Category: Sight Reading

4 Ways to Help Students Who Struggle with Reading Music

10/23/2025

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?

You start a new student who is excited to show you the complicated pieces they have learned to play from watching YouTube tutorial videos. However, your student seems to lose interest in practicing when note reading is introduced, and lessons quickly become frustrating for both of you.
Your student continually watches their hands and guesses at notes instead of looking at the sheet music and reading what is on the page.
Your student has a fabulous ear, but dislikes practicing with sheet music and finds sight-reading to be extremely slow and difficult.

For some students, learning to read music can be a real struggle–and it can be difficult to know how to help students like these without dampening their enthusiasm for the piano. So today, I am sharing my top tips for helping students just like these!

Keep reading to learn more….

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Musicianship Monthly for May

4/29/2021

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It's that time again! A new month means another opportunity to explore a new musicianship skill with your students! (Want to learn more about Musicianship Monthly and see past activities? Click HERE!)

This month, we are wrapping up the school year with an important skill that your students can practice all summer long: sight-reading! Read on for my favorite resources and tips for turning your students into super sight-readers--along with a fun "super sight-reader" challenge chart!

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Free Musical Jumble Worksheets!

8/22/2020

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Are you gearing up for the new school year and looking for some fun review activities for your students? Look no further!

Check out this fun activity that incorporates sight-reading, ear training, and music notation!

Read on to get your free musical jumble worksheets...

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Tips for Turning Your Students into Super Sight-Readers

2/20/2020

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Today I am sharing this article that I wrote for the blog at Tonara.com.

If you aren't familiar with Tonara, it is a unique app with a variety of features that enable teachers to manage their studio and motivate their students to practice. Visit Tonara's website HERE to learn more!

I have a confession to make. Sight-reading doesn’t come easily for me.

Growing up, I was always a diligent practicer. I worked hard to prepare for my lessons, and I learned how to use my time efficiently to break apart my music and practice it well. However, being able to play a new piece accurately, at first sight, was always difficult for me.

While I don’t think sight-reading will ever be my forte (pun intended!), my sight-reading has improved over the years--thanks especially to doing lots of accompanying. However, my struggles with sight-reading have made me determined to help my students better develop their own sight-reading skills.

Read on for five tips I have found helpful for improving sight-reading, for both me and my students!

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On Sight Reading, Part Two

5/8/2017

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In my last blog post, I talked about the top three skills I think are most important to being a good sight reader.

Just like any skill, sight reading gets better with practice! Today, I will share a few ways I help my students practice their sight reading.

There’s an app for that! Apps are a fun way to practice sight reading. A few of my favorites:

Piano Maestro: with fun backing tracks and scrolling music, this app is great for helping students keep their eyes moving ahead in the music, keeping a steady beat, and playing without stopping.
SightRead4Piano by Wessar: this app is designed for students preparing for the sight reading portion of exams such as those offered by the ABRSM. My favorite thing about this app is that as students sight read each piece at the piano, the measures in the music disappear--meaning no going back!
Tenuto: although this app is meant for theory practice and not sight reading, I find the "interval identification" and "chord identification" exercises very helpful to work on "chunking." I place my iPad on the music rack and have students see how quickly they can play each interval or chord as it appears on the screen.

Short Term Goal Pieces. I like to keep students sight reading as much as possible by assigning them lots of short term goal pieces, so they are trying out new repertoire (and flexing their sight reading muscles) at every lesson. Students should be able to master these pieces in just a week or two. As a bonus, these short term goals are great for boosting a student’s self-confidence!

Just Duet! Duets are a fun way to work on sight reading. I like to have students sight read duets and trios at our monthly group classes (see my "Free Stuff" page for links to my free ensemble pieces.) Sight reading is much more fun when you practice with a friend (or two)!

What do you think? How do you help your students practice their sight reading? Please share in the comments below!

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4 Ways to Help Students Who Struggle with Reading Music

Musicianship Monthly for May

Free Musical Jumble Worksheets!

Tips for Turning Your Students into Super Sight-Readers

On Sight Reading, Part Two

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