Sight-Reading: Factors that Affect Piano Sight-Reading and Practice Methods

Introduction

The definition of sight-reading is “the ability to read and perform music at first sight, i.e. without preparatory study of the piece” (Apel, 1962, p.679). Lowder (1983) surveyed college faculty members and in-service teachers to find out what they believed were the most important piano skills. The survey found that sight-reading ability was ranked second (“cadence” was first), followed by score-reading, harmonization, and accompaniment. A parallel result was found in the more recent survey of college piano students ranked sight-reading skill as the second most desirable skills (surpassed by “musicality”) (Kostka,1997).

Many music educators believe that the most important way to acquire good sight-reading skills is by reading extensively and practising it regularly, i.e. reading large amounts of music and playing many different unfamiliar music. Mursell (1956) and Elliott......

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Title: Sight-Reading: Factors That Affect Piano Sight-Reading And Practice Methods
Approximate Word Count: 3283
Approximate Pages: 14 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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