Looking At Your Hands While Playing Options

[bean52]

I'd like to know the opinion of others on looking at your hands while playing. My teacher says I should only look down when the music requires a substantial change in position. Otherwise he maintains that I should look up at the music at all times on the grounds that if I have a good sense of the keyboard and a good hand position when starting then my brain will tell which finger where it needs to be for each note. I must admit I'm struggling with this a little – especially when he covered my hands with a tea-towel in my last lesson! I've seen it said by an experienced teacher on her website that she doesn’t consider it necessary to avoid looking at your hands, so I assume it’s not necessarily a universally held view.

[bobifier]

There's a good reason concert pianists memorise their music (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Cadence]

I think thats quite an old-fashioned feeling, more to do with convention/tradition rather than it having any benefit - there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn't look at your hands whilst playing. If you look at professionals playing, you will often see them looking at the keys and their fingers.

However, if you can't play/remember the piece without looking at your hands, then it is a problem.

This, I believe, is why it is encouraged not to look at your hands, as in this case your mind will be remembering where your fingers are going rather than the music. Also, if you make a mistake and can't find where you are in the music, that isn't very helpful.

So it is beneficial to be able to play without needing to watch your fingers, but it is not the be all and end all.

I would suggest that you get used to being able to play whilst following the music, or with your eyes closed, but don't feel that you are compelled to do so all the time.

[Digby]

I think when you know a piece well then there is no problem varying your look between hands and music - the problem occurs, especially with beginners who are struggling to read music when they spend so much time looking at their hands they have no clue where they are and get into a complete pickle with reading the music so end up guessing. In this instance covering the hands and forcing them to actually read the dots makes a huge impact and more often than not they then get it right when it has been a huge mess before.

[Mad Tom]

The trouble with looking at your hands while playing from a score is that it is very easy to lose your place.

Also you hinder the process of getting a 'feel' for large jumps and skips.

But if you have memorized a piece there can hardly be any objection to looking at your hands. After all what else are you going to look at?

But if you have memorized a piece very well you will probably find that you don't need to look at your hands!!

[Teigr]

After all what else are you going to look at?

A conductor maybe?
Or, for organists, the words (for psalms and hymns).

[all ears]

It appears to be possible to read magazine features on ancient civilisations while practicing Hanon... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[maggiemay]

The trouble with looking at your hands while playing from a score is that it is very easy to lose your place.

Yes. And this is a major problem for many students, especially at elementary level.

[steve!-flute]

I look at my hands sometimes if there's a particularly nasty bit in a piece. I've only been playing for two years so I lack strength in some fingers. I find it helpful to look at thmy hands to make sure they don't miss notes, move to far or not enough. But my piano teacher ALWAYS picks up on it.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[kingsley13]

I normally look at my hands when I'm playing a familiar piece. If I'm sightreading, practising something I'm not as good at or playing a part of the piece I'm not as confident at, then I generally flick between the two. If you feel more comfortable looking at your hands when your playing then that is what you should do.

But if you have memorized a piece there can hardly be any objection to looking at your hands. After all what else are you going to look at?

I do this if I know the piece well enough to not need the music. Escpecially as our piano is a shiny one and I can see my own reflection!

[Robodoc]

The trouble with looking at your hands while playing from a score is that it is very easy to lose your place.

Also you hinder the process of getting a 'feel' for large jumps and skips.

But if you have memorized a piece there can hardly be any objection to looking at your hands. After all what else are you going to look at?

But if you have memorized a piece very well you will probably find that you don't need to look at your hands!!

1) Learn to play it looking at the music
2) Learn to play it without looking at the music
3) Learn to play it with your eyes closed.

I very rarely achieve all 3 in this list, but I do feel that if I could I would know the piece even better.

[sbhoa]

In the early stages I do quite strongly discourage looking at the hands.
It's not necessary when your hands are not moving around the keyboard and as has been mentioned it leads to lack of fluency and losing the place in the music.
Apart from holding a book in the way I also play games where the student closes their eyes and I call out finger numbers or 'step up, skip down etc' to prove that they do know where the fingers are without looking at them.
I don't object if something is PROPERLY learned from memory.
I once suggested that a student watched me on a Sunday morning to see how often I looked at my hands during the playing of the hymns. I looked less often that day than I sometimes do!

[Solari]

I think the hardest thing I'm finding at the moment is forcing myself to use the same/correct fingering each time. Once I manage to crack that for a piece I rarely have to look at the keys and it makes things so much easier.

+1 for easily losing track of where the heck I am if I keep looking down (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[chocolatedog]

It depends what level the pupil is at - if the pupil is a real beginner, in a fixed 5-finger position, then looking down is not necessary, and a lot of pupils think they need to when they don't. One of the problems that this leads to is trouble on the part of learning to read the notes - they maybe read the once, then end up looking down and trying to guess (which leads to numerous mistakes, and doesn't help the note reading at all..... GRRRRR). As a more advanced student, it becomes more necessary to look down for changes of hand position but then look back up (unless the piece is THOROUGHLY memorised!!!) otherwise mistakes can creep in with faulty memory, and details can easily get missed (plus if the teacher writes something on the music it will not be spotted and internalised....). In any case, even as an advanced pianist, there are times when you need to have an inbuilt feel for the keyboard geography as if both hands are leaping huge distances contrary-wise, you can't possibly keep your eyes on both hands, so practising playing without looking down at all is useful.........

[PianoDoodler]

I'd like to know the opinion of others on looking at your hands while playing. My teacher says I should only look down when the music requires a substantial change in position. Otherwise he maintains that I should look up at the music at all times on the grounds that if I have a good sense of the keyboard and a good hand position when starting then my brain will tell which finger where it needs to be for each note.

Your teacher is giving you good advice here. Best to take notice, I suggest.

I've seen it said by an experienced teacher on her website that she doesn’t consider it necessary to avoid looking at your hands, so I assume it’s not necessarily a universally held view.

This depends on context. Ok, when I play a piano concerto from memory, I gaze fixedly at my hands. When I sight-read a piano accompaniment, I do not have time to look down at my hands. I have to feel my way around the piano. Horses for courses, really.

I was working on this very thing with an adult student yesterday. Take a ridiculous example, although this did actually happen. RH moving from E to F. LH simultaneously moving from C to D.

This student looked down to check on the location of F. Then she looked back at the music to ascertain the LH note. Then she looked down at her hand to locate the D. Then she looked back at the music to make sure the note she was about to play in her RH really was F...........................

Do I need to continue?

Yep. Learn to feel your way around the keyboard and you will save yourself hours of work in the longer term.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)