Do you look at your hands when practicing scales?
Does it matter?

Yes. Probably because scales are usually learned without music in front of me.
No.

There seems to be a school of thought that suggests practicing scales in the dark or while not looking will help develop your overall feel and spatial awareness of the keyboard. I find some of them difficult enough as it is so I look at my hands and keep the lights on

I've been learning without looking just on the basis that 'you should never look at the keys' Ever. Or your head might explode. No doubt I'll look in the exam, and then get all confused.

Most deffo yes. I need to look at the keys to know which finger to use at the "change?" (going from thumb to 3/4 finger) going up in the left hand and down in the right hand. Down in the left and up in the right are not so bad (I'm sure there is some logical reason for this...but maybe not).

I'll try in the dark tonight and see what happens....I suspect banging on the floor from my upstairs neighbours Or maybe I'll just try in "half-light" (warning up of energy saving bulbs) to begin with

Couldn't you just close your eyes?
Just a thought...

I think it is helpful to practise both ways - looking and not looking. You need to feel confident playing without looking so that you can cope with scale passages in pieces without looking down at your hands. However when playing scales in isolation it is fine to look at your hands. I usually watch my left hand as it is the one most likely to go wrong!

I do it both ways. I generally look down while I play it through slowly, then speed up once I've got the pattern fixed in my mind and look at the wall/close my eyes once I know where my hands are going. I occasionally glance down if there's a particular sequence I've got confused (eg today I kept forgetting the Eb in C minor). I wouldn't practice them blind from the start as I don't want to memorise mistakes, but once it's learned then it's eyes closed.

In answer to the 'Does it matter?' question - no!
Nor will your head explode. It's playing minesweeper in the dark that makes that happen.
What might make your head explode, pianistically speaking, in the future, is trying to play complex Baroque music with lots of scalic passages going in all directions without looking at your hands. Or Chopin or Rachmaninov for that matter. If you've cemented in too well by that stage the idea that you should never look you might actually have difficulty, because looking may then knock your coordination off kilter. I think it's wrong to have hard and fast rules about looking or not looking at your hands. Scales are supposed to be a technical exercise which helps in the playing of real music, so as in real music, just do what works!

Good points - I think I'll follow this advice.

Hi David

The only thing I have to add to this thread is that there are no 'stupid beginners question' if you need to know it, it's not a stupid question.

D x

When I first started to learn to play scales, my teacher then said to me to practise without looking. Strange now as I can't remember whether I look or not when I do them as I just do it automatic.

If you can learn to play without looking though I think it is better for you when you are playing pieces, that way you can just look at the music rather than up and down.

I have 2 new pieces that I am doing at the moment, started a couple of weeks ago. One of them is classical and one jazz, I can play the classical without looking at the keys but when I come to do the jazz I need to look at the keys, hence then I lose where I am on the music.

I recently went on a piano course, and she got my jacket and put it across the keys and made me play. It was awful! I am hoping once I have these pieces under my belt a bit more that I will be able to play them without looking but at the moment they are such big jumps that I just can't do it.

ET

I get this exact same problem, which is why I try to memorise everything!

Ha ! I do that sometimes, (not with your jacket though ET!! )
And usually with something very simple to start with.

I think it needs to be very non-threatening and done in a spirit of fun: I usually say something like ' don't worry if it doesn't work - it will be my fault for covering the keys' etc ! and we keep it rather light-hearted.

But they often surprise themselves.

Yep but trying it in front of an audience lol, and when it is a new piece too. This is what happened to me in my master class last week. Having said that she was an excellent teacher and obviously had confidence in me being able to do it.

This was after she had told me that I was great and had nerves of steel, were we talking about the same person here (me that is as nervous as anything.) This was because I had lost my place and there was silence and then I just carried on. I said to her, well that is what we are supposed to do isn't it?

I then didn't know whether to take it as a compliment or what, had the silence been a very long time lol

ET

I think the trick is to be able to look when you need to but in such a way that you don't lose where you are on the page. I don't tend to lose my place when I need a quick look to check where I'm going.

I'm glad I didn't have to play with my fingers under the jacket. I'm sure she was being complimentary - if I'd have lost my place I would have started talking, then never found it again. I think you were brave to have played the piece after only two weeks - it was bad enough playing mine which had been on the go for months.

Well, no, maybe doing that in front of an audience is a bit rough!

You must have acquitted yourself rather well, ET.