ABRSM piano sight-reading
Grade 5 sight-reading: four sharps, four flats, four-part chords
Eight to twelve bars, hands together, in any key up to four sharps or four flats (E and A♭ majors, F♯ and C minors are new), in every time signature up to 6/8. Four-part chords, simple syncopation, a slowing at the end and ff arrive. Half a minute to look.
Checked against the ABRSM 2025-26 syllabus · last reviewed 3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Grade 5 sight-reading parameters
Checked by us against the 2025-26 syllabus
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What changed
Since Grade 4
Grade 5 is the geography grade. Four new keys on page 16: E major (four sharps), A♭ major (four flats), F♯ minor (three sharps, raised seventh E♯, which is the white key F and looks like nothing of the kind on the page) and C minor (three flats, raised seventh B♮). That takes the table to four sharps and four flats, and the hand into territory repertoire at this level rarely visits. Nobody's Grade 5 pieces are all in A♭, so the hand does not know where A♭ lives, and sight-reading is largely remembering where the hand lives before the bar arrives.
Texture thickens. "4-part chords (2 notes max. in either hand)": both hands can now play two notes at once, at the same time. Four notes to read vertically in one glance, for the first time, and the first time the left hand is working as hard as the right at the same moment.
"Simple syncopation" arrives. A note that starts off the beat and holds across it. Candidates who have never seen one pull it back onto the beat: a wrong rhythm, and rhythm or pulse is in the first line of every band on page 60.
Two expressive items: "slowing of tempo at end", so a rit. or rall. in the last bar or two, and ff, the loudest dynamic yet. The slowing is a gift if you see it and a trap if you do not, because slowing is not stopping.
The length steps up: "c. 8-12" bars. The longest test so far, so a bad start has more time to become a bad test. The marking criteria beside the assessment objective still say "moderately complex musical notation" (page 55).
Why it is hard: Grade 5 stacks a hand problem (where is G♯ in E major) on a reading problem (four notes at once) on a rhythm problem (syncopation) and makes it a bar or two longer. In our experience, candidates who lose marks here mostly lose them to the key ("played F instead of F♯ in sight-reading" is a Quora classic for a reason) and in the left hand, which is now reading chords.
Everything from Grade 4 still applies. New at Grade 5:
- Length
- c. 8nowc. 8-12
- Time signatures
- no change5 carried over
- Keys
- new: E major
- new: A♭ major
- new: F♯ minor
- new: C minor
- Hands
- unchanged
- Other features
- new: four-part chords, two notes per hand at most
- new: straightforward syncopation
- new: a slowing at the close
- new: dynamic ff
The drill plan
A week that fits a life
The Grade 5 plan is a key-geography plan first and a chord-reading plan second. Give it three months.
The half minute, Grade 5 version. Key first, and say all four: "E major, F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯". Then find the chords and shape both hands for the first one. Then scan for syncopation: any note that starts on an "and" and is tied or held over a beat. Then look at the last two bars for the rit. and the ff. Then hands on. If time is left, try out the chord bar; page 15 allows any or all of the test.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: one key a day, then reading. Scales and arpeggios in that day's key, E, A♭, F♯ minor or C minor, slowly, for geography, not speed. Then deal yourself a few notes below in the same key; the dealer's range is wide now and four accidentals sit on the staff. It deals evenly and has no memory of your misses, so keep dealing; the app's Graded Reading is the one that brings a missed note back, and at Grade 5 that note is usually the fourth sharp or flat. Then six minutes of hands-together reading on Grade 3 material, once through.
Tuesday, Thursday: chords and syncopation. Two-notes-per-hand chord drill: read the four notes as two shapes, one per hand, not as four letters. Ten chords, no pulse. Then the same ten in time. Then syncopation on the lid: tap crotchets with the left hand while the right hand plays a note on "two-and" and holds it through "three". Counting aloud in practice helps; the specification says nothing about it in the room.
Weekend: the long line. One unseen line of ten to twelve bars, hands together, with a rit. at the end. Play it once. Slow the last two bars; do not stop them. Then, separately, one line at ff played with big sound and every note still in place. Stop.
What to ignore. Triplets, clef changes, odd time signatures, pedal (all Grade 6). Keys with five accidentals (Grade 8). Three-note chords in one hand (Grade 8). Do not practise the pedal for this test; the table introduces right pedal at Grade 6, whatever older blog posts say.
Deal me a note
What a Grade 5 test can ask of your eyes
The staff below deals notes inside this grade's keys, key signature shown. Press the letter, or click it.
This checks the letter. MidiSlayer checks the note you actually played, in time.
Traps
Where Grade 5 candidates lose marks
- Playing F for F♯. In F♯ minor and E major the sharps are three and four deep and the last one goes missing. Say them all before you play, and touch every one on the page.
- E♯ in F♯ minor. The raised seventh in F♯ minor is E♯, which is the white key F. Candidates read "E, with a sharp on it, must be a misprint" and play E. It is not a misprint. It is the leading note.
- Pulling the syncopation onto the beat. A note that starts on the "and" starts on the "and". Play it late and hold it; do not tidy it up.
- Stopping at the rit. "Slowing of tempo at end" means slowing. The pulse keeps going, just wider. A stop is "lacking overall continuity" on page 60.
- Reading a four-note chord as its outer notes. Two shapes, one per hand, both notes each. The inner notes are where the marks go.
The honest bit
What MidiSlayer does for Grade 5, and what it does not
At Grade 5, MidiSlayer's Graded Reading deals single notes across every key up to four sharps or flats, including E and A♭ majors and F♯ and C minors, key signature on the staff, and brings back the notes you miss more often within a session. That is the key-geography drill this grade lives or dies on. It is not an exam simulator; it deals notes, not four-part chords or a twelve-bar line with a rit. That reading lives in Practice with real pieces. Graded Reading is part of the full app, one payment, yours to keep. The free version includes Note Flashcards, the Learn course and the daily game. Download it free.
Free to start. One payment for everything, yours to keep.
Questions
Asked about Grade 5
Any key up to four sharps or four flats: C, G, D, A, E, F, B♭, E♭ and A♭ majors; A, E, B, F♯, D, G and C minors (page 16). New at Grade 5 are E and A♭ majors and F♯ and C minors.
"c. 8-12" (page 16), circa eight to twelve bars. It is the first grade where the test can pass ten bars.
Chords of up to four notes, with at most two in each hand. Both hands play two notes at once. Three notes in one hand is a Grade 8 item.
Not on the table. "Use of right pedal" enters at Grade 6 (page 16). Several older guides say Grade 5; the printed 2025-26 table says Grade 6.
Knowing the key signatures cold helps, and Grade 5 theory makes you learn them. The specification does not connect the two, so treat theory as useful rather than required for this test.
Ten to fifteen minutes, most days, half of it on the four new keys through scales and the note dealer, half on hands-together reading at Grade 3 level. Start three months out.
Eight to twelve bars; E and A♭ majors, F♯ and C minors; four-part chords; simple syncopation; slowing of tempo at the end; ff. The diff on this page marks each one.
MidiSlayer is independent of ABRSM and not endorsed by it. ABRSM is a trade mark of The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, used here to identify the exams these pages describe. Exam facts are taken from the ABRSM Piano Syllabus 2025 & 2026 (© ABRSM), quoted briefly with acknowledgement and otherwise stated in our own words.