4 Tips for Developing Good Sight-Reading Skills at the Organ

Quite often organists have difficulties to learn to play organ without looking down at their fingers. This is a common problem people face in the beginning stages of their organist career. Playing from the score and looking down at your fingers will slow down your progress at least in one specific area: knowing your keyboard and feeling it. This is crucial if you want to be a truly good sight-reader. In this article, I will give you 4 tips which will help you to develop good sight-reading skills at the organ.

Feel the sharp keys with your fingers. This particular trick might help you to facilitate reading music without looking down. As we all know, the sharp keys are arranged in groups of two and three. For example, by feeling the edges on the left side of the group of two, you can find C, or on the right side - E. Similarly, feel the edge of F sharp and find F, or touch B flat and find B.
Take a slow tempo. When you practice, I always recommend taking such a tempo that you could avoid making mistakes. At a slow tempo, it is easier to control your movements and to think where each particular note is. If you see a skip in your score, make an appropriate mental note and your finger will respond correctly. At first, your leap might be a little off, but still it would be a leap. If you make such a mistake, it is best not to go ahead and play the piece all the way through. Instead, go back, try to correct this mistake, and play with precision at least three times in a row.
Practice each voice separately. One of the reasons why reading music without looking at the keyboard can be difficult for organists is that they often play all parts (including the pedal line) together. If you struggle with it, obviously, it is too complicated to play the entire musical texture. Instead, practice one voice at a time.
Later combine them in 2, 3, and 4 voices. After playing each voice has become easy, now it is time to start practicing your work in combination of two voices. Remember not to look down at the keyboard. If the previous step was successful, this combination should not be unreasonably hard either. The next logical step would be to practice in three-part combinations and finally, the entire four-part texture.

In conclusion, I believe you can be successful at sight-reading organ music. It just takes regular, slow, persistent, and wise practice.

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