Originally Posted By: ZeroZero
Then when I switched to piano I found sight reading really hard. I discovered the reason. It was because I was memorising everything, so after a couple of goes around I was no longer reading. This meant I could not really learn to sight read.
Z


That's funny. When I took piano lessons as a child... my piano teacher would hand me a new piece of music to learn the following week. She would set it on the piano and play through it so I could hear what it sounded like.

The following week, I'd show up for my lesson and she'd ask me to play the new piece. So I would. One week, after I played it rather flawlessly..... because I had practiced it all week.... she sat silently as I played it. After I finished, she didn't say a word for several seconds.... then she said...

"Herbert, that was really nice. Now.... would you please play that again and this time, play what's actually written on the paper."

Busted... big time. I was listening to her play it and going home and playing the songs from memory....and of course, I played kind of what was there but mostly adding things and leaving others out.... I had, and still have a good ear and she did recognize that skill.

Some time later, I went to the lesson one day and after a few minutes, she asked me how much time I had spent practicing the piano that week. I told her. It wasn't very much. I was generous in my lie and told her about 15 minutes total. She asked how much time I spent playing the guitar that week. I told her that too, several hours I said, underestimating this one by several hours. I would come home from school and spend several hours daily playing along with the radio & record player learning and playing songs. She looked at me over her glasses with that stern teacher's stare she had perfected over decades of teaching piano students. She told me to pack my music and go home since I was wasting her time and my mom's money, but to keep playing the guitar. It was a short lecture but it seemed to last a long time. My piano lessons were done. I learned a lot from that lady about music and theory. Thank you Mrs Leigh.

My mom was not happy but she got over it and I kept playing the guitar.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.