I would like to improve my sight-reading (classical piano). This and this alone is the reason why I decided to study harmony, because I realized that integrating reading efforts with a basic knowledge of harmony will make the reading itself faster and more efficient. I repeat, I do not want to compose music, I only want to decrease the time spent on "roughing out" scores, to quickly reach the phase where "I start listening to myself." Which is then the point from which true study begins.
It might seem strange, but from when I was a boy until today, I have read a huge amount of pieces, even quite challenging ones, without studying harmony and without basics of analysis. I realize how much time I would have saved if....
Out of frustration, I am decreasing the hours dedicated to study; the roughing-out time (the "dirty work") is becoming increasingly intolerably long.
I have tried harmony books such as Pozzoli's Method or even Schoenberg's Manual of Harmony, with discouraging results; I cannot apply the notions to reading.
Surely I would need a teacher.
Can you give me some tips? Perhaps some online courses?
I am responding late. Perhaps the answer belongs to Frank, a talented composer. I am just giving my opinion. Harmony certainly helps us understand what has passed and to consider in real time what we are reading. We pianists do complementary harmony precisely for this reason. Without compositional pretensions, while studying a Beethoven sonata, one immerses oneself in the modulations and enters and exits solutions that would be difficult to remember without references. Naturally, the most aggressive readers, the best ones, read with great speed and perhaps little analysis, but perhaps that is not actually true. In the 70s, I took an advanced course in Como with Bruno Canino. During the lessons, a flautist who was going to play a concerto with him that evening peeked into the room. Canino asked him which program he wanted to play. They agreed to have a rehearsal at 6:30 PM. The concert was at 9:00 PM!!!!! An extraordinary reader. I wonder if he analyzed while reading so rapidly?
One of my teachers used to maintain that those who read well at sight analyze little. Analysis, when carried out in a practical way, instead serves to understand what the Author's deep idea is, the one that truly helps comprehension during listening. Therefore, I believe it is worthwhile to enter into the Music immediately, even if overlooking the precision of some difficult passages, because the Music immediately suggests the path to construct the piece. I have also said several times that it is not advisable to play excessively slowly, "distorting" the piece! For fast passages, it would be appropriate to study them with a stop on the beat or the measure, with and without repetition (see my other posts on the subject). The advantage will be seeing immediately which gestures are necessary in performance and working between one stop and another, either for articulations or for phrases; it will be a quick way to acquire the piece directly at the right speed. The Maestro will supervise movement, clarity, correct rhythms, correct accents, etc., and will suggest to the student what "not to do" (not, as often happens, what they should do, i.e., "do as I do").
Being a graduate in composition (Bachelor's and Master's), I had the fortune of studying score reading with Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli (Arturo's nephew); I can assure you that the study of harmony (perhaps saying it is just 'complementary' is a bit of an understatement) helps significantly with sight-reading, but one must practice a lot, reading new music from every era and style every day (this is also a very beautiful thing for building a varied musical culture).
Harmony helps to understand the path being taken and to better comprehend what one is reading, and it trains you not to stop because it suggests extemporaneous solutions that allow you to avoid starting over from the beginning.
