Glasses for music Options

[elephant]

<<I was out last Friday evening with a friend, both of us wearing lenses, both of us 40-something. I was driving to somewhere we hadn't been before (driving is fine, my vision is perfectly OK to drive with lenses in). We couldn't find where we were going so stopped to look in the A-Z. But the print is tiny and we only had the courtesy light in the car and neither of us could read the street names.>>

Off topic, but this confirms the best bit of driving advice I have ever heard: "never go anywhere for the first time!!"

[Dulcet]

Reading a book or music copy and watching a conductor at the same time can be tricky with glasses. My optician takes into account that I need to do this, and I find the solution he comes up with works ok - but it needed to be taken into account.

Several of us in the choir find fairy vocals work for us (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I usually go for fairly small frames so I can look over them at the conductor works well but occasionally freaks the conductor as apparently it makes me look stern (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Now, having discovered that you're local to me I'm wondering where you sing...

Simple solution for those who don't like glasses are contact lenses. I used to wear glasses but since I started to wear contact lenses there is absolutely no way that I would wear glasses again.

You might find you have to revise that opinion in the future!

I used to wear contact lenses pretty much all the time, and glasses only for an hour or so in the morning / evening.
Then I started working in quite a dry office staring at a computer screen all the time. The tipping point came when I was taken out to a very expensive restaurant and I couldn't enjoy it because my eyes were hurting too much. So I switched to wearing glasses most of the time and daily lenses at weekends or if I'm going out in the evening.

I was out last Friday evening with a friend, both of us wearing lenses, both of us 40-something. I was driving to somewhere we hadn't been before (driving is fine, my vision is perfectly OK to drive with lenses in). We couldn't find where we were going so stopped to look in the A-Z. But the print is tiny and we only had the courtesy light in the car and neither of us could read the street names. I also find I can't thread a needle or sew wearing lenses. If I've got my glasses on I can take them off and my near vision is fine, but I can't do that with lenses. My new plan is to get a cheap pair of reading glasses to keep in the car for any future map-reading emergencies!

tee hee - I have a friend who buys reading glasses from charity shops and puts a pair in every room/bag/coat! My first real "40 something" eyesight moment came at a school reunion a couple of years ago when all 3 of us picked up a menu in the restaurant and simultaneously put it straight back down on the table again to get it in focus... It was trying to read the small print on christmas stocking present instructions that finally made me cave and get my eyes tested!

[MusicalNitWit]

Obviously I need to go and see an optician but I was wondering if anyone had come across Convergence Insufficiency. DS symptoms seem to match some of them and interestingly it is associated with ADHD. If anyone has CI, I would be interested to hear how you cope whilst reading music.

[tonedeafmum]

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[Roseau]

Obviously I need to go and see an optician but I was wondering if anyone had come across Convergence Insufficiency. DS symptoms seem to match some of them and interestingly it is associated with ADHD. If anyone has CI, I would be interested to hear how you cope whilst reading music.

A friend's son was diagnosed with this about six months ago. He is a very good French horn player (approaching grade 8 at 13) and it doesn't appear to have hindered him reading music. Like Tonedeafmum he was given exercises to do.

[MusicalNitWit]

Well I feel very guilty. I took DS to an optician and when he was asked to read the top line with his right eye he could not see a thing - not even the board! So, his brain has been working extremely hard to see with one eye. I just don't know how he didn't notice before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[sbhoa]

Well I feel very guilty. I took DS to an optician and when he was asked to read the top line with his right eye he could not see a thing - not even the board! So, his brain has been working extremely hard to see with one eye. I just don't know how he didn't notice before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Not your fault. It's amazing how we compensate for these things when we aren't aware that it's not 'normal'.
Also I was told when my children were younger that some problems develop as the child grows so were not always present.

[Maizie]

Well I feel very guilty. I took DS to an optician and when he was asked to read the top line with his right eye he could not see a thing - not even the board! So, his brain has been working extremely hard to see with one eye. I just don't know how he didn't notice before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Took until I was 10 before anyone spotted that in me. It was at primary school in a test where they covered my left eye first and I was done for.
Before this I had had some eye tests, but they would cover my right eye first, so I'd be able to read it fine with my left eye. Then they'd cover my left eye, I couldn't see a darn thing, but I'd do as much as I could of the chart from memory. It's an eye test you see, so getting as many 'right answers' as possible was what I assumed the goal to be...

[all ears]

when he was asked to read the top line with his right eye he could not see a thing - not even the board!

That happened to me the first time I went to a Japanese optometrist...Japanese optometrists have so much junk on their walls that the truly short-sighted need a little help to find the chart! This type of uneven vision is apparently hereditary...and sure enough, I've passed it on to both my sons, poor wretches.

It is hard for kids to know that everybody else doesn't see things the same way that they do. Sounds as if your DS is about to get some new glasses? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Meanwhile, for the over 40s...I found the multifocal/varifocal (whatever they call them in English now) lenses made a huge difference. I couldn't see students' work on their desks when I was standing, and had trouble seeing faces a few rows away clearly...new glasses...problem solved! Funnily enough, I was happy with those glasses for years when translating (computer screen-intensive), but once I started teaching again, I soon realized that my decade-old prescription needed an update...definitely a different set of visual tasks involved.

[Banjogirl]

I needed glasses for ages but my mum didn't believe me, which is odd as our whole family is terribly short sighted. I was so pleased when I got my glasses at age ten. I never realised it was possible to read the names above shops. Don't beat yourself up. As eyesight problems usually develop slowly it's normal to adjust rather than realise there's a problem.

My optician used to say that there was no such thing as bad eyesight, just different. But it never fooled me. I knew that it was not as good to be unable to make out a hand in front of your face!

[MusicalNitWit]

Thanks everyone, I feel slightly less guilty now! Ten seems to be the age, and yes OH (wears bottle tops) is the one to blame for the duff eye genes! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Wouldn't it be amazing if glasses could solve his ADHD symptoms? I can only dream....

[Banjogirl]

It might certainly make it easier for him to concentrate. I feel very zoned out without my glasses and I actually can't hear as well. It comes in handy if I'm at a really bad concert as I can take off my glases and get away from whatever is offending me!

[MusicalNitWit]

I've thought DS had hearing problems for years! It's all falling into place! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif)

[tonedeafmum]

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[MusicalNitWit]

Well I feel very guilty. I took DS to an optician and when he was asked to read the top line with his right eye he could not see a thing - not even the board! So, his brain has been working extremely hard to see with one eye. I just don't know how he didn't notice before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

And without music lessons his vision problems might not have been diagnosed for years, if at all! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)