An Analysis of Rhythmic Elements in Sight Reading Exercises for Intermediate Piano Learners

Abstract

Sight-reading is the ability to read and play music at first sight, it is an important basic skill for musicians and is one of the components used to assess musical skills. For many music students, recurring mistakes are often caused by a misunderstanding of rhythmic components. Thus, the purposes of this research were to analyze and compare the rhythmic components from the Trinity and ABRSM sight-reading exercises for intermediate level learners (Grade 4 and 5) in four areas, consisting of 1) note value, 2) meter, 3) tempo, and 4) rhythm patterns, in order to better prepare students for the sight-reading test of these and other music examinations. The results revealed that the sight-reading exercises of both the Trinity and ABRSM shared fundamental components of rhythm with each other. However, the ABRSM sight-reading exercises seem to have a wider variety of uses for rhythmic symbols, despite a rather low frequency of use, that students need to understand in order to perform properly.