Sight-Reading in Piano Lessons: Insights from teachers' and students' perspectives
Kallio, Anlin (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060721414
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060721414
Tiivistelmä
Sight-reading can be considered one of the building blocks of musicianship. It is a familiar subject for every musician, each of whom have varying opinions and experiences about it. This thesis focuses on the contemporary approaches towards sight-reading in piano lessons in Finland. The need for consid-eration of diverse learners in the subject matter was highlighted along with sustainability in lifelong learning regarding sight-reading for young students. The impact that technological advancement might have on the students in the near future was considered along with some alternatives to sight-reading currently in use.
Musicians have been sight-reading and teaching it in music lessons for many centuries, through many changes in society. Opinions and methods have changed and developed drastically over the years, shaped by new revelations such as the significance of teachers’ support in the achievement of their students. Understanding how that ties in with new findings about diverse learners have resulted in a slow shift in how lessons are conducted. The pedagogical approaches today are therefore significantly more student-centered compared to decades ago. This thesis aims to gain an insight into the current attitudes and practices regarding sight-reading in piano lessons by uncovering the opinions of both teachers and students.
By describing and analyzing the perceptions of the parties involved, namely the teachers and students, this study hopes to present an insight into sight-reading practices in piano lessons via the phenomeno-logical approach. The data was collected via online questionnaires for both teachers and students, then coded into 6 categories, where possible, to extrapolate for comparison in similarities, differences and patterns regarding opinions of sight-reading in piano lessons. The 6 categories are: Playing, listening, technique, improvising, theory and sight-reading.
The findings reveal that there appear to be a shift in attitudes generally, with teachers regarding sight-reading as less important while students regard sight-reading as important. It is also worth noting that some training regarding diverse learners, with or without special needs, will benefit music teachers to-day in their pedagogical pursuits.
Musicians have been sight-reading and teaching it in music lessons for many centuries, through many changes in society. Opinions and methods have changed and developed drastically over the years, shaped by new revelations such as the significance of teachers’ support in the achievement of their students. Understanding how that ties in with new findings about diverse learners have resulted in a slow shift in how lessons are conducted. The pedagogical approaches today are therefore significantly more student-centered compared to decades ago. This thesis aims to gain an insight into the current attitudes and practices regarding sight-reading in piano lessons by uncovering the opinions of both teachers and students.
By describing and analyzing the perceptions of the parties involved, namely the teachers and students, this study hopes to present an insight into sight-reading practices in piano lessons via the phenomeno-logical approach. The data was collected via online questionnaires for both teachers and students, then coded into 6 categories, where possible, to extrapolate for comparison in similarities, differences and patterns regarding opinions of sight-reading in piano lessons. The 6 categories are: Playing, listening, technique, improvising, theory and sight-reading.
The findings reveal that there appear to be a shift in attitudes generally, with teachers regarding sight-reading as less important while students regard sight-reading as important. It is also worth noting that some training regarding diverse learners, with or without special needs, will benefit music teachers to-day in their pedagogical pursuits.