Are there typical stages for leaning how to sight read music?

Question

I am spending the next year( or as long as it takes) to learn to sight read any pieces of music. I am using Bela Bartok Mikrokosmos as a main theme with other music. I know all my notes well, thanks to a great app.

I have learned to put these notes into keys and continue practicing daily. My practise is short but highly concentrated(15-30mn/day) I know how to analyse a piece well before actually reading notes, identifying its characters and difficult passages. I still find it challenging to read both treble and bass at the same time. Does anyone have any ideas to improve that? Because the exercise is sight reading, I concentrate on that, reading or following the notes in the page.

However, Because I have an excellent memory and a strong scales practitioner, I find that I stop reading or following individual notes. Instead, I start following the trends of the music, concentrating more on the rhythm and dynamics of the piece, sometimes using the wrong note! Is this a normal progression? What will happen next?

I know I'll get there eventuality but insight knowledge from more experienced musicians has been excellent! Basically, I want to be able to pick up a piece of music, analyse it, then play it.... in my opinion, that's the path to studying and researching an artist in the future. I think?

Answer 1

Sight reading is only as good as three factors: 1) Technical ability. If you have technical flaws and can't execute what is on the page, your sight reading will suffer. 2) Knowledge of music theory. When you read text or words, you are not seeing every letter in a word, but your brain fills in the letters you don't actually see. Music theory is the same. Once you know the alphabet of scales and chords, reading will become easier. 3) You hands need to know where they are going without thought.

Sight reading isn't necessarily a skill on its own. It is an amalgamation of other skills.

Answer 2

Don't concentrate TOO hard on sight-reading, you have to be able to PLAY it as well as read it! If you're working through Mikrokosmos you should find that both your sight-reading and your playing gradually improve. But do play other stuff as well! Even if religion irritates you as much as it does me, work through a hymn book with the mindset "Today's hymn HAS to be played, make the best job you can".