Sight Reading

[Kuark]

I dont know if this is the properly place to ask and a quick search gave poor results for what I was looking for specifically.

So anyways I am in a beginning piano class and we are learning to sight read (something that is new to me but I now see the importance). When it comes to jumping from note to note our teacher told us to recognize the interval change and find it with our hands without looking; as opposed to the specific note name since we know the key and general hand placement already this should come naturally on the piano. Is this an acceptable way on bass and other stringed instruments as well? Is this just one way of teaching to sight read, I imagine there are many different ideas behind the theory of it but am not 100% sure.

My second question is when you get to bigger interval jumps what do you use to recognize the intervals? Lines? Spaces? A combination of both or just experience lets you naturally know how big of a jump it is?

[smithal3]

This is an acceptable method to playing any instrument, think about last minute key changes. You could think "Whole step up" for each note that you play, or you could think "same intervals, new key."

Its a great skill and will definately come in handy in not only your playing, but your understanding of more complex music theory.