Guides
How to actually get better at sight-reading
Sight-reading is the piano skill most likely to be practised badly, because the obvious exercise — identifying notes on a staff — trains the one part of it that is rarely the bottleneck.
These guides cover what fluent readers actually do differently, how to work out which specific thing is holding you back, and what to practise once you know.
Start here
How to sight-read piano music
Sight-reading is not a talent some pianists were born with. It is a set of five specific habits, each of which can be trained on purpose — and most practice fails because it trains none of them.
Read the guide →- →What sight-reading actually is
- →Why note-naming drills stall
- →The five habits of fluent readers
- →The method
- →Choosing the right difficulty
Diagnosing weak piano sight-reading
Why is my sight-reading so bad?
Seven specific reasons pianists read badly despite playing well — and how to tell which one is actually yours before you practise the wrong thing.
Read the guide →7 min
Sight-reading practice routine
A 10-minute daily sight-reading routine
How often to practise sight-reading, how long a session should be, and a ten-minute structure that trains reading instead of just filling the time.
Read the guide →6 min
Piano sight-reading exercises
12 piano sight-reading exercises
Twelve sight-reading exercises for piano, each matched to the specific weakness it fixes — so you can pick the one you need instead of doing all of them.
Read the guide →7 min
Reading the bass clef
How to read bass clef fluently
Why the bass clef stays weak for most pianists, and how to fix it with three landmark notes and interval reading instead of reciting mnemonics.
Read the guide →8 min
Eye-hand span in piano sight-reading
How to read ahead while playing piano
Eye-hand span is the gap between the note you are playing and the note you are reading. How to widen it, and why reading then stops feeling frantic.
Read the guide →6 min