Hi there!
One of big problems for me is playing from the music sheets. I know all of the symbols and notes but can not play from a sheet well. Focusing on the staff, reading then finding the notes on the keyboard and playing at the given tempo with both hands (good fingering) are not easy tasks for me.

Do you have any idea for that other than practicing (just joking)?

Are there lessons to play sheets by just one looking?

Do big players read them multiple times before playing or they're able to play without previous readings?

Thanks so much!

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 30, 2016

Practise!
You can also try humming the music (especially useful to become fluent reading the rhythms) too.

 

exactly this.

 

Who said it was supposed to be easy? It's actually one of the most difficult tasks to master.

And yes, most professional session or orchestral musicians are able to simultaneously read and play most pieces without previous contact with them.

Really, there's no secret recipe here. It literally takes years of commitment and discipline to master it.

Practice very slowly. Practice every day. Don't noodle around. Stay away from your computer/cellphone while you're trying to practice.

 

Employ a piano player, while you focus on learning how to write and produce great music. In the same vain, if you can't sing hire a vocalist

If you want to be a concert pianist, forget what I just said and learn to play from music sheets

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2016

Thanks so much guys.
I also wanted to ask how to drink coffee and do some fine arts eg. sculpturing while playing but with your descriptions I think it's better to ignore them but I have seen a scene of making out during play from sheets. Is it really possible (focusing on what)?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 30, 2016

Normally, one would start out with one note melodies and scales. If you are trying to read and play a difficult piece at given tempo, you will probably become frustrated very quickly. It takes time. When I rehearse a piece, I go very slowly, then work toward the given tempo. It is not something you learn overnight, but if you dedicate the time it takes, you will instinctively know your hand positions and keys with very little looking down. Same with reading the music. It is like learning a new language. Take it slow.

 

If you are in the popular music domain most of the music is at a pretty low difficulty level and with a little practice you should be able to play at sight and possibly even transpose at sight. I would learn all you can about music theory and composition as the more you know the easier it is to sight read as you will be able to understand what the composer is doing with the melody, counter-melody, bass line, and harmony.

As for practice-wise, I would master being able to play in all keys. Work on your scales, broken chords, arpeggios in all keys. Another good drill of sorts is to go around the circle of fifths (C,G,D,A,E,B,F#,C#,Ab,Eb,Bb,F) and play all the notes of the scale at once (harmonically) with your left and right hands (first five notes in the left hand, last three in the right hand, or four in each). Do this until you can do it without thinking. You should also try transposing simple melodic fragments across the circle of fifths. As your harmonic sense improves you can transpose the chords at sight as well. On that note think of chords in terms of their harmonic function (I ii iii IV V vi vii dim) rather just just their chord name (C dm em F G am b dim). That being said, even when sight reading feel free to spend a couple minutes going through the piece and analyzing it; even professionals do this! Look for obscure accidentals such as chromatic passing tones or where there is likely a modulation to a different key. Try to understand why that sharp or flat would be there, which is usually fairly straight forward in popular music (usually a change from major to minor for a verse or chorus or use of a secondary dominant chord to build tension). Work on your harmonic knowledge as well until you can pick out chords at first sight when they are arpeggiated, broken up, or put in a sequence. Over time you will even be able to identify incomplete chords (when just a few notes of a chord are present) as you will understand chord progressions and the particular function a chord in a measure is serving.

As for strict sight reading practice. Coming from a classical background myself I would recommend choosing repertoire that is far beneath your current performance level and slowly building up your sight reading skills. For example say you are an intermediate player and can perform ABRSM or RCM grade 6-7 works from memory. Well for your sight reading practice I would definitely not choose that same level for sight reading practice and would probably grab a grade 2 or 3 (or even grade 1) book and go from there. There are many graded sight reading series books of increasing difficulty you can buy or find floating around on the net as well.

Another skill of sorts to develop is getting in the habit of reading ahead while you play. You can start to hone this skill by looking at a measure until you have it memorized then look at the next while you play the previous measure and continue playing the piece in this fashion (never looking at the measure you are playing). This can be a bit broken at first, having a pause between memorizing and playing the next measure as it will eventually smooth out and the break will dissappear once you learn to multitask the playing and the memorizing of the next measure(s). Some classical teachers cover the measure the student is playing with a note card to prevent cheating. Again start training this with easy repertoire far beneath your current performance level, if it is too difficult even at grade 1 try just doing one hand, half of a measure, or whatever it takes to get you reading ahead. As this skill grows you may even find yourself being able to play groups of measures or even phrases in this fashion, especially in easier works. Simply memorizing large amounts repertoire as well as the mental practice of looking at sheet music and trying to play it in your minds eye will additionally help to develop your rapid note recognition and short term memory both of which you will need to sight read at rapid speeds.

If you are in the classical domain and want to become a proficient reader it is much more difficult than if you are in the popular domain of music. Harmonies and melodies become extremely complex in more difficult pieces and you almost need to be a music scholar to decipher them. You also might find yourself having to to come to and understanding of counterpoint if you like to play baroque pieces which makes classical and romantic-era harmony seem almost easy in comparison. Then if you like to play impressionist and 20th century works you almost have to study the likes of Schoenberg and atonal composition techniques. Even with your PhD in music composition though you will still stumble across that obscure movement from a piece that makes you feel like you know nothing about music.

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2016

Sit down on the damn bench and don't get the fuck up until you can do it. . . But really, if it is important to you, you will, and I promise, that every week you spend at least a 1/2 hour working at this vital chore your ability will improve, bit by bit, incrementally, and as the months pass it will come easier and easier for you to sight read. This will happen for two reasons. The first of course is the fact that you'very been practicing your ass off because you love making music, and it as if your very life and every single solidary breath depends on it, kinda like soul survival, just like every hard working artist, and the other is that you should by this time have a greater awareness of your musical surroundings, different ears and eyes that have a look ahead feature, and you will now start to feel what is to follow and be more prepared to make rapid changes and quick decisions. You are learning a new language. It takes time to internalize concepts and translate them internally. It is akin in my mind to the real world concept latency while working on your DAW. There are many factors at play, but a freshly updated and well written driver is of prime importance and is going to take you 4/5 of the way there to imperceptible lag...and it is as just like you are writing a new driver for your neural network and installing firmware updates along the way to improve the working relationship between your mind and your body.

You're really going to be great, no worrys.

 

How many months are we talking about here? lol

Honestly, half an hour a week wont even scratch the surface when it comes to reading and playing music with proficiency.

We're talking about at least two hours a day for at least a couple of years until someone can start to automatize the process and start reading and playing relatively complex pieces effortlessly.

Don't get me wrong guys, but everybody I know who've got these skills are guys who've been practicing full time, meaning six, eight hours a day for a handful of years, usually much more.

Being top notch professional musician isn't like learning a DAW or anything like that. It's real hard work.

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2016

Praying for the stars on the street

 

What foster really means everytime he asks something like this:

" I would like to practice without practicing because I prefer reading about stuff instead of doing it but I ain't getting the desired results.
Is there a way to practice in a theoretical way? Something I can read instead of doing?"

 

I didn't want to be the one who said it

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2016

Thank so much!
OK! All of you lovely guys telling me practicing and I do that but switching between different tasks of music production yields nothing. Practice this, practice that. I can not concentrate on any thing..... You know what I am saying.
Anyway, I really do appreciate. Hope you don't be got stuck in the same situation of mine.

 

Oh yes, I do know what you're saying, my friend.
You're not alone.
So many fascinating things to learn...So little time...So many distractions...

 

"Jack of all trades, master of none"

The reason why people who once dreamed of creating music end up doing something pointless with their lives like mixing or "producing". Instead of trying to do everything focus all your effort on one or a few task(s). I once wanted to learn lead and rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and singing, not to mention music theory on top of all of that to write my own songs and arrangements but quickly gave up on that overly ambitious notion. It is far better to master one or two instrument(s) rather than be mediocre at multiple ones. You can always collaborate with others and combine both of your strengths to create something neither of you could on your own. The same logic applies to composition as well. Focus your efforts on one component, learn everything you can on it for weeks or months (or even years) then continue gradually building your house of knowledge brick by brick. Downloading hundreds of tutorials or books and trying to learn everything at once is destined for failure.

 

You can't do everything at once and be successful. That's the problem with society today. The newer generations have an unwarranted sense of entitlement (blame the internet and digital age), no patience and don't want to practice anything... because i t t a k e s t i m e!
Guess what?
"Rome wasn't built in a day", neither were the Pyramids...
"Patience is a virtue" and...
"Practice makes perfect"...

I practiced the guitar 8-10 hours a day before I became a Hollywood studio musician and touring guitarist. I spent 2-4 hours each day just sight-reading so I could keep up with other amazing studio musicians... there are no short cuts or a downloadable "app" to make it happen instantly (OMG!!) ...

 

That's why I suggested that you specialize in a few tasks. Learning the piano and sight reading will take up all of your time for many years. For me, if I need some technical piano on a track it seems logical to call in a piano player for that ... in my case my Uncle who studied classical piano at the RCM, but just make friends with a piano player, they like to record and be involved in music too

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2016

The internet being the main offender. My DAW lives in it's own universe.