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Sight-reading
CHAPTER 32
Introduction
Anyone who wants to perform the works of tradi-
tional Western music, and approach other musi-
cal styles using a similar performance practice,
will most likely have to master music notation.
Many musical cultures rely on a system of sym-
bols to store and teach complex musical styles
that are not, or only partly, grounded in improv-
isation. While the beginning music reader has to
overcome the same problems as all readers do
when learning to read other texts, namely going
from a tedious matching of symbols to sounds
to meaning, the expert reader has automatized
the process of encoding and transforming the
signs into embodied action.
For our purposes, we will call sight-reading
the execution—vocal or instrumental—of
longer stretches of non- or under-rehearsed
music at an acceptable pace and with adequate
expression. Some people also label this ‘playing
by sight’ or ‘prima vista’. Another related set of
activities might be called music or note reading:
for example, the following of a score with the
aim of studying a piece while the music is play-
ing, or the studying of a new piece of music away
from the instrument prior to physically prac-
tising it. Both activities may even be accompa-
nied by the sounding out of some notes on an
instrument. However, the characteristic goal of
sight-reading is the authentic performance, or
as Mozart once phrased it, ‘to play the piece . . .
so as to make believe that it had been composed
by the one who plays it’ (letter from 1778 cited
in Crofton and Fraser 1985 , p. 111). Similar to
improvisation, sight-reading requires the instant
adaptation to new constraints, which places it
among those that motor scientists refer to as
open skills (as opposed to closed skills that
require reproduction of well-rehearsed motions,
such as swimming, fi gure skating or playing a
well-rehearsed piece of music). Today, studio
musicians and accompanists must be able to
sight-read, and many orchestra musicians have
done it on a regular basis for centuries. It is this
kind of un- or under-rehearsed performance
that we are concerned with because it forms a
well-defi ned and discrete skill comparable to
that of playing by ear or improvising.
When and under what conditions does sight-
reading emerge as a skill in a culture? Music
archaeology tells us about some forms of nota-
tion from ancient Egypt and Greece and other
cultures which have developed coding systems
for music that mainly serve mnemonic purposes
(e.g. Bent et al. 2008 ). The Western model of
notation started to develop in the ninth century
in order to code multivoice vocal and later instru-
mental music. In a musical culture (regardless
of geographical place and historical time) in
which music is solely improvised, sight-reading
is not necessary, yet music reading skills may
still be used for learning to play an instrument
(e.g. in India). When composers and perform-
ers assume specialized roles and performers are
expected to perform a fi xed repertoire, then
sight-reading may be required to limit rehearsal
times or if the repertoire changes frequently
(e.g. in the Baroque era). While the nineteenth
century still saw renowned performers play
other composers’ pieces from the score, canoni-
zation of the repertoire, the developing art of
interpretation, and rising audience expectations
has since then led to a performance practice
based on memorized performance by solo per-
formers of the piano and violin. Our modern
performance traditions have come to favour
Andreas C. Lehmann and Reinhard Kopiez
In S. Hallam, I. Cross & M. Thaut (Eds.) (2009). The Oxford handbook of
music psychology (pp. 344-351). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Perception of music notation and sight-reading · 345
polished performances and relegated sight-reading
to a useful craft, generally not worthy of public
notice or competition (we know only of the Karl
Bergemann sight-reading competition, Hanover,
Germany).
Obviously, most orchestral, chamber, and
studio musicians play from the score and so do
many performers of contemporary art music.
There are a few known solo pianists who have
used scores even for standard repertoire. It is
unclear whether musicians perform better with
or without the score, but the audience is likely
to expect memorized performances. Also, using
the score requires page-turning or the presence
of a music stand which may be disturbing for
the audience and the performer and might
detract from the sounding music. A music stand
may obstruct the view and hinder gestural free-
dom and the positive infl uence of expression
that is conveyed through the body (cf. Lehmann
et al. 2007 , pp. 173–174).
In marked contrast to the public neglect and
low prestige of sight-reading among perform-
ers stands the steady interest of music psychol-
ogists and pedagogues in this skill (for reviews
see Sloboda 1984 ; Lehmann and McArthur
2002 ; Lehmann et al. 2007 , Chapter 6 ). Starting
with the early music psychology experiments of
the 1920s (published in Jacobsen 1941 ) and the
development of sight-reading tests (Watkins
1942 , and the Watkins–Farnum Performance
Scale), all aspects of skills relating to sight-
reading attracted renewed interest in the 1970s
(e.g. Sloboda 1974 , 1976 , 1977 ) and have con-
tinued to do so (cf. Lehmann and Ericsson
1993 , 1996 ; Kopiez and Lee 2006 , 2008 for the
acquisition of sight-reading skills) up until
recent psychophysiological studies (e.g. Schon
and Besson 2005 ; Yumoto et al. 2005 ). It is
important for research that we measure indi-
viduals’ ability to perform at fi rst sight under
standardized conditions. Optimally, those con-
ditions should mirror real-life conditions
encountered by expert sight-readers (Lehmann
and Ericsson 1993 ).
In this chapter we will briefl y look at how
notation is perceived and then move on to the
structure of sight-reading while taking into
account the real-time conditions under which it
takes place. This will include a discussion of per-
ceptual and problem-solving issues. Finally we
will outline the course of skill acquisition with
its characteristic differences between novices
and experts, and present a model of sight-read-
ing performance.
Perception of music notation
and sight-reading
To begin, we have to understand how the eye
operates when we try to acquire information in
everyday life. Contrary to what most people
believe, the eye does not function like a movie
camera. Rather, its operation can be likened to
that of a fl ashlight in the dark being turned on
and off at short intervals. Roughly four to fi ve
times a second the eye moves around the visual
fi eld in discrete jumps (saccades) with short
resting points (fixations). The saccades take
about 15–50 msecs, the fi xations about 150–200
msecs. At this point it becomes clear that a con-
scious attending to every eighth note in a piece
at MM = 120 would be almost impossible.
During each fi xation, the external image is pro-
jected on the retina at the back of the eye. Wile
the retina is comparably large, we are able to
receive a sharp image only from a narrow part
in the middle. This round central part is called
the fovea centralis, and whatever surrounds it
will produce the somewhat blurry parafoveal
image. Hence, the fi eld of vision that will be per-
ceived in great clarity only averages 0.5–2°,
which corresponds to the size of an inch at a
reading distance of about 30 inches (75 cm), or
the area covered by a pointed-up thumb with
extended arm. The parafoveal vision includes
10° of the field of vision (e.g. Rayner and
Pollatsek 1989 ). The role of preview benefi ts
and parafoveal-on-foveal effects are currently a
hot topic in word-reading research. It is from
such individual snapshots that our brain fash-
ions what we experience as a large and steady
picture of the outside world. Unfortunately, the
eye movements cannot be allocated wilfully but
are in fact guided by preconscious processes and
drawn by outside stimuli. For example, move-
ments and boundaries in the visual fi eld attract
attention, just as do human faces, but our cog-
nition also guides the eye movements. For
example, when a car disappears behind another
we are likely to scan the plausible location of its
346 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
reappearance, and we search the face of a person
for cues to his or her mood. Today, we know
that information gathered from one or several
fi xations is integrated in meaningful units or
chunks of information which are the basis for
further processing. Since the location and dura-
tion of fi xations is indicative of the processing
underlying music reading, eye movements offer
important insights into the workings of the
musical mind. To explain the structure of sight-
reading, we have to account for how much and
which information is retrieved from the page
and how it is assembled into meaningful units
that are sequentially programmed and executed.
The problem in surveying the results of eye
movement in sight-reading is that the research
methodologies are not standardized with regard
to complexity of stimulus, tempo of perform-
ance, and so forth. Unlike in text-reading
research where many studies appear within a
few years using the same paradigm, the time lag
between publications on sight-reading is large
and fi ndings are often diffi cult to integrate. By
and large, the earliest studies (Jacobsen 1941 )
established what subsequent studies have con-
fi rmed, namely that eye movement patterns are
dependent on the level of expertise: beginners
had many fi xations, long pauses during fi xa-
tions, and unsystematic reading of note combi-
nations; intermediate musicians had about as
many fi xations as there were notes, and they
read chords in systematic fashion from bottom
to top; experts showed fewer fixations than
notes and also systematic reading of chords
(from top to bottom). Saccades can point for-
ward in reading direction but also backwards
(regressively)—for example to the current point
of performance. This is most likely done to dou-
ble-check things that have been read already or
result from attention being detracted to per-
formance errors (not a very effi cient strategy).
With increasing experience, the sight-reader
experiences a reduction in the number of regres-
sive fi xations. Kinsler and Carpenter ( 1995 ),
who strangely claimed that ‘a thorough search
of the literature failed to fi nd any account what-
soever of the eye movements used to read music’
(p. 12), studied eye movements during perform-
ance of notated rhythms. Their results showed
that slower tempi lead to more and shorter fi xa-
tions. One problem in research with self-selected
performance tempo is that slower tempi neces-
sarily result in more fixations. Lannert and
Ullman ( 1945 ) found a 0.45 correlation between
tempo and accuracy, and we can never be sure if
participants have traded off faster tempi for
more fi xations and thus ensure a more accurate
performance. Equal speeds can only be achieved
by using a pacing-voice methodology (Lehmann
and Ericsson 1993 ).
That notational input has an infl uence on the
eye movements was mentioned previously (cf.
systematic vertical reading of chords). Notational
variants (e. g., eighth notes with or without con-
necting bars) resulted in person-specific eye
movements, and eighth notes (with connecting
bars) tended to be looked at in pairs while quar-
ter notes were attended to individually (Kinsler
and Carpenter 1995 ). Truitt et al. ( 1997 , also
Goolsby 1994 ) questioned why fi xations often
landed between notes, and we suggest that read-
ers tend to construct intervals rather than read-
ing every note. Weaver ( 1943 ) found that
polyphonically structured music was read in
horizontal zigzagging patterns that tended to
follow melodic lines in the different voices,
whereas homophonic music resulted in zigzag-
ging up and down motions. However, a critical
look at his stimuli unveils that notation and
structure were hopelessly confounded, e.g. no
attemept was made to notate polyphonic stimuli
in alternative (more homophonic looking) ways.
none of the stimuli was polyphonic, yet it notated
as if homophonically structured. Regardless of
the shortcomings, we can say that experience
and structure of input modify viewing patterns.
Once the information has been retrieved dur-
ing one or several fi xations, it is stored and
assembled in meaningful units in anticipation
of the motor performance. Here also it was
found that experience allowed for larger tempo-
ral range of planning (Drake and Palmer 2000 ).
The extent and nature of the buffering of infor-
mation is part of the memory system to be dis-
cussed in the next section.
Memory processes
The amount of information stored temporarily
from a particular sequence of fi xations or during
a certain timespan can be assessed by experi-
ments that allow sight-readers only limited visual
Sight-reading as problem-solving · 347
access to the score by either very brief (tachisto-
scopic) display, by limiting the period of time
during which the score is visible, or by using a
computer that follows the fi xations with a ‘moving
window’ technique that permits variable pre-
view. By this we can measure aspects of memory,
namely the perceptual and the eye–hand span.
The perceptual span denotes the distance between
the current point of performance and the far-
thest distance the person is looking ahead. Using
a moving window technique, Truitt et al. ( 1997 )
found that a preview of two beats leads to a
slower tempo, larger variability in note dura-
tions, and errors. Subjects performed better
with previews between two and four beats or,
ideally, with previews to the end of the next bar.
Furneaux and Land ( 1999 ) found the number of
notes to be about four for experts and two for
novices. Unlike Truitt et al. ( 1997 ) who found
the time between fi xation and performance to
stand at 0.5 secs, Furneaux and Land ( 1999 )
documented between 0.7–1.3 seconds, depend-
ent on the tempo. Similar results have been
found in studies on typewriting (Gentner 1988 ).
This narrow preview is at odds with the phe-
nomenological experience of sight-readers who
claim a much larger preview. With multiple fi x-
ations that can go anywhere in the piece, musi-
cians construct motor programmes that rely on
more than mere visual input of the foveal area
(see below for further details). This leads to the
larger eye–hand spans that can be measured
when withdrawing the notation unexpectedly
(Sloboda 1977 ). Sloboda found that meaningful
musico-structural units infl uenced the length of
the eye–hand span. For example, a larger dis-
tance from the next phrase boundary tended to
stretch the eye–hand span; a shorter caused it to
shrink. Hiding a longer piece of music at arbi-
trary points might still allow for cumulative
effects of the previously sight-read material,
whereas the method of briefl y displaying dis-
jointed snippets of information for several hun-
dred milliseconds does not. We know that the
reading context infl uences patterns of fi xation
(Bekkering and Neggers 2002 ). If we consider
that repeated trials lead to better sight-reading
accuracy and that better sight-readers have a
better recall for material after a single trial
(Lehmann and Ericsson 1993 ), we have to con-
sider the effects of long-term working memory
typically found among experts (Ericsson and
Kintsch 1995 ). This privileged access to long-term
memory allows expert readers to store briefl y
presented material in long-term memory with-
out extensive rehearsal.
Inner hearing
Some authors have claimed that inner hearing
and audiation processes may be important in
sight-reading, and independent tests of audia-
tion, imagery, and pattern matching are posi-
tively associated with sight-reading ability
(e.g. Kornicke 1995 ; Waters et al. 1998 ; Kopiez
and Lee 2006 ). These processes would suggest
that the mental representation of music nota-
tion involves the building of melodic and other
expectancies by the performer. Recent electro-
physiological studies have confi rmed this point.
In studies in which listeners followed a visually
presented score that was accompanied by the
corresponding sounds, discrepancies between
the printed score and auditory events resulted in
a recorded mismatch negativity about 150 msec
after the dissociation in the vicinity of Heschl’s
gyrus, where auditory pitch detection is located
(Schon and Besson 2005 ; Yumoto et al. 2005 ).
This means that performers are likely able to
know if their sounds match the score or not.
Whether or not auditory images are used for
planning of movements may depend on the
musician. For example, Banton ( 1995 ) found
that sight-reading without auditory feedback led
to only slightly more mistakes than normal feed-
back; however, omitting visual access to the keys
resulted in markedly poorer performance. A clas-
sic experiment by Allport et al. ( 1972 ) revealed
that pianists could repeat words that were pre-
sented while sight-reading at the piano, which
suggests that auditory feedback is not necessary.
However, it may be used to create expectations.
Sight-reading as
problem-solving
We already mentioned that not all notes can be
focused on and that problem-solving processes
will have to complement the incomplete visual
input. In fact, everyday experiences teach us that
some pieces are able to be sight-read more easily
348 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
than others, which suggests that those processes
may be more or less easily accomplished. Ortmann
in 1934 (cited in Clifton 1986 ) showed with
brief presentation times of stimuli, 400 msec
and 2 sec, respectively, that diatonically organ-
ized music, smaller intervals, and sequences that
were congruent with tonal expectations were
more easily read than others. This suggests—
and this conclusion is backed by much research
in other domains—that we tend to form mean-
ingful units that are infl uenced by our previous
knowledge, and hence, expectations. Kinsler
and Carpenter ( 1995 ) found that repeated ren-
ditions of the same piece were accompanied by
a reduced amount of ocular movements.
Presumably, larger chunks were formed, more
previous knowledge was brought to the task,
and the visual input functioned as a retrieval cue
to a known motor programme (just like playing
well-rehearsed music from notation).
What happens when our expectations are not
met by the printed score? In a clever study
(Sloboda 1976 ), pianists performed a classically
sounding piece of music in which several notes
had been altered by a half or whole step to violate
tonal expectations. These violations were either
introduced in the beginning, middle or the end of
a phrase, and they were evenly distributed across
the left- and right-hand part. Participants were
asked to play exactly what was written. As the
researcher expected, many of the artifi cial altera-
tions were erroneously corrected to sound tonal
again, middle positions being more likely cor-
rected, and a repeated trial led to even more such
corrections. These alterations may be termed
proof-reader’s errors. Sloboda ( 1974 ) asked
music experts to judge mistakes made by sight-
readers with regard to their musical adequacy. In
keeping with our expectations, the errors were
plausible alternatives to or reductions of the writ-
ten music. Expectations are powerful: one can
ask pianists to fi ll in blanks in an unfamiliar piece
while sight-reading it, and they will generate suc-
cessful inferences (i.e. improvise) based solely on
the context of the piece, their stored knowledge,
and current expectations (Lehmann and Ericsson
1996 ). Fine et al. ( 2006 ) showed that singers also
made more mistakes when sight-reading tonally
modifi ed Bach chorals compared to unmodifi ed
ones and that they were also hindered by modi-
fi ed notes in other voices’ parts.
Sight-reading is more than pressing the right
notes at the right time; it also involves adding
musical expression. Although no specifi c studies
have been done so far, we suggest that expression
is added algorithmically according to a likely
grammar of musical expression (e.g. Friberg et al.
2006 ). Most interestingly, merely counting up the
number of correct notes in a sight-reading task
correlates highly with expert ratings of the same
performance (Lehmann and Ericsson 1993 ),
suggesting that better sight-readers integrate
musical expression and correct notes on the fl y.
This may be due to a larger temporal range of
planning. Only when the performer knows what
is ahead can meaningful musical expression be
added (e.g. slowing at the end of a phrase).
In essence, problem-solving or reconstructive
processes during sight-reading are considerable
if we consider how few fi xations are available and
how much material needs to be covered.
Obviously, those processes function more effec-
tively in better sight-readers. While plausible
expectations are constantly being constructed
and will usually facilitate performance, in rare
instances they may lead the sight-reader astray
and cause errors that unveil the underlying
mediating processes.
Acquiring the skill
Sight-reading is such a specialized skill that it is
futile to look for specifi c inborn traits that may
cause individual differences in sight-reading
skill. Among musicians observable individual
differences in sight-reading ability are great and
need to be explicated. Several variables have
attracted the interest of researchers: all sorts of
training variables, intelligence, other musical
skills, musical ability, general indicators of
memory, and reading performance.
The most promising predictors so far have
been training variables. Kornicke ( 1995 ) and
Banton ( 1995 ) found that higher self-rated expe-
rience as an accompanist or more regular sight-
reading practice was related to more accurate
sight-reading in the authors’ studies. In Kornicke’s
study, a cumulative index of experience from
several scales correlated reliably (r = 0.4) with
sight-reading achievement. In a regression anal-
ysis the best predictor was the estimated number
of pieces sight-read. Lehmann and Ericsson
Summary · 349
( 1996 ) assessed fi rst, the size of repertoire that
pianists possessed to accompany soloists and
ensembles and second, accumulated duration of
accompanying experience. Both indicators
accounted independently for individual differ-
ences in sight-reading: a larger accompanying
repertoire and more accompanying experience
led to better sight-reading performance under
standardized conditions. One could conclude
from this that experience with the representative
situation (real-time demands, short or no prepa-
ration time, etc.) as well as the knowledge base
acquired through the performance of many
pieces facilitates future performance. In general,
among the participants of the study the experi-
ence as accompanist started a few years after the
onset of piano training. They reported playing
progressively more diffi cult accompanying piano
parts, commensurate with their parallel increase
in pianistic skills. Counter to many musicians’
intuitions, this explains nicely why positive cor-
relations are found between general instrumen-
tal skills and sight-reading at pre-professional
levels (McPherson 1995 , 2005 ).
A similar study on the acquisition of sight-
reading skills included different levels of musical
complexity (Kopiez and Lee 2006 , 2008 ). In
their experiment, subjects sight-read pieces of
fi ve levels of diffi culty. Sight-reading perform-
ance was assessed along with indicators of psy-
chomotor speed (tapping speed, trill speed),
elementary cognitive skills (reaction time, speed
of information processing [number connection
test]), general cognitive skills (tests of short-
term and working memory and general mental
capacity), and expertise-related indicators (inner
hearing, practice times for piano alone and
accompanying, starting ages). The best single
predictors for the overall score across all fi ve lev-
els of diffi culty were trill speed between the third
and fourth fi ngers, sight-reading experience up
to age 15, scores on the number connection test,
and inner hearing (Kopiez and Lee 2008 ). While
those results emphasize the impact of experience
and effi cient perceptual encoding, they also sug-
gest that pianistic abilities play a role. The
authors also analysed their results separately for
the individual levels of complexity (Kopiez and
Lee 2006 , see Figure 32.1 ) and showed convinc-
ingly that performance at different levels of dif-
fi culty was mediated by different combinations
of predictors. Hence, those factors that contrib-
ute to better performance at lower levels of dif-
fi culty may not be the same as those which
mediate superior performance at higher levels.
Many educational studies and reviews have
offered suggestions on how to improve sight-
reading (e.g. Lehmann and McArthur 2002 , pp.
147–148; McPherson 2005 ) and insightful
teachers have developed graded material to train
sight-reading systematically. However, some
advice might be more useful than other: for exam-
ple, training eye movements by rolling your eyes
or similar exercises are certainly futile—you
would simply get better at rolling your eyes.
Rather, young performers should get accus-
tomed to playing their instrument without con-
stantly looking at it (e.g. piano) to free up their
vision to look at the score while still fi nding
their way on the instrument. Performing under
real-time conditions also precludes stuttering,
i.e. stopping at every mistake and correcting it,
but rather ‘faking’ one’s way through the score,
i.e. trying to infer plausible content. This can
only be done if the student has ample experience
with a certain style of music and can build up
suitable expectations about how the music might
continue. It is here also that knowledge of music
theory can be applied. One has to acknowledge
that a stable and deliberate interpretation may
not be possible at fi rst sight but that attending to
dynamic and articulatory signs along with
applying simple rules of expression (e.g. creat-
ing phrase arches of tempo and loudness) will
generate a musically sounding fi rst impression.
Summary
Sight-reading provides a complex problem-
solving situation with an intricate interplay of
bottom-up mechanisms (driven by the input
stimulus of the score and auditory feedback) and
top-down processes (driven by expectations and
cognitions). It is conceivable that limitations on
the general playing of an instrument or a lack of
technical profi ciency exist that may consequen-
tially impact the ability to sight-read: One can
never sight-read beyond the level of rehearsed
performance, but how close to it one sight-reads
seems to be very much a matter of training.
Sight-reading ability at lower skill levels may
partly emerge from general instrumental skill
350 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
increase whereas expert sight-reading necessi-
tates extensive deliberate efforts to improve per-
formance. By engaging in many hours of related
experience, for example as an accompanist (in
the case of pianists), sight-readers develop par-
ticular cognitive adaptations, such as effi cient
encoding, building of expectations and plausi-
ble inferencing, and memory skills. These help
them cope with the real-time demands of recon-
structing on the fly the score along with a
preliminary expressive interpretation.
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