Read at Sight
Volume 6: Reading Like a Professional
Three voices, cross-rhythms, changing meters and chromatic harmony; songs on three staves, open score with C clefs, lead sheets, and transposing and simplifying at sight.
Contents
Each unit adds exactly one new idea to everything before it.
- Unit 1 Three VoicesThree independent voices on two staves; the middle voice passes between the hands; fugue entries
- Unit 2 Rhythm Against RhythmTwo against three, three against four, duplets, quintuplets and septuplets, hemiola
- Unit 3 Changing Meters, Modes and No KeyChanging meters (5/4, 7/8, 5/8); modes; pentatonic and whole-tone scales; no bar lines
- Unit 4 Chromatic HarmonySecondary dominants, diminished sevenths, Neapolitan and augmented sixths, modulation
- Unit 5 Big TexturesOctaves, full chords, 8va and 8vb signs, three-staff piano music, crossed hands, simplifying
- Unit 6 AccompanyingThree staves: a singer's line above the piano; introductions and interludes; following the soloist
- Unit 7 Open Score, C Clefs and TransposingFour staves (SATB), the vocal tenor clef, the alto and tenor clefs; transposing at sight
- Unit 8 Lead Sheets, Simplifying and ReviewChord symbols (C, Am7, G7/B, Fmaj7, Bdim, C/E); playing from a lead sheet; review
How to use this book
What is new in Volume 6
Volumes 1-5 taught you to read piano music. This volume teaches you to read music written for anyone: three-voice counterpoint, two rhythms at once, meters that change bar by bar, chromatic harmony, big textures, a singer's line above the piano, open score with alto and tenor clefs, and lead sheets with chord symbols. It also teaches the professional's two survival skills: simplifying at sight (dropping notes without losing the music) and transposing at sight. Start this book when you have passed the Volume 5 checkpoint: every key, triplets, the pedal, clef changes and ornaments.
The five rules
1. Never stop: keep the beat going, even after a wrong note. 2. Count out loud and use a metronome at the speed shown. 3. Keep your eyes on the music, not your hands. 4. Read the shape: up, down, or the same, and by how much. 5. Play each exercise once, tick its box, and move on. Come back only after a few weeks.
Before every exercise: 10 seconds
Name the key (or mode) and the time signature, and check whether either changes. Count the staves and name each clef. Find the hardest bar and decide what you will drop from it if you must. Then count one bar in and play.
How each unit is laid out
A unit opens with what is new, short examples, and reading tips. Parts A to C are generated exercises that practise the new idea. The pieces come next: real music by the great composers, chosen because each needs exactly the unit's new skill. A checkpoint ends the unit.
A daily routine (15-20 minutes)
Warm up with the scale and the main chords of the day's key (2 minutes). Read 4-6 new exercises, one pass each (8 minutes). Then read one piece, or a page of one, keeping the beat and simplifying where you must (8 minutes).