Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 1

2,500 words

Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method

by Anton R. Tajanlangit
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 2

Contents

Foreword 3
Chapter 1 - First Steps: Instant recognition 5
The Skeleton 5
The Flesh 7
The Blood 19
Chapter 2 - Reading melodies 23
How intervals look like 23
Chapter 3 - Reading chords 24
Dyads 24
Triads 25
Sevenths 26
Endnotes 27
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 3

Foreword

Sight reading is the art and science of performing written music seen for the
first time, straightaway without practicing.

It is an art because life, being reflected in all art, is manifested in the study and
execution of it. We start life as infants and babies who struggle to identify
everything that comes our way. In the same manner a novice sight reader needs
to establish a mind-set that recognizes every single thing seen in a music
manuscript. As we grow older, things that at first seemed to be so hard to
understand become so much a part of our subconscious mind that we don’t
require as much effort to make sense of them anymore. A good sight reader
performs musical symbols as easily, as effortlessly, and as naturally as breathing
in fresh air is to them.

It is a science because there are rules that need to be carried out for its proper
implementation. If these rules are unknown to any aspiring sight reader, the act
of sight reading will be one of extreme difficulty. The scientific method should be
employed in the study of sight reading, as this makes for a systematic and logical
approach. There are basic rules that should not be broken, although the art
factor of this endeavour will sometimes tempt one to break some—but these
must definitely not impact the very purpose of the activity!
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 4

I’ve actually always wondered how the term “sight reading” came to be. Isn’t
reading done by sight, anyway? You can’t read with any of the other senses, can
you? The term sight reading thus seems like a redundancy.

Master sight readers know that sight reading requires more than just the
sense of sight, because they use more than just sight to be able to perform
seemingly intricate music passages on being confronted with sheet music they’ve
never seen before. They use the senses of touch, hearing, and a lot of other
senses that work in the inner recesses of their minds.

But we will have to use the term “sight reading” in this book anyway, as it has
already become standard fare. It’s no use reinventing the wheel in this case.

Piano music is one of the most difficult to sight read. A piano sight reader has
two lines of “data” to consider, one for each hand, simultaneously. It’s like the
brain becomes divided into two components that have to take action at exactly
the same time in exactly the same way. This book has been written to break
down all the elements of reading piano music so as not to needlessly waste so
much time trying to “get it” by some other way.

Congratulations for buying this book. It will open up many revelations that a
beginner will need to rapidly advance into reading piano music, and that a
master sight reader will recognize as true, from experience.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 5

Chapter 1

First Steps: Instant recognition

THE SKELETON.

Sight reading opens up an entire world of possibilities to any musician. There

are millions of pages of sheet music both in printed and digital form that await
their conversion into gratifying sound waves we call music.

Sight reading piano music is a skill that anyone can develop. Like all skills,
one has to know the underlying principles behind its implementation.

First off for beginners, one must know the basic signs and symbols in music.
On the following page is the “skeleton” of a piece of music, with its parts labelled
with red ink. Its “flesh and blood” will be discussed later on.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 6

The treble staff contains medium-to-high sounds, and the bass staff, medium-
to-low sounds.

This “skeleton” you see above is where the “flesh and blood” of music attach
themselves.

The “flesh” is made up of the notes, rests, and all the other musical symbols.
Recognition of these symbols is a brain activity.

The “blood” is made up of the extrinsic and intrinsic rhythms that cause the
music to flow across time, just as blood flows through our bodies after having
been pumped in a steady manner by our hearts. Recognition of these rhythms is
a process undertaken by our feelings. It is thus a heart activity.

The combination of these three elements make up so much to be recognized.

The human brain is indeed capable of doing this, but knowing how to get there
is already half the battle won. The other half is in the doing.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 7

THE “FLESH” OF MUSIC.

The importance of recognizing a musical symbol in a split second and

performing it so that it could be heard (or unheard) cannot be underestimated.
These symbols appear as events arranged in a particular sequence, flowing in
time. What I call the “flesh” of music is the physical representation of sound and
silence which a performer executes in the order in which they occur.

Knowledge of music theory is an absolute prerequisite. Music theory books

can be found everywhere and their subject matter will not be included in the
scope of this book. Description of musical symbols and their meanings will
however be covered, in order to reduce the burden of having to look them up
elsewhere.

We are going to start with quarter notes in order to be acclimatized to the

stems that they have. The basic rule (which may be broken in special cases) is
that notes (excepting whole notes) below the third line has to have their stems
pointing upwards. All other notes (i.e. those above the third line) will have their
stems pointing downwards.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 8

THE BASS STAFF.

It is my belief that studying the bass staff first will create in a student a
proficiency that is deficient in students who start off first with the treble staff. In
the latter group, the left hand parts that are contained in the bass staff are often
overlooked in a sight reading session. This is because, having studied the treble
staff first, they gain an early development of the ability to read right hand notes
easily and thus take for granted and lag behind in the recognition of notes
belonging to the left hand.

On the next page is a “map” of the geography of a piano keyboard along with
their representation of printed line notes in the bass staff. We will start off with
seven notes: five notes written on the five lines and two extra notes written on two
extra lines (called ledger lines), one above and one below the staff.

To put all of these in proper perspective, one has first to find middle C on the
piano keyboard. Once found, everything else will fall into place. This “map” is
intended to be memorized, in the same way as we were obliged to memorize the
multiplication table in school.

The student should use any of the five fingers of the left hand only to play these
notes.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 9

Once mastered, the illustration of the keyboard should be hidden from view.
The student should by then be able to locate on the keyboard, any of the seven
notes written on the staff, in a split second.

Until this can be achieved with high proficiency, one must not attempt to
proceed to the next step.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 10

The next step is the study of the space notes in the bass staff. There are four
space notes written on the four spaces and two extra notes above and below the staff,
also considered space notes. As before, these should also be committed to
memory.

Again, middle C is the “landmark” in this map, although it is not one of the
included notes as it is a line note.

The proficiency by which the student masters these space notes should be
equal to that of the line notes. Drills should be done as often as possible for
swifter results.

Once both line notes and space notes have become known inside out, there
will be no more need for the keyboard image. This will be done away with on the
next page.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 11

The illustration below is a combination of the line and space notes without
the keyboard. The student may devise drills based on these thirteen notes.

For now, note names are still shown inside each of the notes. This is to ensure
that the student is completely familiarized with the notes. If possible, they should
be called out loud when doing drills.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 12

The final step is the removal of the note names from inside the noteheads.
The illustration below covers this.

It will do the student well not to proceed to the next section without having
been 100% proficient at split-second recognition and performance on the
keyboard of the notes of the bass staff.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 13

THE TREBLE STAFF.

After having mastered the notes in the bass staff, the student shall begin to
study and master the notes located in the treble staff. Here, the right hand
should play these notes with any of its five fingers.

As with the bass staff, the line notes are first to be considered. There are
seven notes, five of which are on the five lines of the staff and the other two
outside of the staff, with a ledger line on each of them.

As was the case in the bass staff, middle C should first be located in order to
establish the “map.” These notes should be mastered 100%. There is no need for
mnemonic devices like “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” The notes should be
recognized on first sight without having to use a crutch like these mnemonic
devices.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 14

The space notes are next. Again, the student should not fall into a habit of
using the mnemonic device “FACE.”

On the following page, the keyboard image has been removed, leaving only
the treble staff and its thirteen notes with letter-names inside.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 15

Finally, the letter-names are eliminated from the final illustration in the next
page.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 16

A summary of the Instant Recognition lessons can be found in the succeeding

page.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 17

Below are the notes belonging to the bass and treble staves. Middle C is
common between them, and this illustration is like a “world map” of notes in the
immediate vicinity of the lines and spaces of both staves.

What about the other notes that are below the lowest and above the highest
notes in this illustration?

THE LEDGER LINE NOTES.

Ledger lines are extensions of the five-line staff, where notes that are not
within the range of the staff are placed. On the next page are the most common
ledger line notes on both the bass staff and the treble staff. The student should
commit them to memory, as done before on the staff notes.
Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 18
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 19

THE “BLOOD” OF MUSIC.

Rhythm is the “blood” of music and is a subject matter that has been
discussed in countless books. It is impossible to sight-read effectively without
being thoroughly schooled in the discipline of rhythm.

How important is rhythm in music?

When playing together with other musicians, if I was given a choice of having
a fellow musician play EITHER the right notes OR the right rhythm, I would
choose the right rhythm any day of the week! Even if we play 100% of the notes
right, if we don’t play them together anyway, the cacophony of sounds would be
nothing short of indescribable. That’s how important rhythm is.

If you intend to make people dance to your music, if your rhythm is uneven
and unmetered, not a soul would even consider getting up from their seat. That’s
how important rhythm is.

If you play the simplest of songs with the wrong note values, no one will
recognize the song you’re playing. That’s how important rhythm is.

That’s why notes are classified according to the length of time they sound.
And not to be forgotten of course is the silence that exists between those sounds,
as silence is also part of the music. Silence is indicated by rests, which are
classified according to length of time in the same way as notes are.

I believe that an absolute beginner would very well find it easier to start

learning rhythms by reading quarter notes and rests in $4time, rather than
starting with either whole notes/rests or half notes/rests as some other methods
favour.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 20

The student is to perform this exercise using any finger of each hand. It is of
utmost importance to strictly release the fingers on the exact beats the rests fall,
not any time before or after. For a beginner, this is easier said than done. A
steady beat must be enforced by using a metronome. Start slowly. Accuracy
should never be sacrificed for speed.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 21

This time, half notes and rests will be added. The entire value of the half
notes should be played, meaning, they should not be released until the next note
or rest occurs. There will also be dotted half notes. In this exercise, ties into the
next measures are introduced, and full values of these notes should still be
applied. Once again, the metronome must be used. Accuracy, uniformity, and
continuity are more important than speed, which can come later.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 22

Following is the eighth notes/rests exercise.

 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 23

Chapter 2

Reading melodies

The basic unit of melody reading is the interval. The instant recognition of
any interval in a music sheet is a basic necessity for fast sight reading. Melodies
are written horizontally, and because of this they assume particular shapes and
angles according to the sequential occurrence of the various types of intervals
that make them up.

A student of sight reading needs to be able to see those shapes and angles,
and translate them instantaneously into an accurately-reproduced melody.
Sometimes all the sight reader has to do is establish the first of a series of notes
and then read the shapes and angles created by the rest of the notes that follow
after.

In this book we are going to discuss these shapes and angles in order for
instant recognition to occur in a nearly subconscious level in the mind.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 24

Chapter 3

Reading chords

DYADS.

A dyad is a chord made up of only two notes. Technically it cannot be

considered a chord, because it does not contain an element that would classify it
as major or minor. However, dyads occur in an untold number of sheet music
that it cannot be passed on unstudied.

We are going to address dyads as if we are talking of “normal” chords.

 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 25

TRIADS.

Triads are the most common type of chords, as they are sufficient to create
harmonies that would support majority of music now in existence.

In fact, the mere knowledge and mastery of triads can enable a musician to
play many popular songs that would otherwise exist only as melodies. There are
three closed positions1 that triads take on in sheet music; these will be dealt with
in this chapter.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 26

SEVENTHS.

Most chords that have four notes may be considered as seventh chords. This
will naturally exclude sixth chords, which has the extra fourth note a sixth away
from the root.
 Sight Reading Piano Music - The Antonality Method/ 27

Endnotes

[ All footnotes will get inserted here upon print, and this bubble will be removed

automatically.]

1. Open positions are more numerous and will entail the use of both hands as the notes
that make them up are farther apart.