Excellent learning tool.
It's definitely geared toward someone who takes learning music seriously. And as an added bonus, you don't have to pay a continual indentured subscription fee to use it - like 99% of the apps on the App Store.
Instructions please
Very poor instructions for someone new to all this!
Can’t buy new levels
Great idea but only 2 stars. I really enjoyed playing through the first 2 days and tried to buy level 1. After being told that my purchase was successful I can’t see the rest of the level. Is this a glitch or daylight robbery?
Just needs a bit more polish
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)
*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)
Great idea, awful implementation
Exercises disappear maybe a third of the time, have to kill and restart several times to get them back. Unable to reset progress and start a section again, have to keep bouncing back to the pick a day screen. Shame, it seems like a great way to improve sight reading but basically unusable.
Idea may be good but app not working
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.
Response from developer
If you swipe down from the upper right corner of the screen to get to the control panel, you will see the bell icon. It is probably red, which means the audio is muted. Tap this and you should be good to go. For some reason, the video bypasses this.
Nice concept, incomplete implementation
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!
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Response from developer
I'm glad you approve of the pedagogy since this is the single most important aspect of the app. Good pedagogy includes learning to hear your own wrong notes rather than relying on a machine to point them out to you. That’s why we added the recording feature. Everyone makes mistakes when sight-reading, and no one should be graded or scored on these normal inaccuracies. On the contrary, the ability to keep going, simplify, and improvise when sight-reading should be encouraged and rewarded.
Metronome doesn’t work
I can’t hear the metronome in my iPad. Can this be fixed?
Excellent resource for private and group instruction
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 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.
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Doesn’t assess performance
The app is a brilliant idea - however it didn’t assess how well I performed the tasks set. I thought with the tech of today it would have heard my efforts and graded it in some way....
Some functions don’t work
Hard to judge from a couple of weeks use (starting from prelim), but the pace of the lowest levels seems too fast. Would have liked more exercises. These levels are 5-finger jobs: if you haven’t spent a lot of time with 5-finger exercises (for young kids, mostly) or you’re used to reading note-names/values rather than the intervals within the 5-finger span you’ll have to try to start over.
The introduction of two staves w/ two ‘voices’ playing independently is sort of early and sudden in Level 1. Feel like I could have used more practice reading ahead before having to check intervals on two staves even at the ‘easy’ tempo.
I knocked off one star because, on my iPad Pro, none of the ‘Tapping’ exercises works reliably. There’s a blunt knocking sound but the tap hardly ever registers no matter how often I try. Contacted the developers but no response/acknowledgement.
The introduction of two staves w/ two ‘voices’ playing independently is sort of early and sudden in Level 1. Feel like I could have used more practice reading ahead before having to check intervals on two staves even at the ‘easy’ tempo.
I knocked off one star because, on my iPad Pro, none of the ‘Tapping’ exercises works reliably. There’s a blunt knocking sound but the tap hardly ever registers no matter how often I try. Contacted the developers but no response/acknowledgement.
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Just so useful
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!
Great app for improving sight reading
Well thought through approach for learning sight reading, finding it very useful so far.
June 1 2020 release has problems
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.
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Not bad, but buggy and limited
It’s ok, but full of bugs.
Response from developer
Sorry about the new bugs. An update has been submitted to the App Store.
Great concept, app can be buggy
Love this app. Since updating and purchasing level 1, it randomly cuts back to the intro page “let’s go” and sometimes the activities are invisible. Currently impossible to use, hopefully will be fixed
Quietly amazing app.
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!
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!
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Response from developer
We are so glad you are finding Read Ahead Useful. We really chose to focus our limited resources on content and pedagogy over gimmicky features and distracting graphics so it is great to hear that it is appreciated!
Buggy since patch 5.1.3
App was working great for me on iPad Air. Since patch 5.1.3 where they made the levels free, there has been lots of formatting issues which results me not being able to start some levels at all.
Please fix!
Please fix!
Great, but buggy
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!
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Latest update is much improved
Third review! The latest update of Read Ahead makes it far better. The layout issues are all but gone and it is far more usable. There is still a glitch with sound that means for me I can hear the metronome through headphones but not the iPad speaker. I have worked around this by using a Bluetooth speaker and that solves the problem. I love the disappearing music that forces you to read ahead, my biggest weakness in sight reading. Many thanks to Travis for engaging with me and making some significant improvements. Keep at it, it’s a really good idea and a much improved app.
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