Sight Reading

Dear Greg,
I have been playing for a few years, and it seems that my sight reading is considerably slow. What sorts of practice did you do in order to speed up the process of sight reading?
 - Na Lee

Dear Na,

It was never a matter of "practice" for me, but it certainly is something I have developed over the years. As a child, I would check out piles of music from the library - whatever interested me really - and work through it all. At Juilliard, I often had the maximum number of items checked out of the library (45 items), because I was curious about the repertoire. The piano repertoire is like a giant treasure trove - there is so much good stuff out there, and the only way to become familiar with it is by listening or sight reading.

I'd recommend you start with what feels comfortable and go from there! Buy an "easy" classics book, or read through the Mozart sonatas, move on to the Chopin waltzes, etc. Whatever you do, have fun!

- Greg