Playing Without Looking At The Keyboards, Etc. Options

[Mountain]

Some people can play without having to look at the notes on the piano or not looking at the strings on the violin or looking where their fingers press on the flute. Which instrument is it easier to do it on?

[Andy-piano-flute]

You cannot look at your fingers while playing a flute cos then you wouldn't have your head & embouchure in the right place to get any sound out of it. You can look in a mirror to see what you're doing but that would be the only way?!

[Mountain]

Oh yeah, whoops :D

So how did you go about learning to learn the notes of by heart. Did it take a long time?

[tooty_flute]

Yeh looking at your fingers on a flute is a little difficult!! Althoug I did used to do that when I first started! I think its just like people who can touch-type. Once you get to know what it feels like you can play with out looking. Its all down to practise really. But it shouldnt take too long to learn.

[AnotherPianist]

Some people can play without having to look at the notes on the piano or not looking at the strings on the violin or looking where their fingers press on the flute. Which instrument is it easier to do it on?

I don't have any real experience on flute or violin but I would guess it's harder on the piano than those instruments (that is not to say that the other instruments are easier, just different in these respects). My reasoning: on the flute one doesn't have to move one's fingers laterally (I don't think, guessing from recorder playing) but just lift them up or down on the same keys so the fingers are always pretty much in the right place all of the time, so looking at them wouldn't help; on the violin even if one did look at one's fingers there's not really any marking that tells one where to put one's fingers so I don't think it would be as great a help as one might think (having said that if I do ever play the violin I look at my fingers :rolleyes:) also one has to learn to do it by feel on the violin to play pretty much.

On the piano, however, one has to move one's hands a greater distance than on any of these instruments and more frequently to different positions too: looking at one's hands is also a more easy temptation because the keys are all laid out. However, as Kenm pointed out in a post a while ago: to be a good sightreader one really needs to develop a good sense of keyboard geography because it's not possible to look at two lines of music and two hands at the same time!

[Mountain]

Oh yeah, I didn't think of it like that :lol:

[Saxophonist]

you CANT look at your hands when playing the sax. its not possible (when you are playing)

[Lisa87]

If I know a piece well then I don't really have much trouble playing without looking. I may get a few notes wrong but not many.

[sbhoa]

While trying to encourage an 8 year old piano pupil not to keep on looking down at his hands I got him to keep an eye on me during a church service to see how often I looked down.
He counted 5 times (11 hymns).

I probably had a few more quick looks which weren't noticable though ;) .

[crazy_purple_piano_freak]

if you are sight reading music you cant really look down at the same time in piano, but i tend to fail and look down when i know the piece...whoops

[sbhoa]

if you are sight reading music you cant really look down at the same time in piano, but i tend to fail and look down when i know the piece...whoops

But when you know something well and don't need to keep your eyes constantly on the page you have to look somewhere.....
I think that most people will be looking down at the keyboard to some degree in this situation, especially if playing form memory.

[crazy_purple_piano_freak]

true...sometimes looking at my hands puts me off and i forget what i'm doing! So i guess its good that we;re not meant to...

[YetAnotherPianist]

As a demonstration at a musical festival I once entered, the adjudicator propped the piano lid open with a match box and played the set piece to demonstrate that it wasn't necessary to look at one's hands all the times - he commented that many of the competitors, when performing, stared at their hands and not the music at all.

[crazy_purple_piano_freak]

A lot of pianists who play on stage without the music just stare into space or close their eyes and look really funny...

[Mountain]

as Kenm pointed out in a post a while ago: to be a good sightreader one really needs to develop a good sense of keyboard geography because it's not possible to look at two lines of music and two hands at the same time!

I think thats partly why my sight-reading is so bad.