Sight reading and memorising are two absolutely enormous topics for us pianists. Whilst there is definitely no silver bullet, recognising chords and recurring patterns can be a useful addition to our toolkit to help us sight read, learn and memorise music. Classical pianists are not always taught to approach a score in these terms, but with practice it gives us another way to organise what we see. This article explains why that can help and points towards some practical exercises and other resources if you would like to develop the skill.
Let’s first look at Reading
When young children learn to read, they often begin by sounding out letters as they try to make sense of a word. With experience, they no longer see five separate letters in p i a n o; they recognise the word piano. Most familiar words become immediate, whilst an unfamiliar one may still cause a brief hesitation as we divide it into smaller parts.
Of course, this didn’t come naturally – we had to learn it!
Musical notation is just a language
Music is no different. The first thing to remember is that musical notation is a language. Therefore, reading music isn’t really that different to reading words. If we had to read every individual note each time we looked at music it would take us forever and we’d be like that hesitant child we once were trying to make sense of the letters on the page in front of us. Therefore, we need to develop ways of grouping information together – the equivalent of turning letters into words.
One type of musical word
One of the major things then that will help us to read more quickly is being able to see music in terms of chords. With practice, we can learn to interpret the notes C E G B-flat as the chord of C7 rather than a set of individual notes.
With further practice, we can also recognise the way those notes are spread over time. This is what I mean by a pattern. Patterns can include arpeggios, Alberti bass figures, scales and many other familiar shapes..
There will still be occasions when we need to look more carefully, just as an unfamiliar word can slow us down. The point is not that every passage becomes instantly obvious, but that familiar groups give us more useful ways to organise much of what is on the page.
One type of musical phrase
Once we can recognise chords with some confidence, the natural next step is to start noticing the relationships between them – what we put under the broad umbrella of harmony.
There are two types of reading
Let’s first think about the two distinct types of reading we may need on piano:
- Sight reading
- General reading
Sight Reading
In sight reading, we play music we have not prepared before. This may be part of our normal practice, an examination, a rehearsal or a situation in which another musician needs us to read something at short notice. It is not simply an abstract test, so it is worth developing ways to become more comfortable with it. I personally practice sight reading on most days.
General Reading
By general reading, I mean playing from the music rather than from memory. Not everybody memorises their music, and sometimes memorisation is neither necessary nor practical.
If we play chamber music or accompany an instrumentalist or singer, for example, we may regularly work from a score that we have rehearsed only once or twice. On occasion, we may even need to sight read parts of it.
How to improve sight reading
When sight reading, we of course first look over the score for the key signature, time signature, accidentals and other helpful information. We can then look for familiar chords and patterns: block chords, Alberti bass figures, scales and anything else that allows us to group several notes meaningfully.
Imagine that you need to sight read the opening of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545.
In the first bar, we can see a C major chord in both hands. The left hand spreads the chord into an Alberti bass pattern, whilst the right hand presents it more directly. If both the chord and the pattern are familiar, we can recognise the left hand as a meaningful unit rather than repeatedly decoding each note in isolation.
The same pattern continues as the harmony moves to G7 and back to C major in the second bar. Mozart keeps the hand in roughly the same area as the chord changes – the same economy-of-movement idea explored in Mastering chords for classical pianists.
Then we move to an F major – again using economy of movement, back to a C. Afterwards to a G and then back to a C.
Combining the chord with the Alberti bass pattern gives us a more economical way to understand the left hand. The notes still have to be read and played accurately, but the pattern gives them structure and allows us to give more attention to the way the whole passage sounds and moves.
When we start to recognise that G7 is often followed by C, or that F major is one of the familiar chords in the key of C, a certain amount of predictability also enters what we are trying to read.
The same principle applied to general reading
The same principle applies when we play familiar music from the score. If we treat every note as a new isolated event each time, the page carries far more separate information than it needs to. Recognising chords and patterns gives us landmarks, helps us regain our place and leaves more attention available for phrasing, balance and the other musical decisions we are making.
Memorising
Let’s have a look at how chords will help us with memorisation. We can use Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat.
If we want to try memorising this piece, then we can think of the left hand in terms of chords. We equally have a pattern where the LH doesn’t play the entire chord at one go but splits it into a bass note and two partial chords. And of course, these basic chords sequences (or progressions as they are generally called) repeat themselves throughout the piece.
With a little practice, you’ll see that most of these chords are not particularly difficult to recognise.
What also becomes useful is the movement from one chord to the next. Familiar relationships can provide memory landmarks and help a change feel less arbitrary: we are not only remembering individual notes, but also something about where the music has been and where it appears to be going. That does not replace practising the passage, but it gives the memory another kind of support.
This is a key element of what we cover in Understanding Harmony for Pianists. In fact, this Nocturne is one of the examples we look at.
Learn the easy way
Learning to recognise chords and patterns does not need to be dry or difficult. We can certainly study the circle of fifths and practise inversions directly, but familiar music gives us another route. In my teens, I learned much of this almost by accident through playing guitar and working as the rehearsal pianist for a local amateur dramatic group.
That experience is one reason I still favour learning by doing. If you would like a practical starting point, begin with Mastering chords for classical pianists.
Converting dots into chords quickly and easily then develops the connection between chord names and written notation.
