Customer Reviews

Super Sight-Reading Secrets: An Innovative, Step-By-Step Program for Musical Keyboard Players of All Levels

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am embarrassed that I actually bought this book of 48 pages without first examining it. I found no "super sight-reading secrets." In fact, I found nothing about reading music that I had not already learned from grade school music classes.

I did not find the following sort of advice especially useful:

"Get a book of all major and minor scales. Begin practicing all 24 major and minor keys."

"Play every note of the Bach Chorales hands alone, without looking, one octave displaced."

I was able to follow much of Richman's text only because I recognized what he was trying to say. I found little clarity in his writing and I was annoyed by his many ungrammatical sentences.

My advice is to buy an old standby such as "Learn to Read Music" by Howard Shanet.

This book has a gimmicky title and a cheap price, but it fails deplorably on several fronts. For one, the lay-out and print quality are absolutely embarrassing considering the times we live in. One of the few musical examples actually looks as though it were rendered by a dot-matrix printer. Further, the unrealistic exercises are ambiguously described and seldom illustrated. They are also a complete waste of time since one is better off sightreading real compositions. That's why it's better to invest in sheet music/ etudes that suit one's tastes. The Musician's Institute Sightreading for Keyboard book is far more helpful and complete at a comparable price, offering several chapters of exercises and etudes without making ludicrous promises--very professional indeed. There is really no substitute for practice; forget the nonsense of "secrets" and invest elsewhere.

I play piano for a choir, and recently bought this book to improve my sight reading.

The method here uses a simplified counting method which breaks the music down to its essence and gives me a lot more confidence in playing trickier pieces with syncopated rhythms etc. It certainly makes it possible to pick up the piece a lot more quickly, and does improve the speed and accuracy of my reading. So, I find it to be a very good book.

It is a short book which I think is good, the drills are short and easy to run through, especially with practice. Some of the later references in the book are a little confusing, and the book could be better organized.

This book does not have all the answers, which is why I do not give it the full 5 stars. It is good value for money. Most people should be able to improve their sight reading using this book.

It is well worth the small amount of money I paid for it here on Amazon.

I also haveMusic Reading For Keyboard: The Complete Method (Musicians Institute Essential Concepts) book which is more about the theory of sight reading, and does have some examples in different styles of music and rhythms to work on. If you are looking for a definitive sight reading book the Steelman book is better. Yet this book has insights and techniques which are very useful. I would not be without this book

This book has helped me (and continually does) with sightreading. I have a rock/jazz background - with little classical training unfortunately. Although he is a classical pianist and teacher, his exercises are just as effective for contemporary music. One small gripe I have is with the layout of the book - a little disjointed I thought - but it's not enough of a problem to detract from the full 5 stars. The exercises are very direct and one is inclined to keep at it as they don't take up hours on end. Just make sure you practise regularly - like anything of course. The exercises do work. I can read a lot better than I have ever done. Another good book for rock/pop players is Larry Steelman's 'Music Reading for Keyboard'.

This "book" is more like a short document you could download off the internet. There are hardly any exercises in the book. The author asks you to exercise on other artists works using various methods. The whole book could be summarized on one page if you ask me. Also, half the book is dedicated to teaching you how to read music. Having played piano for 20 years, this half of the book was just wasted paper.

The best thing about the book that I found is that it presents the ideas and drills in bite-sized chunks. The general idea is "just do it and see" rather than long-winded abstract statements which leave one feeling that one needs to be a genius in order to sight-read. Unlike some other books with titles involving "super secrets", this book never presumes to show a "short-cut to success" that needs no practice. But, rather, it teaches a very efficient way to practice.

The exercises in this book are very good, I find them very helpful, my sight reading has improved since I started using the book.Unfortunately the layout of the book is poor,it is necessary to go back and forth between different pages plus it is not easy to understand which exercises go with some of the music shown in the book.
I would still recommend the book but advise the user to read through the book carefully and tie together the instructions,exercises and music. Good Luck!

I like this book. It is a simple and effective manual on how to improve - or even just start - sight reading music. It is simply written, and the exercises are effective. The books succeeds in conveying the message that sight reading is not really as hard as it seems at first, if you break it down a bit. Virtually everyone is bound to find some valuable advice & exercises in this book - perhaps with only the most fluent of sight readers excepted.

I bought a copy of this book and I really appreciate it. It gives me a small set of exercises which all have something like "Well, _that_ cannot be too difficult..ooops..it's less easy than I thought, but I am sure I can make it". Hence, it is much more fun to practice than with all the other drills I have seen, which seem to be designed to be absolutely not entertaining.

This book is easy to understand for people without much sense in music. Each chapter explores development of different senses. It is certainly a helpful book for people who doesn't believe in their abilities to sight sing. But for advanced sight readers, I would recommend "A New Approach to Sight Singing" by Berkowitz/Frontrier/Kraft.