Sight reading
Read one note at a time and name it. Start on the treble clef, add the bass clef, then mix both on the grand staff. Small steps, one note at a time.
Clef reference
Treble clef (𝄞) — right hand / higher notes
- Lines (bottom → top): E G B D F — “Every Good Boy Does Fine”.
- Spaces (bottom → top): F A C E — spells “FACE”.
- Middle C sits on a short ledger line just below the staff.
Bass clef (𝄢) — left hand / lower notes
- Lines (bottom → top): G B D F A — “Good Boys Do Fine Always”.
- Spaces (bottom → top): A C E G — “All Cows Eat Grass”.
- Middle C sits on a short ledger line just above the staff.
Reading the Italian: dynamics & tempo
Beyond the notes, sheet music borrows Italian words to say how loud and how fast to play — including the very same piano (soft) and forte (loud) that named the instrument. These are the ones you'll meet first.
| Mark | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pp | pianissimo | very soft |
| p | piano | soft |
| mp | mezzo-piano | medium soft |
| mf | mezzo-forte | medium loud |
| f | forte | loud |
| ff | fortissimo | very loud |
| < | crescendo | gradually louder |
| > | diminuendo | gradually softer |
Tempo — speed, slow to fast:
| Term | Rough BPM | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Largo | 40–60 | broad, very slow |
| Adagio | 66–76 | slow, at ease |
| Andante | 76–108 | a “walking” pace |
| Moderato | 108–120 | moderate |
| Allegro | 120–168 | fast, cheerful |
| Presto | 168–200 | very fast |
Two more you'll see everywhere: legato (smooth, notes connected) and staccato (short, detached). Set the pinned metronome below to any of these BPMs to feel the difference.
Lessons
Work through them in order. Each lesson unlocks the next once you get 23 of your last 25 correct (90%) in the drill below — the progress bar shows how close you are. Locked lessons show 🔒; finished ones show ✓.
Drill
What note is this?
Score 0/0 · streak 0 · best 0
Answer by playing (optional)
Connect a real instrument and answer by playing the note you read — the real sight-reading skill. On a computer, Chrome or Edge support USB MIDI. On iPad, use the microphone (or tap answers on screen). MIDI is exact; the microphone hears an acoustic piano one note at a time. Octave doesn't matter — the letter does.
Not connected.
Hanon — read the sheet music (all 60 exercises)
Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist (1873, public domain) is 60 finger exercises in three parts. Because the patterns are simple and repetitive, they are perfect sight-reading fuel: your eyes learn to track stepwise motion, read both clefs at once, and recognise the finger patterns that recur in real music. Read a beat ahead of your hands, keep your eyes on the page (not the keys), and start slow — Hanon marks the metronome at 60, rising toward 108 only once every note is clean.
Read the score · all 60 exercises
The complete engraved score on the grand staff. Pick a part and scroll through to read — each exercise climbs and returns, both hands moving together.
Can't see the score above? Open the current part in a new tab. Part I: independence & strength · Part II: scales, arpeggios & broken chords · Part III: running octaves, repeated notes, trills & tremolos. Music is public domain (Hanon, 1873).
Hear each exercise & play it in other keys
The score above is enough to read from. To also hear an exercise or read it transposed to another key, open it on hanon-online.com. Part I links:
Parts II & III (audio + other keys):
Download the scores
- Part I (Nos. 1–20) · Part II (21–43) · Part III (44–60) — the complete set, bundled here.
- Part I (alternate engraving) — Mutopia Project, typeset with LilyPond (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- On IMSLP & hanon-online.com (all keys, with audio).
The music is public domain (Hanon, 1873). The alternate Part I engraving is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.