I reached that age when, after a lifetime of no problems with either long or short distance vision, I suddenly required spectacles for close up work and reading small print, and soon after for piano/computer distance vision and then eventually even for driving ... three different pairs of spectacles!

After a long break I returned to playing the piano by which time this process had completed. Fortunately I didn't find it a problem - after a brief period of adjustment to the fact that I couldn't read music (and hence couldn't play at all) without the intermediate range spectacles!

What did become a problem just recently was, when I started to play along with a local ("non-public-performing") orchestra, I found that I couldn't get adequate focus on the conductor. I catch myself tending to keep time by listening to the other performers rather than following the conductor - not the best practice as they aren't always that good at keeping time with him either!

Anyway, my question is, does anyone reading this thread wear bi or vari-focals whilst playing from music? I tend to imagine I'll end up with a cricked neck trying to read the music in the lower half of the lens and look at the conductor in the upper part, to say nothing of the vertical movement equivalent of watching a game of tennis whilst trying to get the right point in the lens for focus on the music or conductor.

I had a pair of vari-focals but unfortunately lost them when I took a serious tumble whilst out orienteering - about the only activity I had previously found that they were really useful for (reading map and also seeing where I was running) without the need for a change of spectacles. I couldn't get on with them at all for driving and they weren't any good for computer use at work.

I shall need at some point to replace them for orienteering use but, as I might also find them useful for playing the piano when with the orchestra, need to decide whether to go for another pair of vari-focals or try what I imagine will be somewhat cheaper bi-focals.

Any comments from personal experience .... stands back ....!

I wear varifocals and am very happy with them.
It's that in between distance that is so important for reading music either as a pianist or at orchestra.

I'm pleased that I adjusted to them very well (they were great from the first time i ever wore them) as I really couldn't do with having to have 2 or 3 pairs for different activities. It's so rare that you only need the one distance in real life isn't it?

My eyes are just wierd - I cope in an orchestra (Minus the glasses!) by sitting 5 miles behind everyone else. I tend to watch the conductor over the top of my glasses if I do remember to bring them!

I wear varifocals for playing, teaching (mostly one-to-one) and singing (in choir, watching conductor from up to about 8 feet away and looking at score. Somehow they cope with all of that. My previous ones didn't, needless to say.

I have middle distance piano glasses but seem to manage in the choir with bi-focals. I did try vari-focals a couple of years ago but returned to bi-focals as I had difficulty in getting the focussing right.

I had my eyeballs lasered to my prescription and now wear no glasses at all (expensive, but highly recommended and probably cheaper than regular new glasses).

However, for making most things look better I recommend rose tinted spectacles.

I couldn't get on with varifocals at all, despite other people recommending them highly . They made me feel ever-so-slightly sick all the time, and I found it very unnatural doing the moving-head-rather-than-eyes thing. Bifocals I had found previously to be totally useless for music purposes.

So I now just use my old 'distance' glasses for general things and for reading music. They're not ideal either, but better than the other two expensive pairs! I use the bifocals if I'm reading or doing a puzzle, and the varis for watching TV, as they are undoubtedly a more up-to-date prescription.

My first two pairs of vari-focals were superb for everything from music to driving. My present pair are not so good. I can read the music OR see the keyboard but not look up and down quickly. If I do the music becomes fuzzy. I have some difficulty in sitting beside pupils and reading from their music on the piano.
I'll change them when I have the time and the money.

However I can remember the relief when vari-focals were invented as I couldn'd see myself with bi-foacls which at that time were very ugly and as for two pairs of glasses - that was a non starter in the classroom. Besides I knew I'd be forever losing the pair I needed.

I enquired about that after a friend was pleased with the results.
Unfortunately they can't help me as my prescription is too strong.
It wolud benefit me if they could do a partial correction so that I could wear regular lenses instead of having to find around £250 on top of frames for thinner lenses. Regular lenses with my prescription are thick enough to wreck the frames.... even with thinner lenes they have to glue the screw on the left as the lens loosens it contantly.

I have a student who wears vari-focals and he can't get on with them at all - causes him to mis-read notes as he can't look at the page without something going out of focus!

The price of lazer-eye surgery's gone down quite a lot now - think I'll hang on a bit to see if they get a bit better value

Perhaps it's just me, but I'd be terrified to have laser surgery on my eyes - think I'll stick to having blurry vision...

My first set of varifocals have worked a treat. Driving, music reading and general other bits all fine.

The one thing I can't do is share a copy with someone of a different height. Everything is blurry as its the wrongpart of my glasses.

Seriously thinking of Toric contact lenses for singing purposes, but I'd still need reading glasses.

My (very limited) understanding of vari-focals and music is that they can be great, but you ideally need to talk to your optician about what they'll be used for, because of angles of vision and stuff, so as not to let them assume what exactly you'll need them for.

I've got VERY bad eyesight (short sighted), so I need glasses, but It's not complicated, because my eyesight problem isn't complicated!

I have been shortsighted as long as I can remember and wear contact lenses.

Everything was fine until the presbyopia started kicking in (it happens to virtually everyone at a 'certain age' I am told). I got those reading glasses you can get at chemists and supermarkets and everything was fine again (strangely enough I can read without my glasses if I don't have my lenses in!)

Anyway as time marches on my eyes got worse, and I got to the pont where I couldn't read the music with or without my glasses...wrong distance. I went to the optician who said to get a pair of the reading glasses but not as strong, for music. These work fine except of course for seeing the conductor, so I just tend to put them on the end of my nose and peer over the top at him.

I keep a pair of these in the music room and one in my violin case.

Yes - my optician took me through in great detail what I need to do and how far away things are - computer screen, piano music, choir (there they become fari-vocals though) etc. With one pair I used to have to look over the top at the conductor, like Jane described, then through the lens at the music. My current pair works fine for both. They cost a packet - but without them I 'd have difficulty doing my job, so ......

The first pair I had worked less well in general than subsequent pairs, though I'm not clear what the difference was, something about varying the proportion of the areas of the lens I think. I didn't wear glasses at all until about 10 years ago.

I made my appointment for the optician when I found I couldn't read the 'Radio Times' anymore! Expensive move though as it cost me over £200 for my first pair of reading glasses and some new 'Wimbledon' sunglasses. I feel really 'cool' in those though - or is the new expression 'hot' these days?



Trouble is the music now looks clearer when I teach, but the pupil is all blurred

Glad I wasn't talking nonsense!!


Might sometimes be a good thing??!

Laser may fix a focusing problem when it's the eye structure which is at fault; it won't fix the difficulty all our eyes are likely to encounter with time, that of stiffening of the lens. I'm also a high myope, and my -8 dioptre prescription makes laser unavailable to me too, even if I wanted it. What I'd really like, but am far too chicken to try, would be the new surgery, based on what they already do for cataracts, of lens removal and replacement with a plastic lens which can also be focused - that would be cool. If I get cataracts, I'll certainly go for this option .

As it is, my arms are now just starting to get shorter , and soon I'll have to dive into the muddle of lenses for aging eyes, arrrgh. I recently went to the 60th birthday party of a highly respected and fairly well-known musician, and his lady presented him with a lovely present - it was a large box with a perspex lid, on which she'd written "have you seen my......?" - and inside were about thirty pairs of glasses, several tuning hammers and tuning forks, several sets of car keys and some house keys .

I Shall give my Dad something like that

I've always thought it seems a tad risky to get one's eyes "fixed" in this manner when there's no cure as yet for the age related problem...

My brother had an ulcer on one eye and after it healed he ended up with perfect vision (after being very short-sighted) in that eye because it had changed the shape of the eye. Not a recommended option though...!

Goodness that was lucky for your brother - I would imagine it could easily have gone the opposite way ???

Anacrusis LOL

Yes, he was lucky - I don't know much about these things but I know it was a nasty business, I imagine he could as easily have lost his sight in that eye as ended up being cured of short sightedness