Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum Complete!

After a few years in the making, we’re delighted to announce the completion of our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum! Created by Ken Johansen and derived from his experience in teaching the subject to piano majors at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the curriculum provides a unique, structured approach to developing the key skills that underpin a good sight-reading ability.

It consists of an extensive collection of annotated scores dealing with every aspect of sight-reading, together with detailed suggestions on how to practise, covering everything from training the eyes to read more efficiently, to recognising patterns, simplifying complex textures and mastering difficult rhythms.

Playing by Ear

The last instalment in the curriculum explores the subject of playing by ear. Playing by ear might seem to be the opposite of sight-reading, the very name of which emphasises the visual aspect of decoding musical scores. But in reality, we read with our ears as much as with our eyes. The inner ear, allied to our musical experience and memory, helps us to navigate a new score, to predict what is coming, and to improvise when the eyes haven’t had enough time to absorb everything.

Content & Features

The four modules of Part III provide opportunities of different kinds to become aware of, and strengthen, this intuitive role of the ear in sight-reading:

• Missing Melodies – A collection of famous pieces in which the melodies have been removed provides a starting point for giving more attention to the left-hand accompaniment and playing the right-hand by ear.
• Missing Inner Notes – Using pieces where only the outer parts are given requires use of our ears and harmonic instinct to fill in the middle voices. At the end of the module this technique is extended to study full open scores of vocal and instrumental music.
• Missing Accompaniments – A series of well-known Classical pieces in “lead sheet format” i.e. the melody written out but with only harmonic symbols provided for the accompaniment encourages playing harmony by ear to keep the line going and improvising details where necessary.
• Improvisation – The last module brings together several activities enabling you to spontaneously invent parts of the musical texture within a given harmonic or rhythmic framework.

These four modules can be studied consecutively, as a self-contained course in playing by ear or combined with related modules from other parts of the curriculum. In addition to improving your sight-reading ability, they will help you develop your overall musicianship, enabling you to feel feel less bound to the details of musical notation and more free to rely on your ears and musical instincts.

Other Parts

The previously published parts of the curriculum are as follows (a full index of all parts and their respective modules is available here):

• Part 1 Eye Training – Sight-reading begins with sight. Before the inner ear can begin to imagine the sound of a score, before the mind can start to decode the patterns it detects, and before the body can translate these sounds and patterns into physical gestures that transform written notes into music, the eyes must take in all the information that is presented to them. We therefore begin our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum with several modules that help train the eyes to move more efficiently and consciously as we play music at sight. Click here to view.
• Part 2 Flexibility – To give an interpretation of a piece we have never seen before requires flexibility and demands a willingness to accept wrong notes, technical stumbles, and botched details, in the greater interest of maintaining rhythmic cohesion, following the broad outlines of the score. The second part of our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum is comprised of a set of modules to help you recognise patterns, see harmonic progressions, improvise where necessary and keep going in difficult passages. Click here to view.
• Part 4 Rhythm – Rhythm is perhaps the most important element in sight-reading and is the subject of the fourth (next) part of our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum. Using simple, effective practice methods and carefully-selected pieces with annotations and guidelines, we work on keeping a regular pulse while tackling challenges such as recognising underlying rhythmic structures, subdividing the pulse accurately, handling polyrhythms and negotiating the sometimes confusing visual impression given by different kinds of meters. Click here to view.

How to Access?

All four parts of the Advanced Sight Reading Curriculum are available with an Online Academy subscription or for once-off purchase from our store via the following links:

• Part 1 (Eye Training) – Click here to purchase for £9.99
• Part 2 (Flexibility) – Click here to purchase for £9.99
• Part 3 (Playing by Ear) – Click here to purchase for £9.99
• Part 4 (Rhythm) – Click here to purchase for £9.99
• Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum (Complete) – Click here to purchase all four parts for £30.00.

Please click here to find out more about the Online Academy or click here to find out more about subscription options.