Piano Teachers: 7 Ways to Help Students Who Can't Read Notes

Every piano teacher knows the student who plays the recital piece beautifully and cannot read a new line. Weak reading is one of the main reasons students lose interest and stop lessons. Here are seven ways to help students who can't read notes.

1. Separate learning pieces from reading

Learning a repertoire piece trains memory. Make reading its own activity in every lesson: two or three minutes of something new, never played before.

2. Use material well below their level

Reading material should feel easy. Students read fluently only when most notes need no thought.

3. Don't play it for them first

Ear students learn from your demonstration rather than the page. For reading material, let them read before they hear it.

4. Teach landmarks and intervals

Students who count lines from the bottom read slowly. Teach a few landmark notes and train them to read steps and skips.

5. Keep the beat, accept mistakes

Use a metronome or count aloud and ask the student to keep going. Stopping to correct trains stopping.

6. Give homework they can actually read

A practice player that plays the music with a moving line lets students check their reading at home, slow it down, and play one hand with the other sounding.

7. Take away the black-key barrier

Key signatures and accidentals are the point where many students stop reading and start guessing. iCanPiano Style is standard notation where each black-key note shows the key in the notehead. Students can read music with many sharps and flats early, and teachers can return to standard notation whenever they choose.

• F sharp: right half black. Play the black key to the right of F.
• B flat: left half black. Play the black key to the left of B.
• B natural: no natural sign. A note that is all black or all white is played on a white key.

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