Presented by Erica Sipes, Radford University
Erica Sipes, pianist, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music. She currently serves on the faculty of Radford University as a collaborative pianist. Previously, she has freelanced as a piano collaborator and coach in Michigan, Idaho, and Virginia. She has also performed with the Roanoke Symphony on occasion and has performed as a piano soloist with the New River Valley Symphony. In the summer of 2012 Ms. Sipes officially launched her own business as a practice coach, offering coaching, workshops, planning sessions, and practice boot-camps for anyone that could use some help with practicing. She is also a prominent blogger, writing frequently about her views on performing, learning music, and the classical music world in general. Her blog, “Beyond the Notes” can be found here.
Going Beyond Sight-Reading Myths
After teaching piano sight-reading to piano majors at Eastman as a graduate student and spending years researching the topic, Erica has come to some important conclusions regarding how best to approach the topic. Going beyond the myths, she firmly believes that the skills that go into sight-reading music well aren’t usually focused on. Even more importantly, the same skills she encourages teachers and musicians to add into the mix improves anyone’s approach to learning any type of music and instrument, not just one’s sight-reading skills.
To get a glimpse of her sight-reading tricks and tips, drop in on one of her Sight-reading Maverick shows which stream on her YouTube channel most Sunday afternoons at 1pm. Or you can watch over 100 previously streamed episodes at any time by clicking on the Sightreading Videos playlist there.