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Sight Reading BooksThe most comprehensive list of sight reading books to improve your keyboard sight-reading. These piano sight reading books are supplemental to the Super Sight-Reading Secrets program by Howard Richman, but will be helpful to your sight-reading goals independently as well. To get the best benefit from these books, it is ideal to follow the special instructions included in Super Sight Reading Secrets. For example, people have recommended using Bach Chorales to improve sight-reading for hundreds of years. But most people rarely get the results they strive for unless they follow the specific procedure on WHAT TO DO with the Bach Chorales! See also: books on sight-reading, how to improve sight-reading, books to help sight-reading. (Also, Don’t miss our 10 amazing free secrets to improve sight-reading!) The books below are categorized by various “levels.” Sight-reading music at various levels has a broad benefit to you. Read easy music fast to develop speed and the ability to look ahead. Don’t worry about mistakes. Read difficult music very slowly to develop accuracy. Each person’s level is different. There are four levels indicated below. Your easy level may be “1” and your hard level may be “3.” Yet another person might be “2” and “4” respectively. Stretch yourself. Get music that is BOTH below your comfort level AND above your comfort level. Many of the books and supplemental materials listed here are hard to find at your local sheet music store or even favorite online sheet music store. We’ve located a supplier of these items that usually has everything in stock and offers fast, easy and helpful service. We don’t sell these books ourselves, (except for a few items.) We are very happy with this supplier and we encourage you to click on the links below when you are ready to order. You will be very pleased with their service. (Most other sheet music suppliers tend to be out of the very thing you want!) Sight-Reading Method
Supplemental Products
When purchasing the Bach Chorales, make sure you get the version that is “reduced” for keyboard. This means that you see the soprano and alto voices together in the treble staff and the tenor and bass voices together in the bass staff. So, in other words, it will have normal-looking piano staves. The two recommendations immediately below are the correct versions. (If you’re not careful, you accidentally might pick up the “choir” version of the Bach chorales which means you will be reading FOUR separated staves at the same time! This is ultimately good for your SCORE READING but not appropriate for the original intention of improving your piano sight-reading.) The two options below are exactly what is recommended in Super Sight-Reading Secrets.
Looking Ahead Right Hand Solo By practicing right hand alone, particularly as explained in Super Sight-Reading Secrets, you will develop the ability to read horizontally (looking ahead.) You don’t need to get all of these as they each serve a similar purpose when used in the suggested manner.
(TEMP OUT OF PRINT)
Looking Ahead Left Hand Solo By practicing left hand alone, particularly as explained in Super Sight-Reading Secrets, you will develop the ability to read horizontally (looking ahead.) You don’t need to get all of these as they each serve a similar purpose when used in the suggested manner.
Metronome
By practicing reading rhythms alone, without worrying about the pitch of the note, you are able to develop this skill to a higher degree than if you always try to play the right pitches and the right rhythms at the same time. It is suggested that you pick any note of the keyboard and just read the rhythmic information. In fact, you don’t even need a keyboard for these. You can tap or clap. Start at a very slow and comfortable metronome setting and gradually work your way up.
Score Reading “Score reading” references the conductor’s score which may be up to reading 30 staves at a time!!!! Anything that makes you read more than the normal two piano staves will help with your VERTICAL perception. Start out practicing with organ music, which has three staves, the bottom one being for your feet. But don’t play it with your feet. Instead, try to “compress” the notes that you read on three staves into your two hands. You may have to leave out some notes. That’s ok. Then when you go back to normal piano music it will seem so easy!
Scales (for fingering)
Level 1: Very Easy Music Books for Total Beginner (Look for “5-Finger”) When piano books say “easy” they really mean “intermediate” level. This is SOOOOOO confusing to the new pianist. If you are just starting out at the piano, or just starting out at working on your sight-reading, then you should get some 5 finger books. These usually have you playing just one hand at a time, keeping the hands in one place on the keyboard (hand position) and are quite wonderful. There are really hundreds of titles. The only problem, for sight-reading purposes, it’s to your advantage to
get a five-finger book that has a lot of pages in it. That’s because you’re going to go through it fast. Most of the books out there only have 24 or 30 pages so you’ll have to purchase a ot of them. The best thing to do on these songs is to NOT read notes, but to develop your “intervalic” reading (explained in Super Sight-Reading Secrets.) This refers to reading how far each note is from the previous note and then selecting the appropriate finger. So, learn to read by finger number when
playing these songs! The books below are recommended mostly because they have a lot of pages. This way, you usually only need to buy one. By the time you’re done with it, you’ll probably be ready for the next level of difficulty. As long as it says Level 2: Easy Music Books for Seasoned Beginner (These often say “Big Note.”) (Do not get “E-Z Play”) These types of books are just a step above the 5-finger books and have both hands playing simultaneously and the hands are now moving to several positions within each song, so you cannot just read fingers anymore. You have to actually read the notes. As above, there are many “big note” or comparable books out there, but the ones recommended here have many pages, so you won’t run out of songs too soon.
Level 3 Sight-Reading Books (“Easy Piano”) (Do not get “Intermediate” for this level or it will be too hard!) These books are often called “easy” by the publishers, but I’ve placed them, as you can see on “level 3!” The ones listed here have many pages, so you can enjoy practicing your sight-reading on many songs without having to go shopping for more books too often. Again, there are hundreds of “Easy Piano” books but the ones recommended below have a lot of pages, so you won’t run out of music too fast.
Level 4: Difficult Music for Sight-Reading. (This level book will often say “Intermediate” but that is actually pretty difficult.) By the time you’re at this sight-reading level, you’re playing “real” pieces. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Haydn, Joplin, Liszt, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Scarlatti, Schumann, Schubert, Scriabin, and all the other classical composers. Also, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, and all the other jazz transcriptions. Also, pop, R&B, country, Gospel, and most of the other popular literature. In other words, you are so good at sight-reading now that your sight-reading level is the most advanced music! Or, you are aspiring to this level and you are working on sight-reading these pieces in SLOW MOTION to get the benefit of developing your accuracy. There are so many books to recommend in this category, but I’ve selected a few that I think are representative:
Four Hand Sheet Music Books Most pianists are shocked at how disorienting it can be to play four hand music. Four hand piano music is the fancy term for “duet.” in order to play a duet, you don’t sit in the center of the piano. Chosing “primo” or “secondo” position, you sit either on the right or the left respectively and this shift from your normal position can really through you at first. What is so interesting is that after having practiced sight-reading four hand music it reading regular solo piano music seem easy! Here is a link to many different selections of four hand and duet music. Baroque Ornamentation Sometimes, you’ll come across various ornaments in Baroque music and it’s nice to understand what they mean. You don’t need a book for this. Here’s a website that shows Bach’s original explanations of each ornament. Also, if you click on the samples, you can HEAR what they sound like! J.S. Bach's Ornament Table by T.L. Hubeart Jr. Contemporary Notation Sight-reading modern music can be quite challenging. But it is to your advantage to get some of this into your library so that when it comes up, you’ll be ready and accustomed to some of the notation conventions.
Fake Books — Reading Chord Symbols What is a “fake book?” Fake books used to be hand written binders that professional cocktail pianists would make for themselves of famous popular songs. They used chord symbols and would improvise most of the notes based on the chord information and the bare bones melody. They would share these “charts” with their friends. Traditionally, these were photocopies of a photocopy, so the quality was very low. Eventually, publishers started publishing fake books. Now there are hundreds of fake books for every music genre and style! If you’re working on sight-reading chord symbols, its great to have a fake book because you really get your money’s worth. This is because they don’t provide the traditional two-staff piano music in a fake book. It’s only the treble staff singer’s melody and the chord symbols. This means that they can cram a whole song on a page or sometimes a half a page and that’s why you can have one book with 1200 songs in it. This is great for sight-reading because you have such a wide selection of songs that you will rarely need to repeat the same song. Check out the best selection and lowest prices of fake books and song books for all your singing needs. Other Products We Recommend .
For More Information. For more information, it’s possible that your question has already been asked by someone else and you may be able to find a quick answer by looking on our Q&A page. Otherwise, please contact us. If you’re looking for some of the supplementary sight-reading books recommended in Super Sight-Reading Secrets, here is most updated listing and how to buy them. Please see our other great music instruction products. Please see our ten amazing free secrets improve sight-reading. Don’t miss our Secrets of Singing on Pitch complete instant ebook. Please see our self-accompanying workshops. Best sellers, newest products, hottest things that you absolutely must have. Also, please see our links to other great sites about music theory and singing.
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| Copyright © 1998-2007 Sound Feelings Publishing, Tarzana, California, All Rights Reserved. Tel: +1-818-757-0600 Customer Comments Website created by Howard Richman with special thanks Website maintained by web engineer Last updated Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
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