[progressiveweb]

Alright here's "hacks" and unfortunately there's no software or books to help you here, you simply cannot substitute the sheer number of hours needed to get to a point where you can comfortably sight read almost any music. I used to skip several Royal Conservatory of Music grades using these "hacks". But you are gonna be disappointed because it requires serious commitment, used to practice like 12 hours a day when I was a kid and eventually slowed to a point where I no longer actively play but able to pick it up and play the Rachmaninoff's Moment Musicaux from memory, this is the highest point I was able to reach, something that child prodigies master before they turn 10.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:

1) You need to get into the habit of not looking down at the keyboard. This was the very first lesson and took years. Eyes on the sheet music as much as possible. You should not have to move your fingers a lot when starting out.

2) This one will be a bit controversial but dont worry too much about form yet, just focus on hitting the right notes first. You do need to address it to avoid physical limitations when at the advanced level, I just didn't because I'm a rebel.

3) Practice reading new sheet music until you feel comfortable not looking down at your hand positions other than to check you are in the right octave and placements. You should be able to directly recognize and translate not only bars but entire paraphrases into "guesses". For a lot of people, those "guesses" are wrong but eventually I got to the point where I could sight read Chopin Waltz. This skill also translated well when I took up cello and was able to join a local orchestra within a half a year. Nobody believed me but being born to an immigrant family, I didn't have the luxury of taking things nice and slow. Basically, my mom had only limited budget so I had to somehow make the best out of each lesson and just practice the hell out of it. I did think briefly about a career as a pianist but that fizzled out.

4) Now the true hacky bit, which builds upon the previous skill that requires you to translate the notes to finger positioning without thinking. Challenge yourself to sheet music you can barely play both hands. I recommend Bach because it is missing the expressive dynamics and focused on rapid eye hand dexterity. Inventions a Deux voix or Trois voix play two and three separate melodic sequences.

4) The biggest break through and the aha! moment in rapidly mastering an instrument was to keep sight reading progressively more challenging pieces. By the time I finished the Bach Inventions, I was tired of the mechanical and depressing themes (the dude had to come up with new material or the guillotine) and naturally gravitated to Chopin.

5) Once again I applied the same routine. Finish the Chopin Waltz then the Nocturne and dabbled with Fantasia Improviso where I felt I hit a physical limit due to the horrible hand posturing habit that I developed due to focusing soley on sheet music reading.

6) At this point I could take on pretty much any challenge and boy did it take a long ass time. Just being able to play Moment Musicaux No.3 at 3/4 of Lugansky's speed (I consider to be the best interpretation....not because he's russian btw...well have a listen below) took years and years. I still can't reach his level. This is where the pros and amateur start to distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLDse5R8dQ

TLDR: Theres just no hack to mastering the piano. It's a lot harder than other instruments imho in some ways because you don't just play the melody like string instruments although it's easier in a sense that all notes are tuned and requires no other effort than striking a key. Not so with cello, without perfect pitch, it's tough to know if I'm in tune or if my "key" is right. When you hear amateur orchestras and professional you can tell the difference immediately because pros are so well synced along with high quality instruments.

[arandr0x]

Do you have advice on learning rhythm for the piano? (Aside from "use a metronome", I do do that.) Are there exercises? I also have trouble recognizing how long a note is "in the wild" without a metronome or having a good idea what the tempo is for a song I like, so I suppose there's a listening component to this as well. Making sure to hit the notes at the right times if you haven't memorized the song just from looking at the sheet music I mean.

[twoquestions]

S L O W D O W N.

As much as you possibly can. If a song is in 4/4 and you're having trouble with it, pretend it's 8/8 and count by eighth notes. Still tough, go 16/16. Once you have it down, then increase speed S L O W L Y.

(much easier said than done, let me tell you, but it is effective)

[progressiveweb]

^ this. Use a pencil to write the number of seconds. For advanced pieces you need to actually sit down and do a division and it's tricky to practice with both hands (like Fantasie Impromptu).

it's so tempting once you get the notes right to just let her rip at full speed but this was a bad habit and hard to break.

Now I try to play as slow as possible as often as possible. Only when you have it down perfect can you then start adding dynamics, expressiveness and your own take.

[tinyrisks]

Thank you for the advice. I tend to rush, I avoid the simple pieces and move on to more complex, "interesting" music to find myself quickly overwhelmed by the complexity.

I will try your 'hacks' approach to see what happens.

[progressiveweb]

when you get frustrated, it means you need to slow it down, simplify the immediate task needed to build up the muscle memory to be able to sync each note on the sheet.

In the beginning, especially when starting a very difficult piece, practice only one bar at a time with the right hand and then the left hand separately.

Once you got the bar down perfectly, move on to the next until you got the whole line. Finally practice both hands to sync it up.

As you do this repeatedly, you will discover it gets easier. Because your brain is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it just gets better at the task.

Once you've digested something difficult and challenging, guess what, you've made leaps and bounds vs practicing simple pieces that won't lead to new breakthroughs.

I find this principle to apply to a lot of things, like working out. It's easy to jog, but jogging uphill is what builds those fast twitch muscles. On that note, please don't try to speed through the practice sessions. Once bad habits are formed, your brain literally is hard wired to make those mistakes.

Hell, even pianists will struggle with a new challenging piece and will not be able to rip through it on the first try unless they are like autistic savants.

If you really get to a point where you can't continue, then allow yourself to listen to someone else playing it. In fact this is the best way to keep dangling that carrot in front of you while you try to master a piece.

Easier said than done tho.