Reading sheet music (keyboard)

[NetSquirrel]

What is the procedure for reading the written music of a tune and playing it at the same time on a keyboard or piano?  Do you look a few notes ahead and see what the actual notes are before you play them e.g. "G, G, A, E, G..." or just the occasional easy note (such as B) and then go "one note up" or "two notes down" as required, or something else?  After some practice is it possible to play a tune that you have never heard before just from the sheet music, or is some learning required beforehand?

[NetSquirrel]

P.S. Yes, I probably should have posted this in the Music section.

P.P.S. If you could recommend a keyboard-teaching book, that would be brilliant.  At the moment I have an old electric keyboard and The Complete Keyboard Player, Book 1 which, while good in its own way, is a bit simplistic and every song requires that your left hand just be pressing chords rather than "moving about" like most piano tunes seem to require.

[Hippy]

Sight reading is a leaned skill. You read the music just like you read words in a book, the symbols make an immediate impression in your mind without the mechanical single notes or letters. To have a strange sheet of music plonked in front of you and be able to play it at once requires yuo to be proficient at the instrument you are playing. You see the key the music is in and teh rythm and speed tehn you see ther patterns and convert them to music. You are hearing for the first time.

When you use sheet music for a piece that you have learned you just use it to remind you of the flow and phrasing etc. You scan it and make sure you can find the right place on the page if you should suddenly discover that you have forgotten a bit.

[Hammer]

It�s like reading a book. You don�t actually read ahead as such, but it all makes sense in an instant without putting too much effort in.

When you read the word �keyboard� you don�t look at every letter and work out what it says, you just *know* what it says by glancing at it. It�s the same with music if you practice enough.

And yes, it is possible to pick up an unknown piece of sheet music and play it perfectly first time if you are practiced enough. It�s called sight reading and forms part of the grade exams if you choose to do them (although the music you have to sight read is a lot easier than the pieces you have to learn.

[NetSquirrel]

Thanks Hippy and Hammer.  Your answers are very clear and helpful.