Opinion · Inside Hong Kong classrooms
Sight-reading is a tool. Give students a reason to use it.
Sight-reading repays a player at the exact moment time is scarce. An accompanist can receive a part at rehearsal and keep the others moving. A teacher can read through a new piece with a child deciding whether it sounds fun. The ability deserves more interesting work than a once-a-week short excerpt with an artificial countdown.
Use a genuine handoff. Give two players different parts to a short duet. First, each scans for pulse, range and repeats. Then they read it through without stopping, leaving notes out if necessary. Afterward, they mark the points where the ensemble actually broke. Usually the useful question is whether they made it to the next downbeat together. A private tally of wrong notes can wait.
ABRSM Practical Piano includes sight-reading because there is a case for testing how a player deals with unfamiliar music. The richer lesson is what happens after the read. One player changes two bars and writes the change down for the other. Can the other player follow the revised part?
Notation becomes a favour you do for a musician who has not heard what you heard. Give a student that job and the page might start to feel useful.