Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum LOOKING AT MY HANDS WHILE PLAYING

Here is what is actually being said.

"Sight reading" is a specialized term, and an off-shoot from reading. Hobby, what you are talking about is reading.

Sometimes people use the term "prima vista sight reading" to clarify the part dmd is talking about. This is a specialized, advanced skill, where a pianist can look at a score he has never played before, and play it instantly, and in real time. It is a skill used by accompanists, for example. They may actually skip non-essential notes, and will not go back when they made a mistake, because of the nature of the task.

"Reading" means being able to read music - perhaps slowly. Reading itself entails a number of different skills, and it is likely that you don't have all of them yet. I'd also say that musicians study scores, which also goes into other areas of skill and knowledge. You want to go after reading, and all this entails.

i agree with you that i do not have sight reading skills.but the subject of this post is that i look my hands when reading the score.

I wonder what people have to say about looking at hands in this (Time: 4:24 in the video below) !!

https://youtu.be/aEkXet4WX_c?t=264

Osho

FWIW (I don't teach):

I don't know how advanced you are. But, if you know enough to play two-octave scales in several keys:

. . . Practice playing the scales _with your eyes closed_.

If you're studying arpeggios:

. . . Practice playing arpeggios _with your eyes closed_.


That will give your hands a "pure proprioceptive" (how the muscles and joints _feel_, as your fingers move) view of the keyboard.

In principle (and in actuality, for advanced players), you should be able to look at the printed page, and _only_ look at your hands for jumps. (a "jump" means that there's no finger down, to "keep your place", from one note to the next).

The "bobbing head" syndrome will make it hard for you to sight-read _anything_ "at speed". I agree with earlier comments - the sooner you can play without looking at your hands, the better.

You appear to be missing the point.

The point is ...... If you are playing from a printed score and do not have the piece memorized .... you should look at the music as you play and only look at the keyboard when it is necessary to execute a "jump" which is particularly difficult to do without looking at the keys.

And, if you do look down at the keys .... be sure you can look back up at the score and know where you are in the music so you can let the score help you in knowing what comes next.


In the video .... He has it memorized.

Since he has no score in front of him, why would he worry about looking down at the keys ?

Try also sitting a bit further back so that you have a wider field of view, and instead of moving your whole head only move your eyes.

I am not disputing/challenging any points discussed earlier in this thread.

Just wanted to share this video showing that even great maestros of this instrument look at hands!

Osho

i do not practice scales but i will because it can make me familiar with the keyboard.i will buy a book i have seen in the alfred series.

You are still missing the point.

First ... he is not looking at his hands. He is looking at the keys.

No-one was suggesting that looking at the keys is bad.

The only time it becomes a problem is when you are using a score to remind you of what to play.

Then, each time you look at the keys you run the risk of losing your place in the score and that can be a problem.

The video illustrates someone who has the music memorized and is not using a score at all.

If you have the music memorized, look at the keys all you want.

What else would you look at ?

Two / three words sum it up : practise and scales / arpeggios.

You will find that it's like typing on a computer keyboard :- your hands know where every thing is, but you haven't the confidence to read the screen as you type. It's the same for the piano. One day you will realise that you haven't looked at your fingers for ages when playing, at which point it will all fall apart !

If you play for lon enough you will eventually find that you are reading the music and playing it completely automatically. You just concentrate on the sound that it makes. Like not looking at your fingers, when you realise that you are playing automatically for the first time, it, too, all falls apart !

No need for confrontational/challenging tone of your posts when there is nothing to confront/challenge!

Osho

Not really.

Sight reading refers to the first time one sees and plays the music. 'Prima vista' is completely unnecessary and redundant although some posters use this term. Sight readers come at all levels and the best ones can sight read a score(the difficulty of the score can vary) accurately and at performance speed. But sight reading does not require accuracy or performance speed. It refers to the act of playing the score the first time no matter how well or poorly this is done.

I explained what people sometimes do. I did not say that it was the thing to do.

I don't think it's a good thing to try when you are first getting reading skills and the skills for reading. You want to get solid in note recognition, finding the right note the first time rather than fumbling about. The things you need to do for "sight reading" includes going on when you hit wrong notes. I'd want to get the underlying skills first. This was something I had to determine myself when I got a piano again after decades, and had not known notes and such the first time round. I was looking at how to acquire reading skills. "Sight reading" came up, and I realized it was not a good idea at that point. The notions were also confusing, because often the concept of reading and sight reading were not set out.

One good tip I picked up......

Whenever you catch yourself looking at your hands (looking not glancing!), you have to go back and play the piece from the start. If you have a teacher, ask them to enforce it if they spot you.

You have to be quite disciplined with yourself, but if you are, soon the annoyance of restarting should outweigh the habit of playing while looking at your hands.

Think this came from the youtube fellow Josh Wright.

A horrable approach imho. Playing a piece from the start as a form of punishment... Negative motivation... I don't like it.

Playing piano should be a pleasure at all times. Even drilling should be organized in such way that it could bring fun and pleasure in some way and feel rewarding.

I agree. Just having some negative consequence is not a great approach - it's much better to have the hands covered as I suggested because you will notice every time that you look down and see a scarf. It quickly breaks the habit without making it a drudgery, or engraining poor practice habits (always starting from the beginning).

thank you morodiene and every one that answered to my question.i will take into account your suggestions and tell you the results.

Bad idea.

If you get lost, find the spot where you got lost, continue.

Losing the place comes from looking down too long, not from glancing down.