Sight Reading

Guided practice encourages students to approach sight reading with confidence and helps to develop crucial analytical skills. A metronome allows students to establish a steady beat before performing the excerpt and provides a choice of slow, medium, or fast tempo. Many sessions include activities that encourage students to be creative with an excerpt once they have become familiar with it. Students can track their progress through each activity type through the detailed review pages before and after completing each activity. 

Included in the Guided Practice sessions are: 

• Rhythm reading:
  • Activities encourage students to plan the counting, identify patterns, and study complex rhythmic elements of an excerpt before performing the rhythm 
• Sight playing:
  • Activities encourage students to plan the fingering, identify the key, and notice important melodic, harmonic, and expressive elements of the score before performing an excerpt 

Independent practice allows students to tackle each excerpt at their own pace, with valuable feedback along the way.  

• Students can choose to focus their practice on a specific time or key signature, or use the Shuffle feature to practice Rhythm Reading or Sight Playing in any time or key signature 
• The student leads the experience, developing confidence through studying and annotating the excerpt before performing it  

Exam Experience provides a scenario similar to a practical exam, but with added features only available online: 

• Students select a slow, medium, or fast tempo and use the metronome to familiarize themselves with the beat before they see the excerpt 
• Each activity provides an opportunity for students to record their own performance and assess their accuracy against a professional recording 
• A countdown timer replicates the exam time limit for each level, so students learn how to quickly familiarize themselves with an excerpt before performing it 
• Helpful hints guide students in their sight-reading, reminding them what to do before and during their performance