Piano sight-reading training
NEW: Timed Performance ModeStop decoding notes.Start reading music in real time.
Sight-reading is not knowing what a note is.
It is seeing what comes next, recognizing the pattern, finding it on the keyboard, and staying in time—even when you make a mistake.
SightReadingTraining builds that skill for pianists: music you have never seen, a metronome that never waits, and feedback that shows you exactly what is holding you back.
No account needed for the test. No credit card required.
Free forever in C major and A minor. Pro unlocks all 30 keys, eye-hand span training, and your full skill profile for $2.99/month.
A real drill, playing itself
Why practice isn’t translating into fluency
Naming notes is not sight-reading.
Most piano sight-reading apps show you an isolated note and wait until you identify it.
But music does not wait.
The beat continues. Both hands move. Patterns unfold. Your eyes must stay ahead. And when something goes wrong, you have to recover without stopping.
Knowing that a note is F may help.
Being able to play the next two measures accurately, musically, and in time is the skill you actually want.
Every exercise here has a real key, meter, tempo, rhythm, and harmonic structure. You preview it, play it once, and get a precise diagnosis of what slowed you down.
How fluent pianists actually read
Train the five habits that turn notation into music.
Fluent readers are not identifying every symbol one at a time. They use a set of connected skills that ordinary note drills rarely train.
Recognize patterns instead of individual notes
Experienced pianists see a scale, arpeggio, chord shape, or sequence—not a collection of unrelated dots.
Every exercise is built from real musical patterns and chord progressions, so you learn to recognize familiar shapes instead of calculating each note from scratch.
Keep your eyes ahead of your hands
Fluent readers are already processing what comes next while their hands play the current beat.
Vanishing Score training hides the music before you reach it, forcing your eyes to read ahead. Set the lead anywhere from half a beat to two full bars.
Protect the pulse
A missed note does not have to destroy the performance.
The metronome never pauses, and scoring rewards continuity and rhythm instead of encouraging you to stop and hunt for perfect notes—the same survival skill performers use when a passage goes wrong.
Anticipate what comes next
Because phrases follow recognizable harmonic patterns, skilled readers sense where the music is going before every note appears.
Exercises use functional progressions, cadences, and turnarounds, so you gradually learn to expect the music instead of merely reacting to it.
Prepare before the first note
Strong sight-readers use the preview deliberately: key, meter, tempo, hand position, rhythmic hazards, repeated patterns, overall shape.
Each session gives you a guided preview and countdown until that routine becomes automatic.
One short session. One clear improvement.
See it. Play it. Fix what held you back.
Preview
A brand-new phrase appears with its key, meter, and tempo.
Use the countdown to scan for hand position, rhythm, patterns, difficult leaps, and overall shape.
Play it once
After the count-in, the music begins and the metronome keeps moving.
No red notes, no interruptions. Miss something, recover, and continue.
Get your diagnosis
Not one vague accuracy percentage, but:
- →Your biggest bottleneck
- →A secondary issue
- →The strongest part of your performance
- →The specific drill to practise next
Then a completely new phrase, because replaying familiar music tests memory.
Feedback built for performance
A score that rewards musicianship—not hesitation.
Most apps reward stopping until every note is correct.
That creates the exact habit sight-readers need to eliminate.
A slightly imperfect note played in time is worth more than the correct note played after the music has already moved on.
Did your notes land at the right time?
Did you play the intended notes?
Did you keep moving through the passage?
Did you preserve the important beats and musical shape?
How quickly did you rejoin after a mistake?
A score that reflects how well you performed the music—not how many keys you eventually found.
Know what to practise next
Do not settle for a percentage.
“78%” does not tell you how to improve.
A useful diagnosis does.
Bass-clef recognition
You played 91% of treble-clef notes correctly, but only 58% of bass-clef notes.
Isolate bass-clef recognition.
Larger intervals
Four of your six leaps beyond a third were incorrect.
Train interval distance, not note names.
Continuity
Five pitch mistakes, but you continued through the whole passage without losing the beat.
You recover well and protect the flow.
Your skill profile updates across eight dimensions, and your next exercise targets the weakest one while simplifying everything else.
You always know what to work on—and why.
Use the instrument you already have
Practise anywhere.
MIDI keyboard
Connect over USB for near-zero latency and trustworthy rhythm scoring. Web MIDI works in Chrome and Edge.
Acoustic or digital piano
Play your real instrument and let your microphone detect the notes. Pitch analysis happens entirely inside your browser—your audio is never uploaded or stored.
On-screen keyboard
No instrument nearby? Use the interactive keyboard on your phone, tablet, or computer.
Built for pianists who can play—but cannot yet read fluently
Is sight-reading the skill holding you back?
Self-taught pianists
You play by ear or from memory, but an unfamiliar score still feels painfully slow. Turn reading into a reflex with focused ten-minute sessions.
Exam candidates
Sight-reading exams give you unfamiliar music, limited preview time, and one attempt. Train in exactly that format before test day.
Returning pianists
You used to read comfortably, but years away from the instrument weakened the link between the page and your hands. Rebuild it with exercises aimed at the skills that faded most.
Piano teachers
Choose the key, meter, range, rhythm level, and difficulty to match your lesson. Every attempt creates new material, so students improve their reading instead of memorizing the exercise.
Simple, affordable training
Build a lifelong musical skill for $2.99 a month.
The free plan includes genuine timed sight-reading practice in C major and A minor.
Upgrade to Pro to unlock:
- ✓All 30 major and minor keys
- ✓Longer musical phrases
- ✓More advanced rhythms
- ✓Wider note ranges
- ✓Eye-hand span training
- ✓Your complete skill profile
- ✓Personalized drill recommendations
Free reading guides
Learn what fluent readers do differently.
No account needed. Practical guides on diagnosing what is actually holding your reading back, and what to practise once you know.
Browse all guidesYou do not need another note-naming game
Find out what is really slowing down your sight-reading.
Take the four-bar test.
Music you have never seen, played once, with a clear breakdown of your rhythm, pitch, continuity, structure, and recovery. It takes about a minute.
No account required. No credit card. Just four bars and an honest diagnosis.