or not. i have improved over the last 16 days using it. while its still not great im getting more comfortable with reading sheet music. repetition is the only way to learn. You have to learn the patterns and what the intervals look like, what the chords look like, arpeggios, scales. it can only be done through repetition. You arent going to learn it with 3 or 4 lessons on a particular topic. And usually after a few times memorization takes over and the person is no longer reading it. it has to be lessons people are unfamiliar with.

The point is, if you can't read sheet music at all, then you certainly won't be able to sight read it. Learn to read the music the PGS way, and you will have all the tools you need to read standard sheet music, and if you practice that you will improve. The assessment offers very little in the way of instruction, if any, so if you can't read yet, you will fail the assessment completely. If you can read but too slowing, then what you need is practice, which the assessment can be, but you don't need it to practice, and you don't get tips to improve, just that you need to improve.

The assessment is part of a competing product to Playground Sessions and you have to use that learning tool to get much benefit from the assessment, or you could use PGS. But until you can actually read music, the assessment is pointless. If you can read music, you don't need PGS or any other program, you just need to put a piece of paper with music on it in front of yourself and practice reading. I'm not saying not to use the assessment, but if you are ready for the assessment, you are likely already more advanced than needing Playground Sessions.

Actually the assessment has helped me. Ive noticed its all in how much you retained over the lessons within their program. I have notice my sight reading ability has improved. what i need to get better is more practice. over and over and over. PGS hasnt covered alot of topics still so its quite limited right now. so im only going to know whats been taught. so far with the other ive learned symbols for staccato, lagato. learning arpeggios, 2 octave scales. and more all which havent been covered yet in PGS.