Sight reading, or playing at sight isn’t just about reading the sheet music and trying to figure out what notes to play. Sight reading is about playing a piece of music that you have never seen or heard before for the first time, and aiming to make it sound like a musical performance - playing continuously without stopping to figure out difficult bits, or correct mistakes. This is an important skill for accompanists, or musicians working in ensembles. In these situations, musicians are often given completely new pieces of music to play, and they have to keep up with everyone else. No one is going to stop for them while they try and figure out what the notes are. Even if this kind of situation never applies to you, improving your sight reading skills significantly improves your ability to work out new pieces of music generally. Also, because keeping going is such a hugely important part of sight reading technique, sight reading improves your ability to perform.

Here is a detailed outline of important things to consider when attempting to sight read a piece; whether this is for the sight reading test in a graded exam, or you are just aiming to improve the sound of your playing whilst sight reading in general. Don't just launch in and hope for the best. Have a look through the piece before you start playing. Take a little time to prepare yourself by making a mental note of important features, and keeping in mind a few points, described below. This will help to prevent a lot of the stuttering and stumbling that can result from being taken by surprise. This list also shows you the areas you will need to work on in order to improve your sight reading.

1. Key: Look at the key signature, any accidentals, and the starting and finishing notes (which are usually from the tonic triad - that is the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale) and use these details to figure out what key the piece of music is in. Think about whether it will sound major, minor, chromatic, discordant etc. and consider what effect this might have on the character or mood of the piece. See if it changes key anywhere.
2. Time: Look at the time signature and any tempo indications, decide what you will count and set a pulse. If there are no tempo indications, think about how the rhythm would sound at different speeds and look for clues about the character of the piece to decide which speed might be most appropriate. Such clues indicating character might include the title (if it’s a descriptive title, such as “Elegy”), expression details, tonality etc. Think through or tap the rhythm of the first couple of bars to set your pace, and do the same with any rhythms that are complicated or very different. Look at the most difficult passage and decide how fast you can play this, set your whole speed based on this so that you don’t slow down or stop when getting to difficult bits.
3. Pitch: Look at the range of notes used, from the lowest to the highest. See if the register changes, eg. ask yourself if it tends to use notes grouped around one area of the keyboard for a while, then changes. Check for any changes of clef, or unexpected clef. For example, treble clef in left hand - which means the left hand is playing high up on the keyboard; or bass clef in right hand - which means the right hand is playing lower down. Get an overview of roughly where on the keyboard your hands start and move to. Get an idea of the overall shape in terms of pitch - with the aim of reading contours of whole chunks of music rather than reading individual notes. Just like when you read a book, you read whole words, not individual letters. Recognising patterns and seeing the bigger picture instead of trying to work out one small detail at a time will help you read more fluently.
4. Melody: Look at where the melody and accompaniments are. Eg. is the melody in the right hand with an accompaniment in the left hand? Vice versa? Melody in the inner parts with accompaniment in the treble and bass parts? Sing some of the melody and/or bass line in your head or out loud. Try and imagine how the piece would sound and how the melody fits in to the piece as a whole.
5. Expression: Look at expressive details such as dynamics, performance directions and articulation. Again, think about how these will affect the character and sound.
6. Character and Mood: Remember it’s a piece of music you’re attempting to play - a work of art designed to convey character and meaning. Think about what the character of the music may be, based on the details you have observed. Eg. if it is in a minor key, very slow and sustained - you may come to the conclusion that it could be quite a melancholy or solemn piece; or perhaps a more tranquil sounding piece of music.
7. Patterns: Look for patterns such as scale-like passages, broken chords, arpeggios etc. Again this helps you read whole chunks of music fast, instead of individual notes because hopefully you will recognise and remember the scales or arpeggios that these patterns are based on. Regularly practising all scales, arpeggios and broken chords will help. You need both the recognition of each one, and the technical ability to play each one in order to sight read music fluently, as melodies and harmonies are based on scales and chords, and the relationships between them.
8. Harmony: Identify any chords. Eg. tonic triad, dominant, sub dominant and so on, if you are familiar with this system of naming chords. Alternatively you can name the chords by their note names and whether they are major or minor etc. For example, if you see a chord made up of D, F sharp, and A you would call it a D major chord. Whichever system you choose to name the chords, the important thing is to recognise them and be able to identify them. It helps you get quicker at reading big vertical stacks of notes where you have to read several notes at once very quickly. Also, understanding chords and how they are related to each other makes it easier for you to recognise them and read them quickly on the sheet music. Look for familiar harmonic progressions, such as the very common I, IV, V, I. This way of writing chords with Roman numerals indicates the degree of the scale that each chord is based on. So chord I would be a chord built upon the first degree of the scale. In C major this harmonic progression would use the following chords: 1 = C E G, 4 = F A C, 5 = G B D. As you can see, an understanding of theory really helps you to understand chords, which in turn significantly helps your sight reading.
9. Read ahead: Fluent sight reading depends on reading ahead. Don’t look back. Don’t stop to correct mistakes (save the corrections for when you’re learning a piece of music). Keep going and aim for a rhythmical performance.

Successful sight reading is dependent on a combination of skills. These include: reading ahead, recognising musical patterns, ingrained muscle memory of common techniques, understanding of theory, and understanding of musical concepts and expression. If you work on improving all aspects of your musicianship, not just understanding of music notation, you will be able to improve your sight reading.

If you would like to improve your sight reading, frequently practising the skills outlined above is important. A lot of piano sight reading books are designed to break down the different elements of sight reading so that you can focus on and improve each one before gradually bringing them altogether. A very gradual progression of difficulty is normally found in these sorts of books. Depending on your level, collections of studies (also called etudes) and short pieces such as sonatinas are also very useful for sight reading practice as they help you to learn and recognise frequently used musical patterns.

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