Turn Your Sight-Bleeding into Decent Sight-Reading with These PRO Tips

Grab the course on the Grieg's lovely "Butterfly" op. 43 at the 40% time-limited discount: bit.ly/4249Mpt
02:03 Basic Prerequisite for Sight-Reading
04:26 Reading Chords Training suggestion
08:20 Before sight-reading tips
10:05 While sight-reading tips
10:50 After sight-reading tips
12:40 Why sight-reading is actually of a "relevant" importance
Free collection of the 4-voice chorales suitable for sight-reading for late beginners and intermediate players (click on "orgel" versions of any choral): bit.ly/chorales4voice
My 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀: bit.ly/skillsandmagic
To 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻-𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: deniszhdanov.com/lessons
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[@antoniovisioli4460]

Forse chi tutti coloro che seguono il canale si rendono conto del livello altissimo dell'insegnamento e della tua qualità pianistica. Grazie!!

[@cacaw_0]

hey alright bro. I''m off to sight-read some sonatinas

[@vincenzotabone7167]

Du bist, wie immer, ein hervorragender Pädagoge: sehr lehrreich und humorvoll!

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

Another wonderful video. The video with Nelson Freire and Martha Argerich at his place, he suggests they read through some new pieces. She says, "Yeah, but you can sight read and I can't." different levels for sight reading, of course. I haven't been real good at it but working on it some more now. Progress though slow is steady. I can see the difference. After a lifetime in music I think that gifted sight readers, while they can play anything, are a little lazy, relying on that skill. They don't often perfect a piece to the same level that memorizers and perfectionists do. Room fo both in the world and every degree between. You give great instuction, easy to understand and you always add the "why's." Seldom done. Chord knowledge w inversions, scale and arp playing, knowledge of keys and chromatics, reading ahead, lots of stuff. A lady I know is a whiz bang reader of anything, sight unseem, up to tempo. She is undisciplined and will not perfect any piece, like quickly bored with it. She is a good rehearsal pianist but not necessarily one to carry the accompaniment on tour. Takes all kinds. Your channel features high level value for all levels and types of players. So, thank you, again.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thanks for your thoughtful comment and a kind feedback!

[@micaelabonetti949]

I always was a very good sight reader at piano, BUT never lazy; my problem was to memorise! A colleague in my class was the opposite: how jealous of her when in only one week she would perfectly play by heart a complex and long piece! (Just for the anecdote, when I switched from piano to be a singer, on a gesture to me of our conductor during a concert, I perfectly sung a solo part he had forgotten to rehearse. Ok! ok! singers have just one note after the other to read; piano music is much more challenging!)

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

@@micaelabonetti949 Trained singer in classical mode at Uni academy type school, piano very distant 2nd. Now piano is foremost but also working a my vocal technique again recently. I know exactly what you're talking about. Piano sight reading is improving noticeably; more difficult without question when reading a score with many notes for one player. I always memorized my vocal presentations; piano I find much more difficult due the the obvious reason. My eventual goal, now seen as a real possibility, is to get good enough to play my own vocal accompaniments. Then I really have reached a sought after level. Super efficient techniques on both at once. Heard it frequently back in school but Rach' s Vocalise would be my ultimate goal in legato repertoire, especially in several keys; I can only sing it in the lowest key or 2 published due to extended range on the top requiring unblinking smoothness of line. Yabbadabbadoo.

[@qazsedcft2162]

Great advice! I feel I made the most progress in my sight reading when I started using the metronome to keep me going no matter what. Tapping the rhythm on your lap before starting also helps a lot.

[@Raverrau]

Thanks sooo much , the most useful video on sight reading so far.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Glad it was helpful!

[@profsjp]

Excellent. 👏🏻👏🏻 Btw, your paid courses are really engaging and helpful. Thanks.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Great to hear! Thank you!

[@pierrecohenmusic]

What a great teacher!! Thanks Denis, I hope you’ve been great!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thank you I am! I hope you too, thanks for commenting!

[@homamellersh8446]

Thank you so much for a very clear explanation and great advice .

[@schnuckiputzi9556]

Денис, ваши видео смотрятся как выпуски музыкальной образовательной программы. Прекрасная работа. С Новым годом и успехов во всех Ваших проектах. Браво!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Спасибо!

[@Mike-iw2yx]

Great ideas and great tips, thank you. I hope you would share some of your practical tips on how to find and feel your hands position without looking down the keys. It would be great addition to this video.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Good idea! Thanks for the suggestion

[@jemapiano]

Great advice - thank you very much!

[@RolandHuettmann]

Something to think about and put into practice. It is true, it is a skill by itself.

[@TeachtheLoveofMusic]

Awesome channel Denis!! Love your style and detail, thx heaps! Kylie

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thanks so much, Kylie!

[@più_lento_28_13]

Thank you Denis !! It’s super helpful, i shall think of your words and apply your advices from now on!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Wonderful! Thanks for commenting!

[@InterDimensionalLizard]

Very helpful, thank you.

[@shamalajayasekera]

Thank you so much for this excellent video!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

You're very welcome!

[@eliasmq]

Muito obrigado Denis!

[@mrpianorock]

Thnx 🙏🏼

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

I'm back because someone liked my comment. Working on more sight reading lately. Excellent ideas here about quickly id'ing chord patterns in all inversions. Specifics of my recent efforts. 1. Read at slow tempo. How slow? However slow you need so that you can look slightly, later more, ahead and brain can process what I'm seeing. 2 In combo with 1; read hands separately, again, hard on the ego but who gives a s--t. Slow enough, even with separate hands, that your brain can process each before combining. 3. Develop hand and finger technique that allows for moving position quickly. I can more color if anyone cares. It may not be strictly reading, I'm with Denis on this, but many repetitions, slow enough, will allow you to move hands to the right notes WITHOUT LOOKING, like touch typing. Too fast will not do unless you are a prodigy. I am not. Part of sight reading is moving hands without looking at them. Can never, then, find the place or will be late going back to the music. Pretty simple, really, not always easy due to character impediments. 4. Count, preferably out loud, all the beat divisions; it keeps the brain in the game and allows anticipation of upcoming notes/chords in tempo. 5. Complete relaxation, what Emma Lieuman calls "healthy tension," which is pretty friggin relaxed from brain to finger tips. I play on tips now, not on pads, whenever posssible. More on tips vs. pads if anyone cares. Relax is hard to do when people build up fear of any kind, especially sight reading critique potential. I went to college with players and accompanists who could read llike banshees. I froze, mind went elsewhere than piano, in the middle of reading a very simple piece in string class. Humiliated. I'm smarter now. 6. Started using weaker magnifying glasses as now sit back farther from the keys and much higher on the stool/bench. Don't tighten up or move head and eyes close to the score. Neither will help. If you can't do it relaxed, sitting back and slow, you can't do it. Not without those glaring, jarring mistakes. Whatever it takes in terms of tempo and hand combination to get it right, you're still reading one hand, right? Then put them together. All depends on the degree of difficulty and complexity, requirements of the piec viz a viz a players command. Denis is great, reliable, funny and articulate.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thank you for a thoughtful comment! Interesting observations.

[@bluepearl4806]

Very valueble very helpful information and explanation in a very fun way thank you very much 😊😊🙏🙏💐💐💐💐🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thanks a lot and welcome!

[@kurtkaufman]

Excellent advice. I imagine that the repetition of patterns, pianistic or otherwise, involved in sight reading music at the appropriate level of difficulty can also help those of us who are having difficulty moving our hands from position to position on the keyboard (That's me.) 😊

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

For that I had a special video breaking down the motions algorithm kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6jRiWaDqbB-bq8si=XMYlPCeDyva2eZsV

[@sualee3883]

Always benefiting from your videos, Mr Zhdanov! May I request for a video on improving accuracy especially when performing? I don’t have stage fright, but there’s always a fair amount of silly mistakes made especially when I perform - regardless of how much I practised or how long I have known the piece, and I have not yet found a solution.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

It may have many reasons including psychological. But in general, you have to make many run-throughs for people (friends, relatives etc), and treat them as ambitiously as the main performance. Also, your overall mindset and preparations to the event have a tremendous importance. I have a video “how to get most from your practicing session, you can find some answers there”

[@CodyHazelleMusic]

Thanks for the awesome lesson. I heard from another instructor here on youtube (cedarville music, john mortensen) that you should only ever sightread a piece once because if you go through a second time then you're memorizing it and not actually working on the skill of sightreading. So now I'm a bit conflicted.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

I won’t be that strict in this regard. In my experience, when you go over it after a quick assessment of problematic spots, you learn to react to similar spots better. Also, technically, there is nothing wrong with memorizing the piece. If you have memorized well how any chord or scale looks and feels under your fingers, then whenever you’ll come across this element, you’ll sight read it easily. So, what you are really building here, is a vocabulary of elements which you recognize and instantly play by barely glancing at them. It is possible only if they are truly familiar to you as semantic patterns. I sight-read best classical and early romantic pieces which extensively use the standard elements I have memorized in tons of similar pieces I’ve played. It’s when it becomes really unconventional, and when the compositional language is truly unfamiliar you feel challenged most. I once had to jump in last moment to play Humperdink’s Hansel & Gretel opera for the opera theater production, that was a ‘fun’ experience, because I didn’t know the music, and the musical language is kind of strangely peculiar.

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

7. I now try to get scores with no edited fingerings. I find it challenging enough to read the notes and rhyhms; if I also try to "read" on first sight, the fingerings also, it becomes too much for the brain to process and I bog down. I am in concord with edited fingerings maybe 50% of the time. For years, I was under the mistaken impression that the fingerings were put in by composers, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington or Harry Warren. It would be easier if every fingering were wrong for me because then I could dismiss them all, but when I see them in the score, I try to incorporate them and the jig falls apart. Too much stuff to keep track of, negotiate. I sense that the fingering editors follow the most simplistic guideline of piano fingerings, i.e., "not to run out of them." The way I see it, that is about 3-5 % of fingering considerations. So much more to fingering than that, too much to go into here, in brief. I may think of something else I have solidified over the past 6 months. Who knows, somebody might care. Go Denis, go subscribers.

[@micaelabonetti949]

Always hated scores with printed fingerings! Fingering what is best for you is a very demanding effort to be done with all the necessary time. And maybe the fingering choosen (Bach!) won't last long... An infinite task, with a complex, so to say "not pianistical" score (again, Bach)

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

@@micaelabonetti949 Great comment; advanced understanding of vital elements.

[@micaelabonetti949]

@@DavidMiller-bp7et Grazie, David, for your multiple comments on mine! Yours are always thrilling and clever. Must say I discovered Denis' excellent, unique site 2 days ago and immediately felt deeply hungry to learn from him, also because he not only has marvellous insights on piano playing, but also plays himself splendidly. And my motto is (and already was when I began to play piano as a child, even knowing nothing about Dostoïevsky!): "Beauty will save the world." (Prince Mishkin, "Idiot")

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

@@micaelabonetti949 I love Dostoyevsky. I found Denis a few months ago and have learned some things from him. He is a clever presenting videographer with a very dry sense of humor, "sehr humorvoll." He is gentle and quiet in manner but has a wealth to bring to seekers who are open and willing to learn, does not talk down to anyone. He is a very soft sell, easy to listen to. It amazes me how, along with many others, he plays so extremely well, expressively, but with a unique technique of his own, esp looking down from the top. I have several other folks who are top notch online mentors and friends. Really smashing. All are individually unique but have a vision for your motto, which binds us all. I am very proud now, to announce that I study with, among others, a faculty member at Graz, pretty big deal from an historical perspective. Another prof I follow when he uploads something I'm interested in is John Mortensen at Cedarville, Ohio, USA, Universtity. He is really big into improv, I am not there yet. Still depending on arranged scores. Thanks for the talk. The way I see it, unlike what was less possible in the past, we are all in this together. Can learn much from each other, as well as ourselves. Dave Miller Oregon, USA

[@amnbvcxz8650]

Hahaha the thumbnail and the caption 😂😂😂😂

[@hommies8921]

Thank you too much great video, who is the composser of the Passacaglia that you played at the last of the video?

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Buxtehude, piano arrangement by Stradal: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4acpp2lj9B-qrMsi=oGIDMuuo8BWt4Fv2

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

He's back! I always look forward to your video, Denis. Привіт з Нью-Йорка!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

🇺🇸🫶

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

@@DenZhdanovPianist I'm grateful for your Czerny lessons. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was growing up. It's rare that someone is a brilliant musician/pianist and a spectacular pedagogue! I hope this year brings you and your family everything that you hope for!

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Thanks for your kind words! It’s a privilege and the ultimate pleasure to be able to help others to pursue their dreams!

[@stevenho660]

How do you get good at identifying chords, chord progressions in more complex pieces? Many times I’ll look at measures and have no idea what chord is the basis for that bar.

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

With experience! Just give it time and practice music theory along with learning new pieces!

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

PS. Although classically trained at Uni; I no longer enjoy or play classical mode that much, unless it's a really a world class player. Other generes preferred. Would like to see a channel host pull some apart. No need really; all Denis' teachings apply equally to any piano style. Superior technique allows maximum potential for expression. I have it on reasonably good authority that of all the music in the world, only about 7% of folks follow or play classical mode. For me, only, too repetitive and condescending. What does that mean? Whatever that means.... bless you in your efforts at whatever you do. Go, Denis, and we acolytes.

[@stevenponte6655]

Great video and fantastic advice. This is probably a dumb question but when you are sighting quite chord heavy pieces, are you basically just reading the bottom note of each hand and using intervals to play the relevant notes?

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

It’s more of recognizing how the whole chord looks. Similarly, when you read, you recognize a whole word as a unit. You’ll be abel to undrestnad the maening even if I do mstakes, just because it’s familiar and makes sense. The Same principle works for sight-reading. You might play not all the notes precisely but you’ll get through more or less, playing essential stuff correctly, in case the composer’s language is familiar to you.

[@stevenponte6655]

@@DenZhdanovPianist Excellent. Thankyou for that. And does playing through the chorales you mentioned help to recognize the chords like "words"?

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Yep! The next stage after that could be reading a bunch of pieces that have arpeggiated patterns like Solfeggietto by CPE Bach, or JS Bach’s small preludes in C major (no.1&2). So then you’ll learn to perceive the whole arpeggio as one “unit”, see a chord behind it

[@giuseppeagresta1425]

Sorry for the off topic, but are you going to cover Scriabin's Op. 42 no. 5 someday? I find that perhaps the most stunning etude I've ever listened to and I'd love to be able to play it one day, I'd buy immediately a course featuring that piece (I still have to refine my technique a lot before even attempting that tho hahah, when I can I'll go through your Hanon and Bramhs courses in the meawhile)

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

Yes I thought about it and was working on it at some point, but then got distracted by other things. At some point very likely so, but I am afraid not anytime soon..

[@giuseppeagresta1425]

@@DenZhdanovPianist that's wonderful to hear anyway I'll be waiting for it ;)

[@catinthebookshelf]

❤

[@più_lento_28_13]

2:52 that massive left hand reach by Denis though, i can’t relate :/

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

Musicians need to be entertainers, not take themselves too seriously.

[@homamellersh8446]

Thank you very much Denis , I definitely needed a kick in the……often when I don’t have enough time I jump into practicing my piece and don’t do any sight reading ,great advice .

[@DenZhdanovPianist]

👍🙏