Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Looking for ideas on why to/not to look at hands

What are all the thoughts out there on this subject?
I liken it to watching yourself walk down the stairs. You will probably trip up. What are others thoughts on this?

What about when the music is memorized? Then you don't have the argument of losing your spot...

I agree, for memorized music it's fine.

I've posted a little finger/ear test in the past. You can look at the screen and press which finger number it prints or you can look away and press on the sound. Interestingly there is no way it can be done fast by watching the screen, the 40% of your brain it takes to process visual data makes it too slow. Looking away and doing it by ear is much faster. Here's the pentatonic version if you want to try it yourself: http://www.box.net/shared/6gmzc4z0ze Only press one key at a time or it goes on and on.

Do you mean once a piece is memorized? Because there is little reason to look at the hands before that point.

I have some students who never look at their hands once a piece is memorized, and some who do. I do look at my hands after memorization, but it does take a learning process...like another step once you can play the piece well with the music.

No, I'm talking about on a daily basis. It's one of those things people always tell you not to do (same with when you're typing... "Don't Look At Your Hands!") but I wanna know WHY NOT?? Aside from losing your place, where's the harm in looking?

I think the problem is tracking the eyes with the music. Looking at the hands means you are not reading the music, and looking down and up and down and up a lot can be difficult for a younger student.

When I have a student looking at their hands too much, I cover their hands with a large sheet of paper and have them play. It frusturates them at first, but they invaribly play the piece much better!

Kinesthetic memory, the positional map in the brain and brain stem that guides the muscles, associated with the music on the page. I used to depend on looking at the hands, reading was murder. Then I moved to reading-only and "fishing" for the notes with my fingers. My teacher said, "don't do it: be sure you know your finger is on the right note, and that the fingering is what you intend, before you press the key. Otherwise, the kinesthetic memory learns the wrong thing, and you will never improve. Take a little look if that's what it takes." Turns out, it only takes it for a while; the eye sees, the fingers go there.

Besides that, losing your place in the music is not a small impediment.

Proprioception is an important word in learning new skills, yet few musicians have never herd of it and don’t know what it means.

Closing the eyes heightens the sense of proprioception as with other senses. Proprioception controls muscle pressure, inner perspective and balance.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-proprioception.htm

Your eyes actually interfere with the sense of proprioception .In this video at 5:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98

you will notice that the MRI picks up brain activity when proprioception was used for perspective, where as the eye’s would use the same brain area for perspective.

I don’t teach piano, but teach violin and guitar. I’ve been developing proprioception techniques over the last few months and find when students are learning a new skill, the learning curve is shortened tremendously, and consistency and accuracy are also very noticeably high.

As for keeping your eyes closed when playing, I am sure there is pro’s and cons , but when learning new techniques there’s only pro’s ,no cons .

Charlie

I learned to play the violin in the last few days. Instead of looking at the instrument I focused on the music sheet. Over the hours my body fitted itself around the instrument and all sorts of posture details became clear. Eyesight was of little use, if anything off-putting.

Well,Vladimir Horowitz concentrated exclusively on watching exactly where his hands and fingers were at all times and if it was good enough for him its certainly good enough for me.

Even when sight reading?

I have trouble looking at the music and looking at my hands every so often - I end up not knowing where I am - guess it takes eye-hand coordination and practice.

My friends (not musicians) said that maybe it was like typing, maybe in some ways, but has mentioned, you are taught not to look at your hands. Accompianist must have this ability--- interesting thread and the replies are really helpful.

When sight reading Horowitz had his right eye on the music and his left eye on his hands.

Im told Lang Lang can do the same only in reverse.

The technique is performed quite simply by angling the head at 90 degrees to the shoulders and using the upper eye for the music and the lower one for the hands. It also has the advantage of exercising certain back/arm muscles which is believed to facilitate the more difficult arpeggios and scales.

What? Am I being duped here?

My neck used to be able to bend to 90 degrees, but my hinge got rusty and I can't do it anymore.

(Yes, you're being duped. You can tell because he said that Lang Lang focuses his eyes on his hands and sheet music, when in fact, he looks pretty much everywhere )

How is that possible - "Horowitz had his right eye on the music and his left on his hands".

Interesting.

One reason for not looking at your hands all the time is those embarassing moments when you are asked to 'pick it up from here' by your teacher (who is pointing to some note in the middle of a section) and feel as though you've never even seen the music before. I think you need to be able to do both - only looking when necessary for jumps etc. I'm very guilty of abandoning the music once memorized. I really believe it is a cause of weak sightreading.

Sandy, I've been there more than a few times and it makes me feel as you said so well - l feel as if I'd never seen the music before.

Guess that's why it's good to keep an eye on the music and check to make sure your hands are in the right place at the right time.
Now how do I go about getting this skill? Because each time I give it a go, it's hit or miss.

???

Used to happen to me all the time... So embarrassing!

Does anyone have suggesions on how to accomplish what some us are having problems with?

My father could play whatever was in front of him - there must be a technigue for reading music and glancing at your fingers as you play without getting lost.

Thanks for any ideas. Who knew - what looked so easy isn't. Back to the drawing board. Would add a smiley face if I could find one.