In A Soprano on Her Head, the author notes that there are two kinds of musicians: Readers and memorizers.
Readers can sit down and sight-read a new piece well, but wish they were good at memorizing or at playing by ear.
Memorizers, who are often also good at playing by ear, can hardly avoid memorizing a piece of music that they play multiple times, but wish that they could sight-read better.
This makes sense, because if you're a memorizer, you get less sight-reading practice. That is, if you play a piece ten times, you're only sight-reading it once or twice. You may not memorize it completely after one time, but you get some benefit from your memory, and you generally remember what comes next. A reader, however, is (almost) sight-reading it each time, and thus getting 5-10 times more sight-reading practice!
That's my problem: I'm a memorizer. So, to solve this problem, I'll get my hands on tons of easy piano material so that I never have to play the same piece twice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Maybe you should subscribe to a magazine like Sheet Music or Piano Today. They provide a steady stream of music in a variety of styles without having to shop for it.
i just came across your blog as I started picking up piano after over 25 years. I have always been a bad sight reader but I am not good at memorizing either. I have recently started thinking that maybe I should make an effort to improve my sight reading. Your blog is truly inspiring.
Post a Comment