The Four Skills of Successful Sight-Reading

25 Jun 2021 @ 14:00 BST (GMT +01:00)

Whether you’re preparing for an exam, want to make music with others or would just like to be able to explore more music, sight-reading can be a difficult skill to develop and is rarely taught. In this online workshop, Ken Johansen introduces a tried and tested approach for improving sight-reading skills. Using exercises and examples based on his newly extended Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum and Read Ahead materials on the Online Academy, Ken will show you how to:

• Plan before you play, including selecting the right tempo
• Keep your eyes on the score by economising eye movements to allow you to skim over notes that you don’t need to look at
• Read ahead by finding opportunities in various kinds of scores to keep your eyes moving forward
• Keep the rhythm going using tools such as outlining, harmonic reduction and simplification

This workshop is suitable for intermediate to early advanced pianists, teachers and students wanting to improve their own reading, or to help others to read better. The session is two hours in duration and will also be recorded. All participants will receive a link to download the video in addition to worksheets and exercises. Therefore, if you are unable to attend the session on the day, you will still be able to watch the video and access the resources at your convenience.

About the presenter

Ken Johansen is a pianist, teacher, and writer based in Baltimore, where he teaches at the Peabody Conservatory. His most recent projects include the iPad sight-reading app Read Ahead, an advanced sight-reading curriculum and the series From the Ground Up for the Online Academy.