Read Music FAST!
The fastest way to read notes on a piano score
Sight reading is one of the hardest aspects of learning to play the piano, and it's universally badly taught. This course uses a unique method to teach you how to read any note on the piano keyboard quickly and easily, so that you can then tackle any piano course with confidence. It will also help if you've already started learning piano but are struggling to read the notes (e.g in the bass clef).
5 problems with the traditional method
Traditionally, students have been taught mnemonics to remember what note falls on every single line and space of the 2 clefs, e.g. "Every Good Boys Deserves Favour" for the lines of the treble clef (E, G, B, D, F). This has several problems:
- It's a lot to remember. You have to memorise 4 phrases ("Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", "F-A-C-E", "Good Boys Deserve Favour Always", and "All Cows Eat Grass"), and then remember when to apply them, which doesn't follow any logical pattern.
- It's slow, because you have to recite a phrase every time you want to play a note.
- It's language-based rather than visual, and yet sight reading is a visual skill! It makes you translate every note on the page into a note name and then translate that note name into a note on the piano, but there are no note names on the page and no note names on the piano so you should just be able to see a note and then play it.
- It doesn't tell you which note to play, it just tells you its note name. For example, "Good Boys Deserve Favour Always" might tell you that the note you're looking at is an F, but it doesn't tell you which F it is, and there are 8 on the piano!
- It doesn't even teach you all of the notes you're likely to play. What about Middle C, or D, or B, which are all in between the clefs? What if you go above the top of the treble clef, or below the bottom of the bass clef (both of which are really common)? The mnemonics won't help you.
Why my method is better...

5 reasons why my method is better
- There's less to remember. You'll just learn where the signs for the treble and bass clef came from, and how that helps you recognise the notes.
- It's faster. By the end of the course you'll be able to see a note and just play it, without reciting anything.
- It's visual. I use pictures and colour-coding to help you recognise notes.
- It's specific. My method not only tells you that you should be playing, e.g., and F, it also tells you which F to play. However, most of the time you won't even be conscious of the name of the note you're playing, you'll just play it.
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It covers 211% more notes. It teaches you how to read 32 white notes quickly and easily, whereas the traditional method only teaches you how to read 18 slowly. Plus I'll also teach you and test you on the black notes, which comprise another 24 notes, a total of 211% more (14 white + 24 black notes).
This course will not only save you a ton of time, it'll also make you feel better about an area of music that a lot of people feel that they're "bad" at because they've been badly taught. (That's not the teachers' fault, it's just that no-one's come up with a really good method of teaching sight reading before.) And if you're not convinced you can always take advantage of my 30-day no-questions-asked money back guarantee.

So how does it work?
I'll teach you 9 "reference" notes in a visual and intuitive way, using HD videos with an overhead shot of my piano and lots of graphics. After each video I'll then test you on what you've just learned using interactive tests specially made for this course, which intelligently keep track of which notes you're finding difficult so that they can test you on those more. (I've also thrown in a mini-course on the best way to learn the note names, in case you're a complete beginner and don't know them yet.)
All of these techniques have been developed over the course of 10 years of teaching, and have been tried and tested them on hundreds of students. One of them said that my sight reading method was "so easy a monkey could learn it".
Whenever students have asked to recommend any good beginner resources, whether online or in book form, I've always been stuck because I've never found anything really good, despite looking, so I'm thrilled to finally be putting this online.
What this course isn't
This is a note-reading course rather than a complete sight reading course - it's designed to kickstart your sight reading rather than teach you how to sight read complete pieces of music. So, for that reason:
- it doesn't teach you about rhythm,
- it doesn't teach you about key signatures, and
- it doesn't get you to sight read any complete pieces of music.
This course just does one thing and it does it really well: it teaches you how to read individual notes on the piano keyboard. However, no matter what piano course you follow, whether it's online, or from a book, or with a teacher, this course will help you with your sight reading.
One other thing: this course has been designed for and tested on people who are learning the piano or keyboard, not other instruments. It'll probably help if you're learning a non-keyboard instrument, just bear in mind that it wasn't made for you! If you are learning another instrument you can always try the course out and get a refund if it doesn't help.


About me
"The best piano teacher in London" - Lenny Henry
5,000+ 5* tutor reviews
I'm a London-based music coach with over 10 years of teaching experience. Students include signed artists, senior record executives, and other industry professionals. I've also worked as an official transcriber for Beyoncé and Michael Bublé.
In conclusion
I really think my method is the best way to learn how to read notes on a piano score, and I'd love to see this become the new standard way of teaching it, so please try it out, and if you don't like it you can always take advantage of my money-back guarantee.
Best of luck on your musical journey!
Benedict

Curriculum
- 9. The two clefs (7:27)
- 10. How to do the tests (8:36)
- 11. Test #1: The first 2 reference notes
- 12. Top and bottom of the clefs (3:12)
- 13. Test #2: The first 4 reference notes
- 14. Middle C (6:13)
- 15. Test #3: The first 5 reference notes
- 16. Two more C's (2:03)
- 17. Test #4: The first 7 reference notes
- 18. ...and another 2 (3:25)
- 19. Test #5: All 9 reference notes
- 20. Is it a reference note or not? (4:19)
- 21. How to do test #6 (2:16)
- 22. Test #6: Is it a reference note or not?
- 23. Non-reference notes (4:50)
- 24. Test #7: Non-reference notes
- 25. All the white notes (2:33)
- 26. Test #8: All the white notes
- 27. ...and the black ones (4:53)
- 28. Test #9: ...and the black ones
- 29. Closing comments