Sight reading training builds your ability to look at a note on the staff and read its name (Do, Re, Mi…) quickly and accurately. Reading the staff is the foundation for turning a score into music, and the starting point for playing any instrument.
This page is a manual for choosing the settings. Each setting is designed around established methods from music education. For each setting that calls for a decision, we give the recommended choice, what it is for, and what it trains — with the evidence behind it. If you arrived from a "?" in the settings screen, scroll to the option you need.
Difficulty
When unsure, start at Beginner. Step up one level once you reliably hold 80%+ at the current one.
Bundles together the range of notes you'll be asked to read — the register, the key signatures, and whether ledger lines appear. A narrower register with fewer symbols is easier; a wider one with more symbols is harder.
The narrower the range you handle at once, the less your eyes must process, and the more reliably you fix which note sits on each line and space. Sight reading hinges on instant recall, so securing a narrow range before widening it gets you there faster. The tiers follow cognitive-load theory: keeping processing demands low early in a new skill aids learning.
Ref.: Sweller (1988) [1]
Training Mode
Standard is enough to start. Use Key Focus only to target a specific key signature, and reach for "Weak Point Focus" once your results accumulate.
This setting decides the policy by which notes are chosen for you. There are three modes.
The remaining mode — "Weak Point Focus" — pays off once your performance data accumulates. It works the same way across every training, so it appears inline below.
Weak-Point Focus Mode
Weak-point focus looks at your answer history, identifies the items with the lowest accuracy, and serves those to you more often. Instead of spending time on what you already answer reliably, it concentrates practice on exactly the places you keep missing. The app picks the targets automatically from your own results.
This mode suits the stage where your overall accuracy is climbing but a specific few items still trip you up every time. Because it keeps returning to your weak spots, it feels harder — and that controlled extra effort is precisely where the learning happens (the principle of desirable difficulties). It needs enough answer history before candidates appear, so play the normal mode for a while first.
When in doubt, drop in for a few concentrated sessions whenever you plateau at a given level and feel you "keep losing the same handful of items right before it would stabilize." Once the weak spots clear, return to the normal mode to keep your overall balance. Deliberately making yourself retrieve the items you tend to miss — the "testing effect" — was shown by Roediger & Karpicke (2006) to strongly benefit later retention.
The three modes exist to concentrate practice on the notes you currently need. The quiz format itself — recalling the answer rather than just looking — strengthens memory more than passive viewing (the testing effect). "Weak Point Focus" automates this using your performance data.
Ref.: Roediger & Karpicke (2006) [2]
Clef (Treble / Bass)
Start with the clef your instrument uses. Treble for guitar and voice, Bass for bass; pianists stabilize each clef before moving to Both.
The clef is the symbol at the left edge of the staff that fixes which line is which pitch. The same spot names an entirely different note depending on whether the clef is treble or bass.
Because each clef maps pitches differently, treble and bass must be acquired as separate systems. Securing one clef before adding the other is the established sequence in sight-reading instruction. Handling both builds the essential performing habit of checking the leading clef before you read.
Ref.: Karpinski (2000) [3]
Key to Practice (Key Signature)
When a specific key signature trips you up, narrow to just that one. Otherwise, meet a variety of keys in Standard mode.
Pins the questions to one key, shown only when you pick Key Focus as the training mode. A key signature — the sharps or flats at the left of the staff — defines which notes are altered (e.g. G major has one sharp, E-flat major three flats). The selectable keys follow your difficulty: only C major at Beginner, up to three accidentals at Intermediate, all twelve keys at Advanced.
Narrowing to one key concentrates attention on that signature's recurring pattern — "this note is always sharp here" — so it sinks in. Reading by way of the key signature is an established approach in sight-reading instruction, helping you internalize each key's layout of pitches.
Ref.: Karpinski (2000) [3]
Include Ledger Lines (Ledger Lines)
Leave it off at first to secure the in-staff notes, then add ledger lines once stable. Note that the Advanced difficulty includes them automatically.
Controls whether ledger lines — the short helper lines added above or below the staff — appear. Pitches too high or low for the five lines are written by adding lines one at a time (e.g. Middle C, C4, sits on one ledger line below the treble staff). Counting these positions takes time and is a common stumbling point, but ledger-line notes are everywhere in real scores, so they are unavoidable in the long run.
Turning ledger lines off at first lowers the reading load by limiting how much you must process at once. Mixing them in before the foundation is set piles on position-counting and tends to cause confusion. Securing the in-staff notes before adding ledger lines keeps the early load low and aids learning — in line with cognitive-load theory, which holds that processing demands should stay low early in a new skill.
Ref.: Sweller (1988) [1]
- Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
- Karpinski, G. S. (2000). Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians. Oxford University Press.