The primary goal of this book is to train the ability to read music for piano without being dependent on finger numbers being provided, such as what one would find in a 'Piano-Vocal-Guitar' book - which is the majority of song books for Pop, Rock, R&B, Country, and so on (for example: Elton John, The Beatles, and Taylor Swift, etc.).
Instructions and preview are available at the Robert Anthony Publishing website. Each volume is comprised of 300 progressive eight-bar exercises that train reading skills for both hands equally: Half of the pieces emphasize the right hand, the other half emphasize the left. There are currently three volumes available, and are linked on the Robert Anthony Music website. The 'Large Print' editions contain the same music as the 'Standard Print' versions: 300 Progressive Sight Reading Exercises. For printing and electronic delivery purposes, the large print editions needed to be released in two parts - each containing 150 of the exercises. Part 1 is comprised of exercises 1-150, and Part 2 is comprised of exercises 151-300. Finger numbers have been included for a small portion of the pieces from the first volume, only to provide examples of correct fingering. That said, there is more than one correct fingering for nearly every piece of music - in this book, or any other. Be sure to study the pages on scales provided on the Robert Anthony Publishing website if you do not already know all of the Major scales with the correct right and left hand fingerings. The pieces are in matched pairs, mostly using invertible counterpoint. If your bass clef reading is weak, you can use the version with the primary melody in treble clef to help you (or vice versa). This is precisely why this book works so well with my own students who previously had struggled with one of the clefs. Additionally, while the melodies and rhythms are the same for the matched pairs, the fingerings are entirely different, therefore providing each with its individual challenges; thus the exercises being separate. The music in these books has been composed to be difficult to memorize. Inconvenient interval skips, modal music, set theory, and some atonal passages are used throughout the book after the basic 'C Position has been established. These might be uncomfortable for a beginning musician's ears, but surely any 'professional' music teacher will be able to recognize what they are hearing. This most recent update includes a new cover design so that the 'Large Print' and 'Standard Print' versions are no longer confused for one another. While this book is intended to train sight-reading and aural skills, it may be used by beginners or those new to reading music to acquire basic reading skills. It starts at a very easy level and gradually introduces a new note, rhythm, or concept, and thoroughly reinforces them throughout the rest of the book. Instructional Videos will be posted below the standard-print versions of these books on the Robert Anthony Publishing website.
