Read Ahead Piano Sight Reading

Wishlist: *ability to choose a 2 bar read ahead length *ability to turn pages with a single tap instead of a swipe *eliminate flicker on graphics changes *contemporary examples *open score exercises (open score SATB or similar)

I click to turn on the metronome and .. nothing, total silence (the intro video played just fine). That kind of blows the whole thing… This is on an iPad.

The basic idea of Read Ahead is pedagogically good, forcing you to read ahead & develop confidence in hands & keys. But the app could well include feedback on playing accuracy to be more helpful. I have a MIDI keyboard connected and it is entirely feasible for the app to at least tell wrong notes (other apps do) and perhaps even timing. I don’t think meaningful enhancements like this are being done on it any more. EDIT: (to developer response) Thanks for the response. “Learn to hear your own wrong notes” sounds good. But the app (a) won’t record and playback MIDI which is what my piano feeds my iPad, and (b) won’t play the original correct score either. Or did I miss these functions? Hoping to be constructive & that you find some ideas for improvement!

This app helps develop one of the most important aspects of sight reading, and does so through engaging and well-selected repertoire. I have used the app in group piano settings and student response has been very positive. I will certainly continue to include it in my teaching, and highly recommend it to anyone trying to develop or improve sight reading skills efficiently.

I had been looking for a long time a way to prevent myself from going back to double check notes while attempting to sight read. This app does the trick for me. I love it!

After updating as required at the end of the open access period, I find the that timing and navigation are off. For example, it seems that there is a fixed time to finish a song and then the app goes to the next page. Sometimes an activities (songs) cannot be finished unless the fastest metronome setting is used so that it can be completed in the time given. Hopefully this can be fixed in a quick bug fix release. I’m sure this is not the intended behavior.

It’s ok, but full of bugs.

This app might not look as fancy as many of the other ones on the app store right now, but after downloading ten different sight reading apps and trying them all over the past week, this one is easily my favorite. You can tell this app was made by people actually trying to help others learn music. It's extrmely methodical, and its main "gimmick," erasing the measure you're currently supposed to be playing, is genius, and *forces* you to sight read ahead of where you're playing, whether you want to or not! Fantastic learning tool. My sight reading is improving significantly already. My thanks to the authors. The whole app is currently free until June because of Covid-19, but I'll still be purchasing to support such a helpful learning tool. Being able to sight read is a priceless gift to me!

Love the concept and design of this and would definitely like to use it with my students, but have noticed some issues that will make it difficult, like lag or inconsistency in the way the disappearing measures advance, particularly across page turns and repeats. Occasionally have had whole pages of music disappear then reappear as the counter advances. Also had the metronome get stuck on the tempo setting page, then when I advanced to the sight reading page, there was a second metronome for that, causing two unsynchronized clicks. If these bugs can be sorted, this would be a really awesome teaching tool!

This is a great app but currently on the 10.5” iPads (current air and past pro models) the buttons on most “read ahead” exercises are cut off at the bottom of the screen. In this way you can’t actually get to the most important parts of this app. I reached out to the developers and was told that they are working on an update to address this issue. Fingers crossed this can be resolved soon. I had used this app on an iPad Mini before and think it is a fantastic use of the iPad for sight reading.