By Dr. Julie Knerr Hague

Hello! I wanted to share an idea for using the Sight Reading Cards that has had great success in my studio this semester. I noticed that many of my students have phones, and they LOVE THEIR PHONES!

So I decided to offer them the option to audio or video record their Sight Reading Cards at home and text them to me throughout the week. I listen to the text and either text back “Pass” (sometimes with confetti or a smiley face) or give them instructions on how to improve and ask them to text me again. I only do this with students who are competent to work on their Sight Reading Cards at home on their own or have a parent to help them, usually when they are working on Sight Reading Cards Levels 2 and 3.

The benefits of having students text me cards are:

  1. It saves me so much time in the lesson! It takes me literally 5 seconds to listen to the texts and send them a “Pass.” They tend to practice extra to perfect the card, because they want to pass it the first time!
  2. If I assign four cards for them to learn for the week, they can pass a card by text one at a time, rather than practicing all four cards for the entire week to have them all ready for the lesson. They pass a card and move on to the next one.
  3. They love anything that involves their phones!
  4. I get to see and hear their practice situation at home and sometimes say, “Can you ask your parents to get your piano tuned?” or “Can you find a book to sit on that will raise your sitting position by 2 inches?”

Click on the link below to see a recent video of one of the recent Sight Reading Videos I received. My student is playing Card M.4 from Sight Reading Cards Level 3.

Sight Reading Card M.3