Improve Your Sight-Reading! Piano, Level 7 (New Edition): Piano Book

This workbook cuts through the common disconnect between drills and actual sight-reading performance. Rather than jumping straight to cold reading, Harris scaffolds the learning through targeted rhythmic and melodic preparation, then guided practice with reflection questions, and only then the real test, which means students arrive at unprepared pieces with genuine confidence. The check-box tracking system keeps both you and your students accountable and makes progress visible across a full year of study.

Structured without being rigid. Each unit builds methodically from familiar ground into genuine challenge, creating the sensation of capability expanding naturally rather than being forced. By the unprepared test stage, you've internalized patterns without consciously memorizing them.

Early-advanced pianists who can play at level but struggle when encountering new scores without preparation time. This book is equally valuable for pianists training as accompanists or ensemble players, where reliable sight-reading is non-negotiable.

• Work through the preparatory exercises before attempting each sight-reading piece; they're designed to isolate exactly what will trip up pianists at this level.
• Use the reflection questions after each prepared piece to build metacognitive awareness. Students who can articulate what they found difficult transfer that insight to future reading.
• Time your unprepared tests so they feel like a natural conclusion rather than a surprise. Let students know the routine upfront and keep it consistent.
• Celebrate small shifts in confidence. Sight-reading anxiety is real at this level; noticing when a student reads a new piece without hesitation is worth acknowledging.

Assign this systematically across the year rather than as a one-off unit. Work through one or two prepared pieces and their associated tests each week alongside regular repertoire study, so sight-reading becomes a consistent thread in your lessons rather than an isolated skill.

• Recognizing rhythmic patterns and executing them accurately on first reading
• Scanning melodic contours and intervallic relationships before playing
• Managing notation changes and less common key signatures with ease
• Building confidence through structured preparation that precedes unprepared reading
• Developing self-assessment skills through guided reflection questions