Synopsis "300 Progressive Sight Reading Exercises for Piano: Volume 1 (in English)"
First and foremost: THIS IS NOT A METHOD BOOK. It is precisely what it says it is: 300 Progressive Sight Reading Exercises! Volume One is comprised of 300 progressive eight-bar exercises that train reading skills for both hands equally: Half of the pieces emphasize the right hand, the other half emphasize the left. The first 32 exercises isolate the hands while the remaining exercises combine them. For most of the exercises, the de-emphasized hand stays within a single five-finger position. Time signatures include 4/4 (Common Time), 3/4, 2/4, 6/8, and 2/2 (Cut Time). This entire first volume is in C Major or its relative modes. There are no key signatures, sharps, or flats. While these concepts will be covered in future volumes, this book has been designed unlike any other sight reading book for piano that I have encountered in that it trains both hands to play equally, well beyond a simple five-finger position, and it gets fairly detailed in the rhythms and time signatures used. All of the exercises are eight measures long. If one has done any study of formal analysis, they will find that eight measures is a typical 'period' of music and usually contains two, four-bar phrases (also typical in length). For example, many sonatinas, jazz standards, and pop songs use "32 Bar Form" (A A B A), "Binary Form" (A B), and "Ternary Form" (A B A), with each section often being eight bars. Thus, eight measures (one period of music) makes the perfect length for sight-reading studies in my opinion. Finger numbers have been included for a small portion of the pieces only to provide examples of correct fingering. That said, there is more than one correct fingering for nearly every piece of music - in this book, or any other. Be sure to study the pages on scales provided in this book if you do not already know all of the Major scales with the correct right and left hand fingerings. A basic rule to keep in mind is that it is okay to run out of fingers on the thumb's side - you can simply cross over like the scale fingerings, but it is NOT okay to run out of fingers on the pinky's side. The only way out of the later scenario is a 'switch', where one would hold down a note with a finger and change fingers without letting the key up first. I have found the switch to be almost always unnecessary if you have made good fingering choices. You will acquire such decision-making skills by using this book. There is no other like it. While this book is intended to train sight-reading skills, it may also be used by beginners or those new to reading to acquire reading skills. It starts at a very basic level and adds a new note, rhythm, or concept every couple of pages and thoroughly reinforces them throughout the rest of the book. Next, I have made the staff font slightly larger than standard. While this will largely go unnoticed in the printed version of this book, it should make the electronic versions significantly easier to read. Finally, there are many correct ways to use this book. For that reason, the instructions and a preview are posted on my website - Robert Anthony Publishing - so that I can update the instructions as I discover additional strategies. For example, I sometimes receive emails in which people tell me how they like to use this book. My opinions will evolve, the more I use this book to train my students, so I want the ability to easily update the instructions as needed. The link for the pdf download will be directly below the picture of the cover of this book. Instructional videos supporting this book will be posted in the same place. For those who had purchased the older version of this book which has no fingerings, all of the pieces with fingerings will be included in the free preview.
