Random Sight-Reading Exercises to Boost Music Literacy

Growing up, I was extremely jealous of my classmate Trish Evans. She probably has no idea.

Trish could improvise at the drop of a hat and make up songs that had our classmates gushing over her skills. On the other hand, I felt compelled to play everything as written and suffered stage fright up until university.

Then, I heard that Trish formed a rock band. A really cool one, called Zoey's Closet. Meanwhile, I talked myself out of joining jazz band because lead sheets and improvising scared the bejeebers out of me.

I have since taken a bit of jazz piano and rely on lead sheet reading to get me through choir more often than not. Progress.

Trish and I caught up over tea and talked shop last month. She told me about her piano teacher's efforts to improve Trish's music literacy (great ear, weaker reading skills at the time).

For the first 15 minutes of each lesson, Trish's teacher made her sight-read random music. Sometimes, the pieces were several levels above her playing level. Other times, just below.

While she was sight-reading, Trish's teacher would give comments to guide her. The teacher would play each excerpt before assigning a new one. It gave Trish a way to measure what she sight-read well (and what she didn't).

Last month, I tried this out with my "weaker" readers. My strategy has been to make the first piece several levels above their current one. The second one is closer to their current level, while the third (if there is time) is below their reading level. I drag my finger across my bookcase and stop at a random spot.

This is not the first time that I've heard about starting each lesson with sight-reading. One of my university classmates, Gregory Knight, had lessons like this too. Now, he works as an accompanist at the University of Lethbridge. His sight-reading skills are top notch, which is a useful skill as an accompanist.

I have already noticed an improvement in their musical literacy. A fringe benefit has been that these students are starting to work on music independently. Two of them walked in last week with a new piece to show off to me.

This week, we will begin the second stage of my sight-reading challenge. It will be interesting to see how my so-called "weak" readers will perform this time round.

How to Play Music Faster

After Christmas, my students will be doing a Technique Challenge. I still have to finalize the details and incentives, but I can tell you that speed and accuracy will be key criteria to succeeding in this challenge.

To prepare, I thought I would share some tips on how to play the piano really fast. I must say, kudos to Shawn Cheek, Dr. William Leeland, Kenneth T. Rose and Robert Estrin for sharing these videos and article with musicians everywhere.

Piano teacher Shawn Cheek has created a great video on how to play arpeggios (or in proper Italian, "arpeggii") faster:

Now, Mr. Cheek says that you don't need to exercise the left hand like this unless you're doing classical. I disagree. Firstly, it's important for the hands to be balanced and secondly, I actually have used arpeggios in contemporary styles. It all depends on the style, I guess.

[UPDATE] I originally had another video here, demonstrating the "thumb up" and note clumping technique. However, a few of my colleagues caught how immobile the demonstrator's wrist and arm were. I admit, I was focussed on the thumb up and note clumping, so I'm grateful to Arlene Steffen and Rami Bar-Niv for drawing my attention to it.

There is this neat article by Dr. William Leeland about the "thumb under" and "quick hand shift" technique for scales. It is called The Ins and Outs, Twists and Turns of Scale Playing. It contains some videos.

I actually learned about this "quick hand shift" technique from my brother. It has certainly helped me play my scales, chords and arpeggii faster. Some keys are better than others.

Kenneth T. Rose from England wrote a great article, called “How to play faster”. He has other useful tips on his website, World of Piano.

Finally, Robert Estrin of Living Piano has done a fantastic tutorial on how to play piano faster:

I love how Mr. Estrin explains everything step-by-step.

Here's his video on practicing scales and arpeggii:

I am looking forward to trying some of the new tips on how to play the piano faster in my own piano practice.

Who Levelled Up in My First Sight-reading Challenge?

October has come and gone and Stage One of my Sight-reading Challenge is behind us. It was an interesting experience for my students and I. Here are our Stage One Results:

• 72% did 4/4 weekly challenges

• 12% did extra songs

• 40% advanced one level

• 16% advanced two levels

• 8% advanced three levels

• 36 % stayed at the same same level

As for me, I didn't do nearly as well as I had hoped. It took me two weeks to clear my first challenge because of a nasty cold. In the end, I got through three pieces but not well enough to move my pin up a notch on the game board.

My adult students and Grade 12 students were in the same boat as me. There just wasn't enough time or energy to get through all of the challenges. I will have to plan how to make this work more effectively in Stage Two.

I was able to take advantage of the post-Halloween candy sales and give away some of my excess Halloween candy. Not only that, I did get regular and jumbo sized chocolate bars on sale too. It still wound up costing about $30, but I have lots of leftovers.

The funny part about this sight-reading experience is that my students have been asking why they didn't have a sight-reading challenge during Week 1 of our rest period. I suppose they got used to it.

The nice side benefit that I am seeing is that more of my students are taking the initiative to learn some songs on their own. Not just one song, but two or three. Others have taken to signing out some music books from my studio library and sight-reading music from cover to cover on their own.

Another student is using this time off to relearn all of her favourite songs from last year. She thought it was fun. I thought it was a fantastic way for her to relearn and reinforce information and techniques that she had forgotten about.

I have two weeks to prepare for the next sight-reading challenge for my students. It has been a great project for all of my students (and for me too!).

Now that I know how much time is involved with picking out pieces, I will get everything all selected in advance. Wish me luck.

Related Reading:

Efficient Sight Reading by Li-San

Improving Your Sight-reading by Melanie Spanswick

Why Sight-Reading is Important by Robert Estrin

How to Warm Up at the Piano

My colleague Robert Estrin of Living Pianos recently posted a great video tutorial on how to warm up at the piano. There are some great tips for all musicians!

He talks about staying healthy and taking breaks. He also mentions the importance of stretching.

Here is is clip on how to warm up at the piano:

Here are some keyboard warm-ups, courtesy of my colleague Irina Gorin. These are geared towards beginner piano students:

Finally, check out my series on musician stretches:

• Face and Neck Stretches for Musicians

• Arm and Hand Stretches for Musicians

• Back and Shoulder Stretches for Musicians

Piano Parties: Giving music students a comfortable place to perform, learn and socialize

Last year, inspired by music educators who host social events and informal performances for their students, I jumped on this creative music teaching idea. I offered three piano parties to my students, which fast became one of the most popular events of the year. Last weekend, I hosted the first one of the 2013/14 year. It was a Halloween Piano Party. All of my students came in costume and brought treats to share. I supplied a meat and cheese tray, juice and games.

The students who arrived first created their own ice breaker. One of the questions was "If you could have a superpower, any super power in the world, what would it be?"

My students and I played one spooky song each. For most of us, we performed one of the pieces I assigned as a Sight-Reading Challenge. They did well.

Me, on the other hand, performed something I hadn't run through for a few days and had to compete with kids and canine assistant who were all excited about the arrival of two more students. It became a case study on playing with distractions.

Then, I introduced my music students to some tabletop games that most had never seen before. On one hand, I was thinking of giving them a break from music games. Later, after reading that my colleague, Diane Hidy often does puzzles with potential students, I realized that I had a golden opportunity to see how my students think.

We started with Labryinth. It's a 3D maze game, in which the players race to find the treasures. Of the four newbies, one caught on very quickly. Another couldn't care less, while the other two had an extremely tough time planning their moves because they couldn't seem to visualize what their next move should be. At least, not without someone (either myself or my other two students who have played the game before) pushing a tile in to show them possible cause and effects. It was a game where my visual, creative thinkers dominated.

The second game was the undisputed favourite: Tsuro. It's a tile-based game in which you try to be the last dragon flying on the board. Each tile contains four lines; four possible paths to follow. All of my students latched onto the concept fairly quickly. The two who struggled with Labyrinth had an easier time because they could fiddle with the tiles and pretend to lay it down to see where the path would lead.

And yes, they started to think ahead, asking themselves: "If I put the tile down like this, what is my dragon's path?" Not all of them. One of them left things to chance.

The third game I introduced them to was King of Tokyo. It's a dice and card game in which monsters take pot shots of each other. The victor is either the first monster to reach 20 victory points, or the last monster standing.

One thing I learned with the games is not to spend too much time with the rules. I gave the kids the objective of the game, general actions and then had them jump in. With King of Tokyo, I explained what their dice rolls gave them, answered the questions about the cards and then let them decide what to do.

One student left King of Tokyo to return to Tsuro, leaving two boys and one girl. My female student was starting to think strategically but her monster was killed off early in the game. She too, returned to Tsuro.

That left the two boys who were looking forward to being monsters to enjoy an epic slugfest to their hearts' content. Neither were thinking of victory points, opting to just continually take pot shots at each other.

In short, I learned three things. First, the visual and creative thinkers were most successful at the games. Second, the ones who thought strategically were also my students who are more detail oriented and third, the one who didn't really care about strategy is also the one who has the most problems with timing. He was also the most enthusiastic about being a monster.

All in all, my music students had a fun time. They all cheered each other on when they performed. They ate a balance of sugar and healthier food and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves with the tabletop games.

I relished in the opportunity to give them a relaxed performance opportunity, another way to see how they think and to share with them some fun games that they could enjoy with their family and friends. The piano party continue to be one creative teaching idea that is worth repeating again and again.