ABRSM piano sight-reading
Initial Grade sight-reading: one hand, five fingers, no panic
Four bars of 4/4 or six of 2/4, one hand at a time, five fingers parked on the key note, in C major or D minor. Minims, crotchets, pairs of quavers, and the whole-bar rest. Half a minute to look. Worth 21 of 150, like every grade.
Checked against the ABRSM 2025-26 syllabus · last reviewed 3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Initial Grade sight-reading parameters
Checked by us against the 2025-26 syllabus
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What changed
The floor
Initial Grade is the floor, so nothing changed; this is where the table starts (page 16). What the row actually asks for is smaller than most parents expect. Each hand plays separately. The hand sits in a five-finger position "tonic to dominant", which in practice means the thumb of the right hand or the fifth finger of the left sits on the key note, and the five notes under the fingers are the only five notes in the test. No reaching, no crossing, no jumping. The hand goes down and stays down.
Two keys: C major, with nothing in the key signature, and D minor, with one flat. Here is a fact that calms a lot of seven-year-olds. In a D minor five-finger position the notes are D, E, F, G and A. None of them is a B. The flat in the key signature affects no note under the hand. It is there to be looked at and named, which at this grade is the whole skill.
Rhythm is minims, crotchets and pairs of quavers, plus the semibreve rest, a whole bar of silence, and you have to count it, which is harder than it sounds when your teacher is not in the room. Expression is legato phrases, staccato dots, and f and p. Yes, dynamics are in the table at Initial Grade. A child who plays the whole thing at one volume has skipped a parameter.
Why it is hard: musically, it usually is not. It is hard because it is often somebody's first exam, and the first exam is where the "keep going" habit is either built or not. The marking criteria beside the assessment objective for this grade (page 53) ask for "overall security of notes, rhythm and continuity" in response to "simple musical notation". Security and continuity. Not perfection. The examiner is listening for whether the small person on the stool kept the beat when a wrong note happened.
Initial Grade is the floor. Nothing comes before it: C major and D minor, in 4 / 4 or 2 / 4, 4 bars in 4/4 or 6 bars in 2/4, hands separately, each in a five-finger position from the key note up to the fifth.
The drill plan
A week that fits a life
The Initial Grade plan is short because the test is short. Five minutes most days, a grown-up in the room for the first week or two, then not.
The half-minute routine, in order. Which hand? Which key (nothing, or one flat)? Which note is under the thumb, or the fifth finger? Put the hand there. Then look at the last bar, because that is where the rest usually hides. This is the entire routine and it should take ten seconds. Practise the routine itself: hand a child any four-bar line and time them putting the hand in position.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: notes. Deal yourself a few notes below. At Initial Grade the dealer stays inside the five-finger hand, so every note it shows is one you can reach without moving. Two minutes right hand in C, two minutes left hand in C, one minute in D minor. Name the letter, then play the finger on your own piano. That is note-naming with the hand attached, which is what the exam needs.
Tuesday, Thursday: rhythm on the lid. No notes. Clap or tap a line of minims, crotchets and paired quavers, counting "one two three four" out loud (a practice tool; the specification does not say whether you may count aloud in the room). Put a whole-bar rest in bar three and count the bar of silence, every beat of it. Children rush rests. Adults rush rests. Everyone rushes rests.
Weekend: one unseen line, one go. A four-bar line, one hand, played once with the dynamics observed, loud where it says loud, soft where it says soft, short where there are dots. Then stop. Do not play it again "to get it right". Getting it right is next week's line.
What to ignore. Hands together (Grade 2). Any note outside the five under the hand (Grade 3). Accidentals: the table allows them "within minor keys only" from Grade 1, not here, so a D minor test at Initial Grade has no C♯. Pedal (Grade 6). Anything about tempo marks; the table prints none. If the line feels too easy, it is right. If it feels hard, drop back to naming notes.
Deal me a note
What an Initial Grade 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 Initial Grade candidates lose marks
- Stopping to fix a note. The single most expensive habit, and Initial Grade is where it is learned. "Continuity generally maintained" is the Pass line on page 60. A wrong note in time is worth more than a right note late.
- Playing through the rest. The whole-bar rest is on the table for this grade. A bar of nothing, counted. The hand stays still and the counting carries on.
- One volume from start to finish. f and p are printed in the Initial Grade row. Loud is loud, soft is soft, and the difference should be audible from the examiner's chair.
- Starting before the hand is in position. Thumb (or fifth finger) on the key note, every finger over its note, then play. Position first, beat one second.
- Ignoring the dots. Staccato is in the table at Initial Grade. Short notes stay short, even in a test.
The honest bit
What MidiSlayer does for Initial Grade, and what it does not
For Initial Grade, MidiSlayer's Graded Reading deals single notes in C major and D minor, in the octave around middle C, key signature shown, and brings back the notes you miss more often within a session. The five-finger hand is the rule for the dealer on this page, not the app. It is not an exam simulator and does not hand out four-bar tests; line-level reading with rhythm and dynamics 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, which covers the note-naming half of Initial Grade. Download it free.
Free to start. One payment for everything, yours to keep.
Questions
Asked about Initial Grade
A short unaccompanied piece, four bars in 4/4 or six bars in 2/4, for one hand at a time, in C major or D minor, with the hand in a five-finger position from the key note to the fifth (page 16). You get half a minute to look and try it, then you play it.
Four bars if it is in 4/4, six if it is in 2/4. The printed cell pairs each length with its time signature.
Each hand is tested separately. The table says "Each hand: playing separately". Hands together starts at Grade 2.
No. "Occasional accidentals (within minor keys only)" is a Grade 1 entry. An Initial Grade D minor test uses the key signature and nothing else.
About 12 minutes including walking in and out (page 11). The sight-reading is a small part of that.
Yes. 21 of 150 at every grade (page 57), marked with the same criteria (page 60). What changes is the music, not the marking.
Five minutes most days for a couple of months: two on notes in position, two on rhythm, one on a short unseen line. More than that and a small child stops enjoying it, which costs more than it gains.
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.