Sight-reading exercises
36 short piano pieces nobody has played before, six at each of six levels. Each level uses only the notes, keys and rhythms a reader has met by then. Print a page, or play one at your MIDI keyboard and get every note marked.
The levels follow the order Clefsight teaches reading in, on the same scale as the library. They go up to level 6: level 7 adds far ledger lines, which these short pieces don't use: practise those with the ledger lines guide and its drill.
How to sight-read one
- Take thirty seconds first: the key signature, the time, where the hands start, anything that jumps.
- Count a bar in, slowly, and play at that beat to the end.
- Keep going through mistakes. Your eyes stay a bar ahead; your hands follow.
- Play each piece once. A second time is practice, not sight-reading.
Level 1
Right hand alone. No sharps or flats. 4/4 time.
Where reading starts: one hand, one position.
Level 2
Right hand alone. No sharps or flats. 4/4 time.
Adds A minor and right-hand notes up to G5.
Level 3
Right hand alone. No sharps or flats. 4/4 and 3/4 time.
Adds the right hand moving within an octave, dotted quarters with an eighth and eighth notes in pairs and 3/4 time.
Level 4
Both hands. Up to 2 sharps or flats. 4/4 and 3/4 time.
Adds the left hand: held roots and open 5ths (root and 5th together), keys with up to 2 sharps or flats, the raised 7th in minor keys and 4ths and 5ths.
Level 5
Both hands. Up to 2 sharps or flats. 4/4 and 3/4 time.
Adds a busier left hand: roots in half notes and broken chords in quarter notes.
Level 6
Both hands. Every key signature. 4/4 and 3/4 time.
Adds every key signature and 6ths, 7ths and octave leaps.
Want pieces written for exactly what you read? Fresh sight-reading writes a new one each time, from your reading profile.