Sight Reading: Skips

Hello and welcome back.
I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we are continuing to build the skill of sight reading,
this time by adding a new challenge, skips.
Let's come to the piano to get started.

So let's practice hunting for skips for a minute.
In music notation when you have a skip it's got to, well,
skip over this line.
For example, if we have a space note here,
and then it skips over the line down to another space note here,
this would be a skip.
So now let's point to each note and say how each note is moving,
saying start for the first note.
Can you say it along with me?
Ready, go. Start, step up, skip down, step up,
step up, repeat, repeat.
Great, now let's try to play this on the piano.

Alright, let's start off with the left hand this time.
Let's take left hand finger 3 and let's place it on F,
so left hand finger 3 on F.
Go ahead and press pause,
and see if you can figure out how to play this on your own without my help,
and then press play and we'll try it together.
Okay let's try it together now.
Left hand finger 3 on F.
Let's say what the notes are doing as we play.
Ready, go. Start, step up, skip down, step up,
step up, repeat, repeat. Great, let's try another one.

This time we have more than one skip.
Can you hunt and point out all the skips in this melody?
Find them for me. If you're pointing right here,
or if you found this one, here's another skip,
or another skip right here. There are three total skips,
one skip up, a skip down, then another skip up.
Now let's point to each note head one at a time and say how they're all moving.
Say start for the first one with me.
Let's try it together. Ready, go.
Start, skip up, repeat, skip down, skip up,
repeat, step down. Good, now let's try to play it on the piano.

Okay, for this one let's use right hand,
once again finger 3, and let's place it on A.
As I mentioned before, when you're practicing this on your own,
you can really start on any white key you choose,
but let's choose A for today.
Left, no, right hand finger 3 on A.
Press pause and see if you can figure this one out on your own,
then press play when you're ready to try it with me.

Okay let's try it together. Right hand finger 3 on A.
Let's say what the notes are doing as we play.
Go. Start, skip up, repeat, skip down, skip up,
repeat, step down. Nice job. Let's try another one.
For this next example can you try saying the steps,
skips, and repeats on your own?
Point to each note head one at a time and say how they're moving.
Say start for the first one. Ready, go.
The correct answer is, start, skip down, skip up,
skip down, step up, repeat, step down.
Now let's try to play it.

Okay, let's do our right hand again for this one,
once again with finger 3 on A.
Now press pause and try this on your own.
This first note will be A,
and then the next one is going to be a skip down.
Press pause, try it on your own,
and then press play when you're ready to try it with me.
Okay, let's try it together right hand finger 3 on A.
Let's say what's happening as we play.
Ready, go. Start, skip down, skip up, skip down,
step up, repeat, step down. Nice job.
Now let's try one more.

For this last example,
can you point to each note and tell me how the notes are moving?
Ready, try it on your own, go.
The correct answer is start, repeat, step up, repeat,
skip down, repeat, step up. Let's try to play it on the piano.
Okay, for this last one let's take left hand finger 3,
place it on D this time. Press pause,
try and play this one on your own,
then press play when you're ready to try it with me.
Alright, once again left hand finger 3 is on D.
Let's say what's happening as we play.
Ready, go. Start, repeat, step up, repeat,
skip down, repeat, step up. Nice work.

Great job working on your sight reading skills today.
From our website you can download even more sight reading exercises to practice, and don't forget that as a premium member you'll also get access to our online music games to help you progress even faster.
Happy practicing and see you next time.

It's time for some more...

Idioms! I get to share the first one today and it's a really really good one.
It's a real zinger.
You're going to be amazed and shocked when I tell it to you.

Oh, is it stealing someone's thunder?

Yeah, and you actually just did it.

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry Scuba.

Ah, it's okay. You actually demonstrated it very nicely.
Stealing someone's thunder means upstaging or taking away someone's big moment by saying or doing something first ...