Do You Need “Piano Glasses?”
Adult piano students learn better if they SEE their sheet music well !
I offer something I call a “Better Progress Checklist” to both live and online piano students. This action is a full and comprehensive list of questions covering every thing I’ve ever learned that can slow down a student’s progress. Answering these questions and having me evaluate the answers reveals things even the student is not aware are barriers. I bring this up because one of huge barrier sometimes revealed is the simple matter of eyesight. Not being behind the piano student’s eyeballs I have no way to know about this without asking, and, unfortunately, adults are sometimes reluctant to admit they need eyesight correction. This reticence can mean the different between playing well and playing poorly or not at all.
“Piano Glasses” is not my term but was invented by one of my students who is an optometrist. I’ve been seeing him for years as well as referring needy students. He always checks for distance, reading and piano eyesight. He explains that the distance between the eye and the sheet music is somewhere between the close up of reading and the need to see at distance. He’s right, I believe, as I’ve watched many, many older folks fumble with different glasses in an attempt to clearly see their piano music. Some have found a solution with those drugstore purchased reading glasses, just at a strength that works for piano reading, not normal reading. Others have needed an eye exam and a prescription.
As with everything I teach, I recommend trying the easy and cheap way first, so do this:
1. As you are sitting playing, have someone else use a tape measure to learn how far it is from your eyes to your music.
2. Armed with this measurement and whichever music book you own with the smallest, most difficult to read print, get to your drugstore and find a pair of cheap reading glasses which bring the notes into clear focus at the proper distance.
3. Use these glasses when you play and when you go to lessons.
4. If there is a problem, get that eye exam and explain to your doctor exactly what the measurement is and bring that music book along.
By the way, if you are due for an eye exam, get it. Yeah, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder are blind and can still play but can you imagine how hard it must have been for them to learn without written music? For more advanced coverage of this topic and many others see the ebook “Dan Starr’s Big Book of Adult Piano” available here.
Tags: adult piano student, Online Piano Lessons, Piano, piano students, see music
