My music sheet reading technique

I've been learning piano while I was young but took a pause of it when I was a teenager because it was requiring too much rigidness for me at that time.

Later I re-discovered the piano as a fun and relaxation activity which brought me to consider it on a much more free perspective. Now much of my new learning was done by me by trial and error which brought me to conclusion some professional music player may not like! But I wanted to share with you my personal sight music sheet reading technique as it may help some other enthusiast music player like me.

So here how may technique works:

1-The basic stuff still apply! Before starting to play look at the key signature and any road changes.

2-Know at least a few extreme reference positions on the key. Higher and lower C note. The more you know, the quicker you will be!

3-This one is my favorite: it is what I call "differential reading"! This technique consists into identifying the next coming note not in an absolute manner, but instead into a referential manner. In practical terms it is finding the next notes as a difference from the actual. So if they increase by two on the sheet, you simply move your hands two note higher on the keyboard without even caring what are those notes. The same apply for chords. You place whatever finger is the easiest for you and than place the next finger relatively to the first one. This technique can get you playing particularly faster, especially when the music is relatively continuous and that you still don't know by heart all the positions on the lines. The caveat is that is you introduce an offset you are screw and you may need to improvise or restart if you can't seamlessly resume from it.

4-The rhythm side always been my Achilles’ heel. To improve it quickly, I look at YouTube performance of other person. Some really really good!

5-Keep moving! When things get too complicated, start to discard the note that seems less important. Instead of chords just play one note. If need just play one hand. If further needed, make improvised transition over the impossible passages. Of course at some point you will need to practice them if you want to eventually play them.

6-Use the Key name on the top of the lines to identify which notes are presents.

7-Don’t hesitate to write on the sheet! That may be tip or sometime when the sheet is badly printed I pass over with a pen to improve the sharpness of the notes and the extra lines. That helps reading.

Like I said the above technique will never make you a professional of music it is really to help you to increase your fun/relax time and reduce your work/stress time while playing music.