Everything SightReader does. On one page.
From pitch and rhythm scoring to a 4,000-piece library. Here’s the full set, and where each part fits.
What happens when I play a wrong note?
Practice that works.
Play. We listen. You learn, note by note.
Real-time note matching
Connect a MIDI keyboard or use the on-screen one. SightReader listens as you play and matches every note to the score.
Note-by-note feedback
Notes you nail turn green; misses turn red — and with the metronome on, early notes shade blue and late ones yellow. No vague “good job”. You see what you played, and how you timed it.
Star ratings
Three stars at 90% accuracy, two at 75%, one at 60%. Beating your own best is the point.
Replay analysis
Every session is recorded. Scrub through to see where you tripped, and play it again.
Honour mode
No MIDI keyboard? Play on any instrument and log your own results. Less precise, still useful.
Does SightReader check my rhythm, or just the notes?
Timing, scored.
Since July 2026, SightReader scores rhythm as its own dimension — on every piece, in every tier. We’re still tuning how strict it feels.
Two modes
Pitch Only waits for you and checks the notes. Turn on the metronome and Pitch & Rhythm takes over: a one-bar count-in, then the music moves at the beat, with or without you.
A colour for every tendency
Green is in time. Early shades blue — the earlier, the bluer. Late shades yellow. If the beat moves on without you, the note goes red and you rejoin wherever the beat is now.
The results breakdown
Every attempt ends with your timing alongside your accuracy: how much of the piece you played on time, how much early, how much late.
Your tendency, in milliseconds
“94ms early on average” names the habit: consistently early is rushing the click; consistently late is checking each note before you commit. Once it has a name, you can work on it.
What music can I practise sight reading with?
A library worth practising from.
4,000+ pieces, four centuries, real repertoire.
Four centuries of piano
Baroque (Bach, Scarlatti, Purcell), Classical (Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven), Romantic (Chopin, Liszt, Schumann), Modern (Debussy, Satie, Bartók).
ABRSM-aligned grade exercises
Newly composed exercises that match the ABRSM syllabus, grade by grade. Sight reading first.
Studies
Christian Schäfer’s Book 1 and Ludvig Schytte’s studies — 54 pieces in all — are free for everyone. A gentle, structured place to start.
Upload your own
Got a MusicXML file your teacher gave you? Drop it in and practise it like anything else.
Does SightReader follow the ABRSM grades?
Initial to Grade 8: your roadmap.
Grade by grade, exercise by exercise. Built around the syllabus students already follow.
All eight grades
From Initial to Grade 8, with progressive levels inside each grade. The free tier covers the first five levels of each grade from Initial through Grade 5.
Daily Practice
A curated five-piece session every day, mixed by difficulty so you’re always slightly stretched.
Grade certificates
Finish a grade and we issue a certificate. Download it as a PDF, share the link, put it on the fridge.
How do I track my sight-reading progress?
See what’s working.
Every session feeds the journal. Spot patterns in a week.
Practice journal
Every session logged: piece, accuracy, stars, time. Searchable, sortable.
Weak-spot analytics
Which keys, clefs, and intervals trip you up, down to the individual note. Practise what needs work.
Streaks
Practise each day and your streak grows. A small nudge to come back tomorrow.
Levels
Earn XP for every star. Climb eight tiers, from Novice to Legend.
Can piano teachers use SightReader with a class?
Built for teachers, too.
Set up a class, assign real graded repertoire, and let your pupils practise with the same marking everyone gets.
Classes and join codes
Create a class, invite pupils by email or share the six-character join code, and they appear on the roster with their grade, practice streak and recent progress.
Piece assignments
Set any piece from the library as an assignment, with an optional due date, to plan each pupil’s week.
Free for verified educators
Pro features unlocked once we’ve verified your teaching status. No card needed.
What’s not there yet
Assignments go to a whole class, not to one pupil, and there’s no marking, comments or exports — no CSV, no SSO. It isn’t a learning-management system.
Which browsers and devices does SightReader work on?
Under the hood.
For the tech-curious. The numbers and gotchas behind the experience.
Sub-20ms feedback
From key press to coloured note on the score, typically under 20 milliseconds. That number is about the app keeping up with you. Rhythm scoring — judging your timing against the beat — is a separate thing, with its own section above.
Web MIDI
USB or Bluetooth MIDI in Chrome, Edge, and Opera. Safari and Firefox fall back to the virtual piano. On iPhone and iPad, MIDI works in our app — no iOS browser supports it.
MusicXML
Standard MusicXML 3.x and 4.x supported. Export from Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico, or Finale.
Runs anywhere
Runs in the browser on Mac, Windows, ChromeOS, laptops and tablets, with nothing to install. The iOS and Android apps are the same product: same library, same grades, same uploads, same offline downloads.
Private by default
Analytics are anonymised; errors are scrubbed. Your practice data is yours, exportable and deletable on request.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a MIDI keyboard to use SightReader?
No, but it is the best experience. With a MIDI keyboard we mark every note the moment you play it. Without one you can use the on-screen piano, the QWERTY keys, or play any instrument and enter your own result in honour mode — less precise, still useful.
Does SightReader work on a Mac or a Chromebook?
Yes. It runs in the browser on Mac, Windows and ChromeOS with nothing to install, and the iOS and Android apps carry the same library and grades. MIDI keyboards work in Chrome, Edge and Opera; Safari and Firefox fall back to the on-screen piano.
How is sight-reading practice different from learning a piece?
Sight reading is playing music you have never seen, at tempo, first time. Learning a piece is repetition until it is memorised. SightReader hands you unfamiliar notation every session and marks that first attempt, so the skill you build is reading rather than recall.
Does SightReader score timing as well as pitch?
Yes, whenever the metronome is on. Correct notes are coloured by how close to the beat they landed — blue for early, yellow for late — and every attempt ends with the share of the piece you played on time, early and late, plus your average error in milliseconds.
What sheet music formats can I upload?
MusicXML, versions 3.x and 4.x, exported from Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico or Finale. Uploaded pieces are marked exactly like anything in our library. PDFs and photographs of sheet music are not supported, because the marking needs the notes as data rather than as a picture.
Is SightReader free for teachers?
Yes. Verified teachers get Pro free, permanently. Anyone can create a class, share a join code and set assignments without verification; verification is what unlocks free Pro and email invitations. Apply with your name, your school or studio, and a line on how you teach sight reading.
How much does Pro cost?
£5 a month on the web, billed through Stripe and cancellable at any time. Bought inside the iPhone or Android app it is £5.99 a month or £57.99 a year, which covers the app store’s commission. The free tier stays free either way.