We’re delighted to announce that we’ve partnered with Anacrusis to bring their innovative sight-reading curriculum, Read Ahead, to the Online Academy. This partnership will see the addition of a comprehensive set of sample materials for sight reading added to the Online Academy. The materials can be used as stand-alone sight reading exercises or with optional apps that add further interactive functionality.
What is ReadAhead?
Read Ahead is an exciting new program that helps piano students to improve their sight-reading ability. This unique curriculum is based on an extensive collection of carefully ordered compositions with related exercises and quizzes that help students develop the mental and tactile skills necessary for fluent sight-reading.
How does it work?
The syllabus is divided up into levels based on difficulty. Each level is comprised of a number of articles which in turn each constitute one day or a practice session’s worth of material. Articles contain several exercises and sample sight reading pieces. The pieces can be used “as-is” on screen or downloaded for printing purposes.
The experience can also be enriched by using accompanying apps for iPhone or iPad. Interactive exercises on each day are identified in both the article and the app with the following icons:
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Touch exercises introduce patterns or technical issues that will be encountered in that day’s practice. |
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This icon indicates a Memory exercise. Touch it on the corresponding day page in the app to practice a passage while training your short-term memory and decoding skills. |
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Read Ahead exercises are complete pieces of music for sight-reading. Instructions, quizzes and tips on how to read them more effectively can be found in the app along with a built-in metronome preset to the correct tempo for each piece. In the iPad app, the music disappears in advance as you play, forcing you to read ahead. |
What’s currently available?
Starting with Level 3 (equivalent to ABRSM grades 4 – 5), The Online Academy’s sigh reading resources will feature the first section (Section A) of each level of Read Ahead’s curriculum with subsequent sections being available from Amazon as a printed book and the Apple App Store as an iPad app. The complete curriculum for each level will also be published in eBook format at the Informance store shortly.
Please click here to find out more and to view the available material on the Online Academy.