I Invented a Crazy Sightreading Hack

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In this piano lesson, I share with you a crazy sight-reading hack that I invented to help students improve! The hack is revealed at 2:35 but I recommend you watch the intro before that too so that this video will make sense to you!

This hack DOES NOT magically make your sight-reading professional level overnight. You still need to put in the work.

Keep practising with your hands covered up and watch how your sight-reading improves TREMENDOUSLY as you begin to be able to sight-read without looking at your hands!!!

Try it and let me know how it goes in the comments down below! :)

[simonleesax]

When I see my younger students looking at their hands I ask them if they look at there hands when they play a console to which they answer “no” so this helps them understand to trust themselves to play without looking down.

[tme]

wait. increase my sight reading by 5 times?

5x0... uh oh.

[anikaviernes]

For me it’s more like getting a cloth so I can use it to wipe my tears off because of how much of a disgrace I am.

[richardwagon]

Thanks for showing yourself genuinely sight reading and screwing up at times. Persistence in the face of frustration and failure is so, so, so important. Seeing a leader and teacher like you be vulnerable in front of thousands of students is a marvelous teaching tool. It's easier to takes chances, fall down, and get back up when we see our wise elders do it (though you look super young for a "wise elder" [I guess it's true what they say: black don't crack!].) It's also necessary. Thank you as always!

[madeline]

I’ve been playing piano for 14 years and I’ve never had the importance of not looking at your hands emphasized. Just tried this trick out on the piece I’m currently working on and holy smokes, this has changed up my piano game for eternity !! Thank you so much !!

[lobo]

well for me it's similar to type on the computer keyboard if you wanna type fast u cant look at the keyboard

[GarryBurgess]

great idea. and it has a second function as a bib at the piano, so now I can eat at the same time. I will use it religiously now.

[onlykeqing]

I'm just a beginner here and your tips help me progress quickly. Thank you ♥️. I wear glasses due to poor eye sight so I just want to tell any glass-wearing fellows out there that : Check your eyesight regularly. 😂 When I got a new pair of glasses, my sightreading improved a lot.

[perry]

Life hack: search variations of “I hate simply piano” so YouTube will stop giving you simply piano ads

[digpauya]

I don't know why dont you get more views, your videos are so reliable, YouTube most be wrong.

[dantaylor]

decades ago a typing teacher in high school made us tape paper over the keyboard to get us to quit looking at our hands. to this day, some forty years later I rarely look at my hands while typing. it's a matter of trusting yourself

[miraclesailor]

I just started piano and one of the first things I saw on sight reading was this video about 2 months ago. I took it to heart and do not look at my hands, but rather only the sheet. Trying to be disciplined so I do not spend 10 years at this and end up "just okay". I came back to this video again, thanks for the recap. Liked seeing you sightread blind.

[swivellogic]

I think the best part about this demonstration was that the “errors” didn’t sound like mistakes to me, especially because you kept going in time. Honestly, if you hadn’t pointed them out I would have thought them an intentional part of the music. I think this proves very well that looking at the hands is disruptive to musicianship as a whole, and is best eliminated. Thanks for the lesson.

[rjanuary]

I used to play in the dark, to totally test my memorization of a song piece and the ability to find the correct keys without being able to see them. A blind fold would accomplish the same thing, to get better proficient on your piano key knowledge. Once you can do this, it's much easier to sight read without looking down at your hands.

[andrewdias]

This is such a great tip. I never thought to cover my hands, but I certainly concentrated on not looking down when I was developing my sight-reading. I originally thought you were going to use the cloth for the technique I developed myself for sightreading, which is to cover the music (I used a piece of paper) and lift it up for just a second, pointing at a chord or measure. I would immediately cover the music and try to play what I remember. This forced me to digest entire blocks of music rather than single notes. Don't know if that would help people, but I've taught this technique before.

[NaderTaghinia]

Obviously you are an accomplished piano player with years of experience but you are not afraid of making mistakes and record it when doing the incredibly difficult job of sight reading and publish it as it is. I just wanted you to know that knowing the fact that even YOU could make mistakes while sight reading is a great help and motivation to me and people like me. I appreciate it and I thank you sincerely.

[T-marie-N]

👍 Thank you for not editing out mistakes! It makes us not feel so miserable when we make them. I'm looking forward to trying this.

[lfpiano]

Just discovered your channel and I think that this channel is one of the best musical channels on YouTube

Thanks man for the advice. It helps so much👍🎼🎹

[Pretzels]

I’ve been doing this for a few weeks and the change has been AMAZING.

[Pedozzi]

You seem like a cool friend to be with, thanks for the video