The Sight-Reading for Cello application is designed to help students develop the ability to recognize the names of notes for a selected key on a sheet of music. Students can use the application as flashcards for music or play along with the notes as they are displayed to help develop familiarity with reading sheet music.

Help

Display Interval: The number of second between note changes.

Clef: The symbol that indicates the pitch of staff lines to be displayed.

Key: The group of pitches (notes) that form the harmonic foundation for the notes displayed during the practice session.

Display Note Names: Toggle to display or hide the name of the note after a short delay. The note name will display for the last two seconds of the interval if the interval is set to 4 seconds or more. If set to three seconds, the note name displays for the last 1.5 seconds of the interval, if set to 2 seconds the note name displays for the last second, if set to 1 second, the note name displays immediately.

Instructions

Begin by selecting a display interval that allows you to easily identify the displayed note. For beginners, it is helpful to set this interval to 20 or more seconds. As you become familiar with how relating the notes to their names, decrease the interval and continue to challenge yourself. Whenever possible, play the notes on your instrument along with the display.

Credits

The Sight-Reading Practice application was written by Cello Discovery member Gregory Engel using the abc music notation standard and the following open source libraries:

• ABCjs
• jQuery
• jQuery-ui

Version: 2026.03.21.1