Purpose
This document provides a graded, stylistically coherent repertoire ladder for developing piano sight-reading skills, calibrated for a player who can perform Bach two-part inventions but is an early-stage sight reader.
The guiding principle is two levels down: sight-reading material should feel easy enough that attention can be devoted to pulse, harmonic shape, and reading ahead rather than problem-solving.
All material listed here should be: - Read once or twice only - Played without stopping - Approached hands together
Level A: Daily Core (Very Easy, High Yield)
Goal: Build fluency, pulse stability, and vertical awareness.
Chorales & Hymns
- J.S. Bach chorales (any standard edition)
- Protestant hymnals (4-part harmony)
How to read - Hands together - Prioritize soprano + bass - Inner voices only if easily manageable
Why - Clear harmonic rhythm - Predictable cadences - Excellent vertical reading training
Elementary Baroque Dances
- Simple minuets, bourrées, gavottes
- Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (selected easier pieces)
Focus - Meter and dance character - Phrase structure (2+2, 4+4)
Level B: Easy Polyphony (Controlled Counterpoint)
Goal: Develop independence of voices without overload.
Two-Voice Textures
- Bach: easier two-part inventions (very slow tempo)
- Handel keyboard pieces (lighter textures)
- Early contrapuntal teaching pieces (canons, duets)
Rules - Extremely slow tempo - Never isolate hands - If overwhelmed, drop inner notes but keep both voices moving
Level C: Classical Transparency
Goal: Strengthen harmonic prediction and Alberti-bass reading.
Sonatinas
- Clementi: Op. 36 (all movements)
- Kuhlau sonatinas
- Early Haydn keyboard works
What to read for - Bass patterns - Harmonic rhythm - Phrase-level thinking (antecedent/consequent)
Level D: Homophonic Lyric Writing
Goal: Sight-read melody + accompaniment efficiently.
Song and Character Pieces
- Schumann: Album für die Jugend
- Tchaikovsky: Album for the Young
- Simple Romantic lyric pieces
Focus - Melody projection - Accompaniment pattern recognition - Hand balance
Level E: Transitional Challenges (Occasional Use)
Goal: Controlled exposure to difficulty without stress.
Use sparingly: - Easier three-voice Bach textures - Fugue expositions only (subject + answer) - Chorale preludes with simple figuration
Rule - If you start stopping: material is too hard.
What to Avoid (For Now)
- Dense late Romantic textures
- Virtuosic figuration
- Contemporary notation with irregular rhythm
- Anything you “want to perfect”
Sight reading is not repertoire building.
Rotation Strategy
- Keep 3–5 books in active rotation
- Open to random pages
- Never reread the same piece more than twice in a week
Progress Indicators
You are advancing when: - You stop looking at your hands - Cadences feel predictable - Mistakes no longer disrupt pulse - You read phrases instead of notes
Closing Note
At your level, the main bottleneck is not technique or musicianship but visual processing in time.
This repertoire ladder is designed to train that processing without triggering fight-or-flight responses.
Next file:
Bach-centric sight-reading exercises (structured drills designed specifically around contrapuntal thinking).
Say “next” when you’re ready.