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Teacher start off by using the Every Good Boy Deserves Football or FACE for the notes that fall into the spaces.

As you move on into ledger lines, it is easier to simply remember E,G,B,D,F,A,C,E (going from highest to lowest). This pattern repeats going from the lowest to the highest note and will help you work out more efficiently the names of the notes that site on a line. It makes it easier rather than work from high F and then start going through the alphabet over ledger lines and spaces until you arrive (hopefully) at the right note name.

But you shouldn't be dealing with very many ledgers lines - if any at all - at Grade II level!

Oh is that all you mean?

I thought when you talked about ledger lines you were looking at things like F6 or higher!

I would expect it to come into set/prepared exam pieces but I wouldn't have thought that anything about High A or low A would have occurred in sight reading - if even at all!

dave brum wrote:I'm certainly a lot weaker on bass clef ones than I am on treble clefs.

This is fairly normal for people who are in the early stages of their learning. Just be persistent and do a little bit at a time, trying to keep a steady beat, not worrying too much about speed at this early phase. Doing this however.....

dave brum wrote:I think I'm going to have to cheat a bit and play some of Rondo by ear if I can't get the sight reading correct by say next weekend.

.... is only going to set you back if you want to become a good sight reader. This plus the fact when you go to your piano teacher's this week, you won't have to worry about the ground coming to meet you rear end 'cos it'll be her foot this time! It is dead easy for a piano teacher to see when someone is sight-reading and when they are playing it by ear or from memory.

Dave, on the sight reading subject have you thought about using a metronome? I do exactly as you say with sight reading (I am sure we all do). So I think that using a metronome on a slow BPM and trying to keep up will force you to ignore the mistakes.

I am doing grade 1 sight reading and was working from the Paul Harris book, however I didnt think the tunes had much structure to them (almost like a load of random notes shoved on a stave, in fact thats probably because I was playing them incorrectly! ).

Anyway I bought a new book called Right @ Sight. I much prefer it. It has the same structure as Paul Harris and takes you further than grade 1 towards the end of the book, however the tunes are better and there are lots of little hints on the practise parts to help you out.

The book is called Right @ Sight by T.A. Johnson and has a book for each grade.

I am currently trying to do about 10-15 mins each day and although progress is S L O W, I have seen a definite improvement. When I get to the end of the book I go back a and start again and each time mark a comment of how I did so I can track my progress.

Keep it up and percevere! You will make progress, honest!

Tell me about it. Us late starters don't have all the time in the world to become competent pianists, which is why we are so impatient!

I had a low self esteem day today (I think it might have been to do with the mild hang over) but whenever I am am having ones of those days I think back to 9 months ago when I started piano lessons (having no music experience what so ever) and being in a total panic because I had got to the point in the John Thompson book where I had to move just one 1 finger out of the middle C, 5 finger position plus play with 2 hands at the same time!!!! Now I can do octave jumps and play with 2 hands confidently, so even though I am not a natural player I would say I have made progress that I am pleased with. I am sure in 3-4 years time you will look back and laugh that you thought you would never get to a decent level.

I know for me with the sight reading my progression is very slow, I have gone through my book nearly 3 times over a period of about 2-3 months and have improved slightly so you cannot be as slow as me!

What helps me is to go through a song book and quickly say the notes.

As a rehearsal/practice tool or as a means of coping?