Glasses for music Options

[MusicalNitWit]

DS has been developing migraines over the past few weeks and I am thinking about taking him to the optician. After observing and chatting to him about these migraines I have noticed they seem to come on whilst he is reading music. It didn't really cross my mind that it could be music score related as I thought it may be an excuse to get out of music practice, but he is developing headaches whilst singing Evensongs as well and he has no symptoms when reading other texts or doing school work. I was just wondering if when I mention it to the optician, he will think I am a loon or this is a common problem amongst musicians and it can be solved through glasses.

[Czerny]

I hope this doesn't seem unsympathetic (I'm not - I suffer from migraines too, and they're a real pain) but who cares whether music is a common or "normal" trigger, or even if there turns out not to be a direct causal link between reading music and the migraines in the end? The fact is that your son (I think this is what "DS" indicates) has been developing these symptoms regularly after looking at musical notation. The one certain thing is that there is a problem, and there appears to be a connection with music-reading, so it makes sense to mention it to the optician - even if he or she does give you a funny look! The other certain thing is that no-one on this forum is going to be able to tell you remotely what's causing your son's headaches...

I hope you get it sorted out.

P.S. According to my optician, there's something about the distance at which you read music (further away than a book or computer screen) that can make difficult for the eyes to focus properly. Yours will be able to tell you more, I'm sure.

[miffy]

My optitian has a set of music displays as well as the normal alphabet and word ones they use when doing eye tests.

[Tequila]

Had similar issue with my daughter. Not the migraines but problems with reading music in her normal glasses giving her eye strain. She stands with her clarinet right under the music stand and that can't be helpful ....

Opticians said that if her long sight prescription was too strong it would cause difficulties in the mid-distance. So her prescription has been reduced. It hasn't seemed to affect her other areas of vision but to be honest I'm not sure if the reduction in strength is enough as she said it's helped "a bit".


Definitely worth asking the opticians about and once the sight is sorted or even alongside this it's perhaps worth talking to the doctor about the migraines too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[porilo]

I would take him to the GP first, then the optician if necessary. There are many causes of migraines and eyesight is only one out of hundreds.

[SueHM]

Bet you the GP asks if he's had his eyes tested.....

[JoannaB]

Might also be worth taking some music to the opticians with you as some don't actually know what you will be looking at. Some people I know even take a music stand to help show the distance involved.

[Dulcet]

Could be stress-related - tension due to all the brainwork going on when doing music? My DS1 peers with his eyes screwed up closely at the piano music so I took him to the optician just to check it out and his eyesight is top notch - it's just a habit he has when he's sight reading.

Glasses and music are a nightmare. I have middle aged eyesight and Common Praise has very small print (IMO) compared with the last Hymns A&M. If I wear my glasses to sing I end up holding the book right in front of my face and moving it up so I don't have to move my eyes - because if I don't the glasses pinch my nose so I don't sing so well!

[maggiemay]

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)

[porilo]

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.

[kenm]

Many decades ago, I started getting migraines while playing in the local brass band, which rehearsed in a room with rather dim lighting. I had an eye test and my short sighted left eye was discovered. For some years after that, the migraines returned when I needed to get a new pair of spectacles. Now that I have lost accommodation, for music reading I add a pair of 1 dioptre lenses to the specs I wear for driving.

[Banjogirl]

Might there be a connection with blowing/singing? Does he have the same problem with the piano or double bass? If I sing a song which is mostly at the upper end of my range I very quickly develop a headache in the front of my head. I'm not otherwise prone to headaches, in fact I would go so far as to say that I've never had one, but I do get 'silent' migraines. I've not played a wind instrument so I don't know whether it might have the same effect but i can imagine that it might.

[CJB]

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)

[Sunrise]

I have found that using a lyre for my piccolo when marching is a problem with my contact lense prescrition, it's just too close and I have to work to focus. But if I reduce prescription then I'm not going to be able to see the BM!
When I go I will have to go complete with lyre and pic to get it right...I can't wait to see what the optician thinks!!

[TSax]

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!