Broadly speaking, there are a few ways I’ve heard accomplished sight readers approaching sight reading.
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Sight read easy pieces and build up eventually. You will be able to see more patterns over time and it will just start to make sense.
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Sight read difficult pieces slowly, and gradually push your sight reading up to the point you would like.
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Sight read whatever strikes your fancy, and it just happens over time.
What has been your experience?
Daily practice. A few minutes of something completely new ( bc after a few times we’re going to start learning it ). The piece should be well under our ability so as to make it easy to play as it is read. This daily focus will train your brain to look a head a bit like reading words but it takes much focused practice.
Thanks for posting! I agree, sight reading seems to get better as you attack it repeatedly in small doses.
Not a piano player, but woodwinds/brass
The only way I got better was doing it a lot. I’d find sheet music and a recording, and I’d just keep playing along, no matter the mistakes. Eventually the number of mistakes went down.