Sight Reading

Sight reading is one of the most essential building blocks to playing any instrument. Regardless of the method, sight reading should be an integral part of your lessons and practice time. We LOVE using flash cards and have found it to be the quickest, most painless way to conquer the task.

For only $3.95 at your local music store, you could be sight reading fluently in a matter of weeks! Starting with the treble clef, select 5 notes to work on. Place them on the music stand and have the child play the note, not say it. By eliminating a step in the triangle (see, say, play) their mind will start associating the actual key or string when seeing that note.  Once those 5 cards are mastered, put them aside and introduce 5 more. Occasionally place select cards from the ones previously worked on back into the new pile. If a note is missed, pull it out and place it into the pile with two well known notes. Go over those 3 cards again and again until it becomes second nature. When all notes are familiar, challenge your child to a race - how many seconds/or minutes can you get through the entire pile?