Sight Reading Challenge (Unit 8)

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and it's time for another sight reading challenge.
Today we're going to get started with Sight Reading Trainer Book Three.
By the way, if you feel like the sight reading challenges in book three are too hard, that's okay.
You can skip this lesson for now, and keep practicing in Sight Reading Trainer Book Two.
Just be sure to practice one or two exercises every day, and then come back to this lesson when you're ready.
Okay let's get started with Sight Reading Trainer Book Three.
Here's the introduction to Sight Reading Trainer Book Three, which you'll find on page one.
If you haven't taken the time already, I encourage you to download and print this out so you can have your own copy to work from
at home.
Now, for every exercise in this book use this pre-playing checklist so you can prepare to play your very best.
First, take time to notice the following things:
The tempo indication, which is located right here.
You'll see in this example it's allegro, which tells you we're going to play this fast.
Take time to notice the clefs. Usually, that will be a treble clef and a bass clef,
but you'll see in this exercise both hands are playing in the treble clef, so you'll know both hands
are playing in this higher part of the piano.
You should also check your time signature so you can know how many beats you're counting in each measure.
Also take time to notice the starting notes and finger numbers.
In this book, I'm not going to tell you what the pentascale is or what position your fingers are in.
You have to figure it out by looking at the starting note and the starting finger numbers.
Once you've noticed all of those things, it's time to preview the entire exercise and make a practice plan.
Previewing means you're just going to scan through the notes and decide what are the most difficult elements.
Is it the rhythm? Is it the left hand? Is it the right hand?
Find the parts that look the most challenging and practice those alone first,
and then try putting it all together.
For example, if the rhythm looks tricky, try tapping and counting the rhythm.
You can play the right hand alone, the left hand alone first, and then put it all together.
Finally, some tips for sight reading are down at the bottom. Let's summarize these tips.
First of all, practice slowly at first, even if your tempo indication is fast like allegro.
At first you want to practice it slow.
Number two, be on the lookout for symbols like articulations, dynamics, ties, fermata, finger numbers, repeats,
any other instructions you might find.
Number three, repeat each exercise until you feel successful.
Maybe you'll feel successful after one or two tries, maybe it will take you 20 tries.
Just repeat until you feel successful, and then move on.
Finally, remember to stay relaxed and use your best piano posture as you do these exercises.
Alright, let's get started with exercise number one.
Here's exercise number one in Sight Reading Trainer Book Three.
Let's do the pre-playing checklist together. So first what is the tempo indication?
If you said moderato, you're correct. That's one of our Italian words that means we'll play at a medium speed.
Then what are the clefs?
We have treble and bass, so our right hand will be middle C and up, left hand will be middle C and down.
What is the time signature?
If you said 4/4, great job,
and let's figure out the starting notes and finger numbers.
For the right hand, what's our starting note and finger number?
If you said D and finger 1, great job.
What about the left hand? What do you see?
If you said F-sharp finger 3, great job.
Next up on our pre-playing checklist is to preview the entire exercise which just means look it over start to finish,
and make a practice plan.
What looks tricky about this?
The rhythms don't look hard do they? It's just mostly quarter notes and half notes,
but the two hands are doing two different things, so maybe we would want to practice the right hand alone first, then the left hand alone first, and then try it hands together.
That might be your practice plan, but it's okay if you come up with a different plan.
The last thing to notice is that every exercise in section one has a pentascale, one of our
twenty-four major or minor pentascales,
and it's your job to figure out which pentascale is being used in this exercise.
How will we do that?
Well, here's one way you could figure it out. I've drawn five blanks here, and you can do the same in your music.
To figure out which pentascale, we're going to fill in the five notes that we
are asked to play in this exercise.
We see that here we play finger 1 on D,
and in the pentascale, right hand finger 1 is going to be playing DO, or the first note of the pentascale.
Now another ...