Built by hand, in London.
SightReader started with Bret Cameron, a software engineer who came back to the piano as an adult and couldn’t find a tool that took sight reading seriously. We’re independent, and we answer our own email — whoever reads your message is close enough to the code to fix what you report.
Why sight reading
I could learn a piece if I sat with it long enough. What I couldn’t do was open a book at a page I’d never seen and play it. That’s a separate skill from playing repertoire, and almost nothing teaches it directly — the standard advice is to read more, which is true but not much of a plan.
It’s also the part of piano practice software can genuinely help with. Getting better at it takes a steady supply of music you haven’t seen, at close to the right difficulty, marked honestly, every day — the kind of work a computer is suited to. For tone, phrasing and what to do with your wrist, you still want a teacher.
Why the cursor doesn’t stop
Most practice apps wait for you to play the right note before they move on. That trains you to stop, which is the exact habit sight reading has to break. Play in an exam or with other people and the music carries on whether you’re ready or not.
So ours carries on too. Notes are marked as you play — green or red, and with the metronome on, blue or yellow for early or late — and the piece keeps moving. The first week of this feels uncomfortable, and then it starts to feel like reading.
Why the grades follow ABRSM
ABRSM publishes exactly what each grade’s sight-reading test asks for — keys, time signatures, hand position, length, articulation — and those parameters make a ready-made difficulty curve, whether or not you ever sit an exam. They also make progress measurable: “read a Grade 4 test at ninety per cent” is a clearer target than “get better at sight reading”.
We’re not affiliated with ABRSM or endorsed by them, and our grade pieces aren’t exam material: real tests use unseen, single-use music on the day. Ours are newly written to the same published parameters.
What we will and won’t build
On the list
- More music, sorted more precisely by difficulty.
- Better feedback on what actually went wrong — which keys, clefs and intervals are costing you.
- Tuning Pitch & Rhythm mode. Rhythm scoring shipped in July 2026; making it feel fair at every tempo is the current work.
- Tools that make a teacher’s week easier. The class tools are early and we know it.
Not on the list
- Music theory lessons. There are good tools for theory already; we’d rather point you at them.
- Ear training. Same answer.
- Video courses. We’re a practice tool, not a curriculum.
- Anything that pretends to replace a teacher. An app can hand you new music every day and mark it. It can’t hear that your wrist is tense.
If you want to check the app is still being worked on before you put money down, read the changelog. Every release goes on it.
Read the changelogWhere your data lives
European and UK infrastructure
Our database is hosted in the EU, files in AWS London, analytics on PostHog’s EU cloud with IP addresses masked, and error reporting in Frankfurt.
Who’s behind it
SightReader is run by Bret Cameron, sole trader, London, United Kingdom. The registered address is in the terms of service.
Practice data stays private
Sessions, accuracy and progress belong to the account that made them. We don’t sell or share individual data, and you can export or delete everything on request.
Getting in touch
Email hello@sightreader.app and it reaches us rather than a queue. We aim to reply within three working days, UK time, and usually sooner. If it’s urgent — payment, account access, lost progress — put “urgent” in the subject line and we’ll jump on it.