The Essence of Improving Sight-Reading: 'Don't Read, Feel It' - The Correct Order for Piano Practice According to Neuroscience

For those of you who feel like your sight-reading just isn't improving, wait a second!!!! You might be approaching your practice from the wrong direction entirely.

I've released an app for serious piano learners (from beginners to those aiming for intermediate level), so please let me write this as a bit of a promotion...

So, after researching and testing things regarding sight-reading, here is what I want to say. It is...

"Don't read, feel it."

That is what I mean.

What does that mean?

There are many people who play while checking every single note, like 'C is here, D is here...' This is incredibly inefficient, isn't it?

Think about it: when you are reading this text right now, are you recognizing it one character at a time? No, you aren't! You process it by word and by meaning just by looking at it...

Sight-reading is exactly the same. The ultimate goal is a state where your fingers move the moment you see the notes. Playing while checking every single note is like reading a book while sounding out each individual letter. That is... incredibly slow!!!!

What is happening in the brain (at the neural level)

The method of 'reading the note -> thinking of the note name -> finding the key' is a necessary stage for beginners, but eventually, you want to gradually graduate from it.

Research on sight-reading shows that experts are better at
quickly processing visual information from the score and, while reading ahead, connecting it to the preparation and execution of movements.
In other words, rather than confirming the note name with words every time, the ability to connect the visual shape to a movement pattern becomes more important.

In this sense, the goal of sight-reading practice could be said to be
not just 'being able to say note names quickly,' but cultivating the circuit that connects the visual information you see to the performance action.

What is also said in overseas research

I'm not just saying this based on my own intuition; research on sight-reading points out that it involves multiple elements,
not just the recognition of pitch itself, but also visual processing, working memory, conversion to movement, and reading ahead. In the research by McPherson et al., sight-reading ability is treated as a skill that cannot be explained by simple note-name recognition alone.

'Fundamentals of Piano Practice' is available for free, and the chapter on sight-reading also writes about the importance of
not looking at the keyboard too much, recognizing the music as a structure rather than individual notes, and reading ahead.

I see, so if you practice while checking the keyboard from the beginning, that becomes a bad habit that gets ingrained.

So, here are the actual practice steps.

I think it's best to do it in stages,

[Step 1] Quickly recognize the pitch of the notes

Look at the sheet music and quickly say the note names out loud. You don't need to play the notes! This is the process of burning the pattern of "this shape equals this note" into your brain. It's the stage of connecting your eyes to your voice.

【Step 2】 Connecting your voice to the keyboard

Practice pressing the keys while saying the note names out loud. This isn't to check the sound, but to connect the neural pathway of "visual → note name → movement".

【Step 3】 Connecting your eyes directly to the keyboard

As you repeat steps 1 and 2, your fingers will start to move without you having to consciously think about the note names. This is the true completed form of sight-reading.

Recognize chords as "blocks"

Another important point is about chords; the correct way to read them is not to read one note at a time, but to "recognize the shape as a block".

When you see a C-E-G chord, it's too slow if you're thinking "C... E... G..."!!! The goal is to be in a state where you instantly recognize it as a "C major root position chord." This is training to make your brain memorize the "chord pattern + hand shape" as a set.

How many commonly used chord patterns you have in your head is directly linked to your sight-reading speed. In sports terms, it's like memorizing "forms".

So, I'd like to suggest using an app

I'm also currently practicing piano (as an adult beginner), so I thought about this. Training should be more efficient if it can be supplemented by an app.

Well-known ones like Simply Piano and Flowkey are standard, but they lean more towards "practicing playing songs," which is a bit different from training note recognition and pattern memory from the basics.

Overseas, "Sight Reading Factory" is highly regarded; it infinitely generates random sheet music to train your sight-reading, but the UI is a bit difficult to get into, and the lack of Japanese support is a bottleneck. "Piano Marvel" is also interesting and in the same vein, but the subscription cost is somewhat high.

(Th... this is where the promotion starts)

I thought there wasn't an app that covered those points well, so I made one. "FUYOTORE". It's something I was recently able to release on the App Store, and it's designed with an approach close to the step-by-step thinking of "note recognition → saying it out loud → playing it on the keyboard" that I explained earlier. I've included three types of training methods that I need myself, so you can now practice sight-reading on an electronic piano, an acoustic piano, or even in your spare time while commuting, in the restroom, or doing housework and childcare.

So, the essence of sight-reading is not "memorizing note names," but "don't stop at just checking the note names." Just by changing the order and mindset of your practice, your speed of improvement will change completely!

Please give it a try! Thank you!