Clefsight Connect keyboard

Exam sight-reading

Trinity Initial sight-reading

Four piano sight-reading tests written to Trinity's published rules for Initial. Print them, or play one at your MIDI keyboard and get every note marked, then ask for a new one.

A short piece the candidate hasn't seen, set about two grades below the exam being taken. There is half a minute to look through it and try any of it out loud before playing it for the examiner. From Initial to Grade 5 it is one of four supporting tests, of which a candidate takes two; from Grade 6 every candidate takes it.

Play one on a MIDI keyboard in Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer, or Chrome on an Android phone or tablet, or on the keys on screen without one. Printing needs nothing. No keyboard yet? Which keyboard to buy.

What the test can ask for

Trinity InitialThese tests
LengthNot stated for InitialOur choice: 4 bars
Time2/4The same
KeysC majorThe same
HandsNot stated for InitialOur choice: hands together, each in a five-finger position, the left hand holding one note a bar
Note valuesQuarter notes (crotchets), half notes (minims) and half-note rests (minim rests)Quarter notes (crotchets) and half notes (minims)
AlsoP and f, the tempo word moderato and simple phrasingNot in these tests

Not in these: half-note rests (minim rests); p and f, the tempo word moderato and simple phrasing. Practise those from printed music too.

Trinity's rules from its Piano Syllabus, graded exams from 2023 (online edition, February 2026): Parameters for sight reading tests, page 81. Clefsight isn't connected with ABRSM, The Royal Conservatory or Trinity College London. Clefsight writes these tests to the rules each board publishes for its piano sight-reading test; they aren't the boards' own tests, and a board's real test may use anything its rules allow.

  1. Test 1

    C major · 2/4 · 4 bars · ♩ = 60 · hands together

    Play this one
    Trinity Initial, test 1: 4 bars in C major, 2/4, hands together

  2. Test 2

    C major · 2/4 · 4 bars · ♩ = 60 · hands together

    Play this one
    Trinity Initial, test 2: 4 bars in C major, 2/4, hands together

  3. Test 3

    C major · 2/4 · 4 bars · ♩ = 60 · hands together

    Play this one
    Trinity Initial, test 3: 4 bars in C major, 2/4, hands together

  4. Test 4

    C major · 2/4 · 4 bars · ♩ = 60 · hands together

    Play this one
    Trinity Initial, test 4: 4 bars in C major, 2/4, hands together

Play a new Trinity Initial test

Trinity Initial sight-reading tests from clefsight.com/sight-reading/exams/trinity-initial. Play any of them, or a new one, at a MIDI keyboard there and get every note marked.

Grade 1 → Other grades and boards Print this page for paper copies: each test keeps to one page.

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