88keyboardmom

I am a classically trained pianist who has been teaching piano for 40 years and have a very active studio of 35 students. Sight reading is the first thing we do at every lesson, and I am always looking for fresh ideas to bring to my students. One thing I have done for years is to “force the eyes ahead” by covering up the music with an index card as the student reads/plays the music. This Read Ahead app does that by having the music disappear as the student reads. Excellent! There are several reading components to each lesson, and each day is a little different but the disappearing music is the core of the reading program. Some parts of the lesson can be recorded but not assessed by the system. The student has the opportunity to assess his or her own performance at the end of each lesson.

Because the system does not have the capacity to “grade” the students’ reading I find that it is most useful at lessons with a teacher present for younger students, but can be a marvelous tool for older students and self-starters as an at-home reading skill builder. If/when the developers create an assessment feature to this system I will insist that my younger students have it for at-home sight reading every day. In the mean time, I highly recommend the principles and methods used in this sight reading program.