Sightreading

Mary and I were talking about the difference between decoding and comprehension. Miles' decoding & vocab are great but comprehension isn't as good, so we'll work on that. Mary came up with a very good analogy - I can sightread just about anything (although I'm getting pretty rusty) but that's certainly not the same as understanding the piece and truly playing it in a way that communicates something to a listener (singular! At most my audience is made up of a few kids who yell at me to play something spooky or something "ballet").

I thought about how much more I could've gotten out of piano when I was immersed in it but instead I often just sightread my way through. I don't want our kids to experience life like that. I don't want them to experience areas of thought or practice or relationships like that. I want to build a foundation for a life full of deep awareness of what's possible when you devote time and energy to what matters to you.

I think that means I've got to stop sightreading.