I have a sight reading question. Perhaps Mac will take a shot at it.

If I were to analyze myself I would say that in the past I have read music just well enough to learn where to put my fingers, then I have basically forgotten about the music on the page and memorized what I needed to do to make a little music. I think I did this because I knew if I did do it this way I could count on playing the music without many mistakes - which is pleasant - because music with mistakes isn't music.

However, I wonder if I should persevere and continue trying to learn the song with my eyes on the music and forget about memorization. True, when I do it this way, because I am unsure of myself when reading, I make more mistakes and it takes longer to learn the piece, but little by little the mistakes go away. Still, the other side of that coin is that I feel like I'm still probably memorizing. I think I may just be memorizing without looking at my fingers. Any counsel on this?

Would it be better to just move on to other things that are new and within my skill level? I ask this because I am told that you learn to read by doing just that. Or, is there some benefit to taking the time to learn something a little harder without looking down?

It is so frustrating to do it by reading because the whole point of sitting in front of a piano is to enjoy it and make a little music, and even when the mistakes aren't that frequent, it frustrates the whole experience to have them creep in.

Woody - Sacramento