How Do You Improve Music Sight Reading?
• Be sure you are familiar with the basic chords on a piano that you will be most likely encountering in the music. Look at the key signature and figure out whether you’re in major or minor. If you are in major, you will probably be seeing the tonic, supertonic, subdominant and dominant chords (often with 7’ths). Look for these chords and be ready to put your hands over them as soon as you see them. • If the music has guitar chords written above, use these and try to imitate the ‘shape’ of these chord tones as they are written out in the music. For example, it could be an arpeggiated figure or a broken chord, etc. • Try to play the correct rhythms in the music as much as possible. The ear will tolerate an incorrect note more readily than sloppy or incorrect timing. A confident accent on the first beat of the bar can go a long way towards convincing your audience that you are in control. • Practice sight reading with a metronome. That’s right, some day it will be a drummer who you’re si
