I think it was Paul Harris who coined the above phrase and, in my thirty-three years as an examiner, I certainly witnessed plenty of frightened candidates when that moment came in the exam room when I left my table and approached, sight reading in hand. From Barnsley toBuenos Airies,SingaporetoSydney, the one consistent element from candidates was poor sight reading.
Even very musical pupils who confidently know the basics of notation, are prepared to apply themselves and want to read fluently find that the necessary continuity eludes them. Teachers who want to help often do not realize how difficult the process is and I confess that, before my research over recent years, I had little idea of what monumental tasks we ask our brains to carry out – pianists in particular.
My conclusion is that poor sight reading is musical dyslexia. That part of the brain dealing with eye scanning (horizontally for the melody line, vertically for chords and retrograde scanning for the left hand) does not function efficiently. This is because the brain has never been trained to ignore the ear. This might sound heretical – “Ignore the ear? I am always encouraging my pupils to listen!” Quite correct – except that, in sight reading, continuity is by far the most important element. The sequence usually is this: pupil hears an obvious wrong note – the ear alerts the brain, the brain sends a message to the eyes “Look back – something is wrong” – the eyes obey and, bingo, there is the stumble/hesitation which upsets continuity. More than that, it destroys the rhythm pattern and hence the phrasing, all of which results in what I call “non-music”.
Most sight readers think that the vital job is to “Get the notes right”. In fact, the pitch of the notes is the least important element of all. Continuity, Rhythm And Pitch – these words form an unfortunate acronym but those teachers at my meetings across the world amused by my slightly coarse joke, certainly have something to remember in their teaching! Simple experiment: play Happy Birthday To You continuously, in precise rhythm BUT with every note wrong. I guarantee your pupils will join in with the words of the last line!
So: how do we train the brain in the way described to produce fluent sight reading? There is only one way. Users around the world are telling me that the iPad app that I devised and launched last January is guaranteed to improve fluency by training the brain to ignore the ear. The unique SightRead4Piano app contains 1,107 piano pieces from six examination boards from pre-Grade 1 to post-Grade 8. It does what no book can possible do – it removes the music bar by bar as it is played so that when the eyes want to flick back in response to the wrong note, there is nothing to see!
To watch a video demonstration, please find us on YouTube or for more details, go to www.wessarinternational.com.
