how can I improve sight-reading rhythm?
Matt asked:
Right now I’m working on a piano piece that has lots of rhythm into it. I’m not very good at all sight-reading rhythm in music pieces. I know how to play the notes in a flash like sight readers know how to but I just don’t know how to put the rhythm together. Sight-reading Rhythm is very confusing for me. How Can I improve my sight-reading rhythm skills? I need very informative help and advice!
Right now I’m working on a piano piece that has lots of rhythm into it. I’m not very good at all sight-reading rhythm in music pieces. I know how to play the notes in a flash like sight readers know how to but I just don’t know how to put the rhythm together. Sight-reading Rhythm is very confusing for me. How Can I improve my sight-reading rhythm skills? I need very informative help and advice!
thank you – Matt
What Top Musicians Know About Sight Reading Music
How to Sight Read Music Video Lesson
There is no “easy path” to better rhythm/sight-reading skills.
You just practice.
There’s no better way.
Play with a metronome, and make sure you understand the value of every note.
Don’t forget syncopation!
Sight Reading Secrets Revealed
look a measure ahead always, don’t look at the measure you are playing. ALWAYS LOOK AHEAD. also , change the rhythm aorund, and then go back to the actual rhythm….it can help
How to Sight Read Music Hub
two things you can do to improve sight-reading. first of all, learn to subdivide and count in your head as you play. get a metronome and a book full of etudes or rhythm studies and go very slow at first, one-and two-an three-and…for eighth notes, one-e-and-a for sixteenth notes and so on, learn to count as you play (in your head) and speed it up a little at a time AFTER you start to get the hang of it.
second, just sight read. new tunes every day. you can work on a couple that challenge you more in depth but just do new tunes once or twice then move on to the next and the next. this will also really help your sight reading. get in the habit of doing this regularly and over time you will become a fearless sight reader.
Sight Reading Music Lessons
First you need to count in rhythm correctly.
Secondly you’re going to need a metronome.
Now that you’ve done this 2 things,here are some tips.
First,establish a rhythm in which you can keep up with.A slow one is good if you are slow in sight reading.
Second,don’t stop in the middle.If you make a mistake,move on or else it’ll turn into a bad habit.
Third,have you heard of subdividing?Its a very good skill to apply in sight reading.It basically means counting the beats down to the very smallest ones.For example,I’m going to sight read a piece and the shortest note worth is a quaver.Therefore,instead of counting in crotchets I count in quavers with a tempo like 1 and 2 and 3 and 4(if its in 4/4 time)This would prove useful since it helps to establish the rhythm and at the same time,you won’t lose the main pulse.
Fourth,a very nice tip I learned throughout my years sightreading(Okay 3 years)Always,ALWAYS look ahead.This is a very useful skill.If you finished sightreading the first bit then look ahead at the second bit while you are playing the first bit.This ensures smoothness in between phrases.However,it could get a while to get used to this.
Other than these tips I have a bit of advice.Get a lot of scores and just sit down and sight read them.Doesn’t matter if you can’t get it up to speed.You could sight read stuff that you are weak at too.For example,if you can’t sight read the bass clef fast enough then spend more of your time sight reading using the left hand.
SpeedyMusicReading.com
Below is a good program to help with your sight reading rhythm
How to Sight Read Music Video Lesson
get the AB guide to music theory part1 (pink book) it explains a lot and is really helpful