I was wondering if anyone seems to need glasses just for playing piano - nothing else. I have had my eyes checked and they were sort of boarder-line for needing glasses. One optician recommended them, another said it would make my strong eye lazy. I can read, see the blackboard, see long distance etc all OK.
However when the music is up at a grand piano level or when it is a bit further away ( for example when I play a double tiered keyboard) I am having to peer a bit.
Does anyone have glasses just for playing piano .. and if so now you have started using them can you manage without?
Advice welcome. By the way I'm 12 if that makes a difference.

I think that you are long sighted, do you have trouble seeing the music everytime you practice? If you do, then it might be best to get glasses because it's not just music that you will have trouble reading. If not, then it might just be your eyes are tired or sometimes they can go like that. Don't watch too much TV or stay on the computer too long or your eyes might get worse.

My piano teacher has glasses to use just when playing the piano - the focal distance for reading music is different to that for reading normally, so the lenses have to be different. She always seemed to leave them in the car though .

Good lighting for the music is important too: straining to see the notes in a dim light is a sure way to adversely affect the eyes.

Curiously, almost no pianos have effective lighting so you need to ensure you have additional lighting. Most home furnishing department stores have a good range of adjustable desk lamps these days, and these can be used if you can find somewhere to place them. Note that halogen bulbs are preferable to either incandescent or fluorescent as light from the former is less bright and the latter is a bit harsh.

I have sent a few pupils ( young too ) off to have an eye test and the next week they have been wearing glasses.

I have halogen lighting in my music room...one of those awful 3-in-1 things you can pick up from Argos cheaply...Ikea are good too,but beware some of their fittings don't always comply with our fittings...ask an assistant there,if in doubt ( they also serve the most delicious food )

Back to halogen lighting...sorry...some sheet music...tunes for ten fingers spring to mind...is printed on "shiny" music,which can create a shadow.The little ones that have had bad eye sight have complained about this.

So I have this sort of desk lamp over my piano. You can,I suppose,get cheaper options,but consider it an investment.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brass-Desk-Lamp_W0QQ...1QQcmdZViewItem

There are some nice Tiffany style examples btw.

Ask your parents to investigate.

There are also clip on lights available for other instrumentalists.Might be more suitable for use on a grand piano,but make sure there is a cloth or something between the clip itself and the woodwork.

I play the piano and flute and I do have glasses just for music. I've always been a bit short-sighted but when I got more advanced and the pages got fuller with tiny notes I got glasses, I was about 12. I often manage without them normally but I use them for my concert band and exams.
Some people say that if you don't wear glasses and make your eyes work they sometimes cure themselves. Don't tell the opticians about this because they'll tell you it's a load of rubbish when actually they're the ones spouting rubbish.
Appologies if I've offended anyone but I have a great dislike of anyone in the health profesion. Doctors, dentists, orthodontics, opticians.....

That seems a little generalised.....

My piano teacher used to wear glasses for reading, and for reading music.

I first noticed that I needed glasses when I was told to sit further back from the music stand at an orchestra rehearsal because the other player couldn't see the music properly. When I moved back, I couldn't read the music very well.

I've had glasses for about 6 months now and I wear them for reading, schoolwork and most music reading. If I don't wear them for a period of time (say a morning at school) and try to do those things then I generally end up with a mild headache.

Sorry - I don't think this does work - I've had to wear glasses since I was 11 and only ever wore them for reading the board or watching TV etc. In fact due to vanity (national health specs were ugly in those days!) I went around in a kind of blur until after university! (Whereupon I got contacts!) And my eyes never got better from 'making them work' - they got worse! In fact, come to think of it they did actually improve a little when I first started wearing contact lenses, but now they're worse again - probably this time through spending time on a computer!!!!

You could be a bit long sighted musicmanNZ... what has your opticians said?

I wear varifocals, covers all eventualities..... solves that middle distance music reading but if the music is high up i have to tip my head back to see properly.

Well my parents took me to two opticians .. and got conflicting advice. One said yes, should have glasses and the other was the one that said I was boarder line and having glasses would make my strong eye lazy. But that was about 2 years ago now so I will ask Mum to make another appointment and we will see what they say now. Here in NZ optician appt and having glasses aren't covered by the government or health insurance ( unless you have a really expensive type) so the whole process can cost about $500. But obviously if I need them Mum and Dad will find the money I'm sure.

are you a kiwi?? or native born person?? because it is less possible for a NZer to be short sighted.

That is interesting to know. Perhaps it's another reason that two opticians moved to NZ from our local Specsavers branch ( my eldest has worn glasses from the age of 18 months...and I can never forget the trouble I had getting him to wear them,plus the patch over one eye ) ...I believe they bought a place with 19 acres.

Despite the bad press our NHS receives,I know I'm lucky us Brits have got it.

So expensive health insurance is your parents only option? Do the opticians run instalment plans or anything like that? Do you have big chains eg like the equivalent of our Boots or Specsavers?

Hallo. I use glasses but I did think it would make my sight worse.
Now, I am ok with my glasses. Still, I do think my sight has got worse because of my glasses.
(I say to myself)...? Sorry, but can you read that poster?

Viohazard broke his glasses while we were in NZ, not long after we got new ones in Japan, so we had a great opportunity to compare NZ opticians with Japanese ones. You may be interested to know that glasses are no cheaper here in Japan, one way and another, even though it's the home of many famous lens brands. National health insurance doesn't cover glasses here either.

We discussed the music-reading issue with the optician, and they gave him a simple type of progressive lens. Usually if you tell the optician what you are having most trouble with, they will prescribe the strength of the lens to match that problem best.

The Japanese optician said that that it was best to underprescribe, not rely too much on glasses etc etc. The NZ optician said it just depended on how badly you wanted to see what you were looking at...but his old Japanese glasses and his new NZ glasses were almost identical in basic strength!

Viohazard can still read close things like books OK, but he has one other problem with reading music - visual tracking. He tends to move his head instead of just his eyes. When you move your whole head, your eyes often end up moving inaccurately (too far), so you skip phrases or lines. He's been practicing following one of those pencil with gimmicky monsters on the top of it with his eyes only. It was never much of a problem with reading books, because the lines are shorter and the book is closer to the eyes. If reading music is more of a problem than reading books, maybe check tracking too.

He wears his new glasses much more than he wore his old ones. I am not so sure that the glasses have made his sight worse, though maybe he's right - I think that maybe 1) he now notices when he can't see things clearly, and 2) apparently your eyesight often gets worse suddenly when you start growing taller at around age 12 (Viohazard will be 12 in January).

OK well here is the end of the story ...

Optician last week. Eyes all checked and there had been a deterioration since I last had them checked a couple of years ago.
So he prescribed glasses. In fact he said if I was taking my driver's licence ( which I'm not of course because I'm 12! ) I would have failed the eye test!

So I am now looking very handsome in a snazzy pair of specs for piano playing, computer work and that type of distance. I don't have to wear them for reading or all the time.

and Mum is $534 poorer!!!

Crikey...that is a lot of money.Does that include a spare pair?

NO!
It isn't even a very expensive frame ... mid-range. Frame was about half the price then there was the eye exam, lens, fitting etc arrghhh
That's what happens when there isn't a NHS Glasses and teeth braces are only covered by the most expensive health insurance plans here in NZ . not the normal GP / Hospital insurance cover that most people have.

Definately not a spare pair I have been threatened with extinction if I loose these

I have to wear them all the time, but when I'm playing the piano or reading, i tend to take them of because i can read better without them!

How much does the lens cost? Ask your mum. Just thought of something.And don't forget my eldest wears glasses. Our NHS only allows minors to have one pair....I got round that one!

If it's any comfort, that's about what Viohazard's glasses cost in NZ too.

Happy viewing, anyway!

I resent the medical profession too, but I'd have to say that what the opticians are telling you isn't rubbish.

I was actually told by an optometrist (this was in my first few years of primary school) that I should just make my eyes work, he even gave me exercises to help but not only did my vision get worse, I started getting migraines.

Although, you shouldn't wear glasses any more than you need to (this is what my lastest optometrist has told me), because that will also make your vision worse.