Physical Education
The third important element in sight-reading is the strength of your motor skills, your physical technique. “Practice scales and arpeggios daily, faithfully, so your motor skills are operating at their optimal level,” says Wimsatt. “You develop a really strong tactile sense when you play those patterns because of your muscle memory, and that gives you one fewer thing to think about when you’re sight-reading.”

Wimsatt maintains that musical sight-reading skill is related to your ability to read words and remember their meaning. Here’s a nonmusical exercise she gives students and fellow teachers: She writes a note with details about an upcoming field trip, and allows people a few seconds to read it. Then they turn it face down, and try to remember as many details as they can. “You can use all sorts of reading exercises like that to speed up your ability to skim and scan,” she says. “A lot of times we jump right into the music, but we don’t practice the reading skill behind it.”

Work on sight-reading every time you practice or play. Wimsatt suggests playing different bits and pieces of the piece you’re currently practicing to make it seem unfamiliar, and more like sight-reading. Play every other measure. Play the piece backwards. Play only the first measure of each line. Play the first measure of the first line, the second measure of the second line, and so on.

Use rhythm flash cards, which you can buy or make yourself on index cards, putting a different rhythmic pattern on each one. Turn over a card, and immediately play the rhythm. When you get good at that, lay out several cards on a table to make a sequence of ever-changing patterns to play.

Try sight-reading a piece in a style you’re not familiar with, perhaps jazz or some kind of folk music, to challenge yourself with unfamiliar patterns. And if you’re getting gigs, sight-read something in public that’s easier than your ability level. “Playing it in public is definitely an incentive to not stop,” Wimsatt says.

Finally, ask your teacher to make sight-reading part of your weekly lesson and daily practice assignment. That will soon make the task provoke a lot less anxiety.