Everything SightReader does. On one page.
From pitch and rhythm scoring to a 3,700-piece library. Here’s the full set, and where each part fits.
What happens when I play a wrong note?
Practice that works.
Play, and we mark every note as you go.
Real-time note matching
Connect a MIDI keyboard, listen through your microphone, or use the on-screen piano. SightReader follows as you play and matches every note to the score.
Note-by-note feedback
Notes you nail turn green and misses turn red. 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
Away from anything we can hear? 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 has scored rhythm separately from the notes, on every piece and in every tier. We’re still tuning how strict it feels.
Two grading modes
Pitch Only waits for you and checks the notes. Turn on the metronome and Pitch & Rhythm takes over: a 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” puts a name to the habit. Consistently early means you’re rushing the click, and consistently late means you’re 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.
3,700+ pieces of real repertoire from four centuries.
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. They’re a gentle place to start.
Upload your own
Got a MusicXML file your teacher gave you? Drop it in and practise it like anything else.
How do I learn to read music from scratch?
From your first note to Grade 8.
Short lessons in order, each one teaching a single thing, with a piece to play in every one.
Start where you are
Foundation opens with one note on the stave and takes nothing for granted. Already reading? Pass a checkpoint and start at the grade that fits.
One idea per lesson
Each lesson says what it teaches, explains it in a paragraph or two, then gives you a short piece that uses it.
Marked note by note
The pieces inside a lesson are marked the same way as everything else here: stars, timing colours, and a replay you can scrub through.
A certificate at the end
Finish every lesson in a stage and we issue a certificate. Download it as a PDF, share the link, put it on the fridge.
Foundation and Initial are free in full, and so is the first unit of Grade 1. After that, Lessons are part of Pro.
Does SightReader follow the ABRSM grades?
Foundation to Grade 8: your roadmap.
Lessons built grade by grade around the syllabus students already follow.
Every grade, one lesson at a time
Short lessons from your first note to Grade 8, each teaching one thing and then giving you pieces to read with it. Already reading well? A placement test lets you skip ahead. Foundation, Initial and the first unit of Grade 1 are free.
Daily Practice
Five pieces 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. There’s no marking, commenting, CSV export or 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 the catches.
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, which judges your timing against the beat, is a separate thing with its own section above.
Web MIDI
USB or Bluetooth MIDI in Chrome, Edge, Opera and desktop Firefox. Safari falls back to the virtual piano. On iPhone and iPad, use our app for MIDI: 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 and error reports are scrubbed. Your practice data is yours, and we’ll export or delete it on request.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a MIDI keyboard to use SightReader?
No, but it is the most precise way to work. With a MIDI keyboard we mark every note the moment you play it, and it is what Pitch & Rhythm mode needs. Without one, microphone mode listens to whatever piano you have and marks your notes, with chords graded on their overall sound. There is also the on-screen piano, the QWERTY keys, and honour mode for playing any instrument and entering your own result.
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, Opera and Firefox on desktop. In Safari you can practise through your microphone or the on-screen piano instead.
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. 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 costs a little more, which covers the app store’s commission. The free tier stays free either way.