We've had a lot of discussion on the forums about reading and memorising, and how our brains work to enable us to do one or other or both. I had a strange experience last night that made me think. I'd had rather a lot of wine to drink and was having some fun sight reading duets with a friend - fairly difficult ones. What I found was that I was able to sight read pretty fluently and found myself looking well ahead on the page, and we got further than usual when sight reading without me saying, "STOP, I've lost it somewhere; we're not together." However, when we then launched into things that we knew really well and have played well for audiences, I was pretty awful. This is really not what I would have expected! I would have thought that depending on memory with alcohol would have produced better results than tackling new music that requires quite a lot of quick thinking, coordination and fine motor skills (if that's the right way to look at sight reading). I know that this wasn't just a case of me imagining this as I wasn't sitting playing on my own, and the other party was sober. Why do you think this was the case, and not the other way round?

Interesting. Although not directly related to your experience, there is research which showed that students who learned material after drinking a fair amount of alcohol could only recall that material after a similar amount of alcohol, but not when sober. I wonder if the same applies (in reverse) to your well-known material, assuming you learned it while sober, of course!

The increased sight reading facility suggests that most of your problems stem from tension, and the alcohol relaxed you sufficiently to enable you to sight read well. I know from my own experience that I can play through a book of pieces easily at home, but struggle if I have to play one for a pupil as part of aural test practice.

When sightreading, you probably didn't have too high expectations of playing those pieces correctly, so to some extent the pressure was off. When turning to repertoire that you consider you already knew, expectations on your part were greater, perhaps your critical faculties more astute, so that the disparity between your aspirations and what you actually managed to produce seemed larger - every correct note when sightreading would have been counted as a bonus!

So, perhaps it was your critique that was affected, more than your performance?

Alcohol reduces inhibitions so probably you were less stressed by the sight reading and therefore it went well.
Perhaps you weren't bothered if it was correct or not so you just had some fun

On a similar theme I once accidentally discovered that a well known cold remedy syrup (with ephredrine and paracetemol) makes me play the violin like a dream
I was really ill one day with a heavy cold but had a concert in the evening. I took an extra dose just before the concert..... and whizzed through all my pieces without any mistakes, ending with Czardas (played twice as fast as normal) for which I received a standing ovation for the first time ever.

I am not advocating cold remedies to improve performance of course.

Taking cold comfort from your performance.

I agree with Organistin! I'd say you just went for it because you were feeling looser and that you're probably capable of doing this all the time but are aware that what you're playing is difficult.

On the cold remedies...I had to do a gig once (choral singing, in a very small group) and had taken some fairly strong anti-flu drugs during the day. I made the mistake of having half a glass of punch (which I later learned was rocket fuel!) and spent the gig sightreading while seeing double. Not the most enjoyable experience I've had!!!

I definately play the flute better in band concerts after one (and just one!!!) small beer. I do suffer from nerves and it definately helps!!

However I've never yet found anything to help with my severe bow shakes on classical violin solos....whereas with folk, no problem! I'm considering hypnotherapy!!

I found going shoeless works. I don't know why.
I also discovered my first piece was always the worst so I banned myself from playing anything first which involved long sustained bows - the shaking does not affect playing as much if you play faster pieces with lots of semiquavers. Then generally by the second piece most of the nerves have gone and I can sustain long bows with no shakes.

If I remember correctly in Dalcroze dynamic rehearsal techniques they go barefoot. Maybe it encourages better posture?

They also seem to stand on small trampolines which is less practical in a performance (But somehow I don't think they expect you to bring your trampoline to a concert...in case anyone thought I was serious!!!) It definitely improved the sound of people I heard.

I wondered what the direction sautille meant!

What's that song, "I can see clearly now the rain has gone...gonna be a bright, bright, bright, sun shiny day..."? It was used in an advert for something a long time ago. Not really sure if it's entirely relevant, but maybe some things, in the right quantities, just take away the rain...? Maybe if we have something very specific to focus on - like posture - or 'keep eyes glued to that place' - we are more able to hold the blinkers in place and be less easily distracted by the things that normally put us off. It's like maximising specifics and simplifying or eradicating everything else. If we're under severe pressure to do something we couldn't normally do we tend to go into fight or flight mode, and if it's fight we will block out all other issues other than the one at hand. I was determined not to appear to have drunk quite so much wine last night; it just sort of happened while I was cooking, and I blame Sainsbury's for having it on offer , so I just went into focus mode. Maybe the focus just didn't hold for the well known pieces. Or maybe I needed to adjust the focus in some way for something that required less reading. I'm not sure where I should have adjusted it, though!

And maybe it's all specific to the individual, too. If I'm sight reading in front of people I don't feel nervous. It's not because I'm sooper dooper at it; it's more that I know I'll be able to do my best and will focus accordingly. It's the things that I've practised hard that I feel scared of even when totally sober! This occasion was the other way round, though, because after the sight reading went well I just assumed the other would too. And I certainly wasn't nervous of the one person I was with!

I was determined not to appear to have drunk quite so much wine last night; it just sort of happened while I was cooking ...

no, no, you can't have that one - that's my excuse, most evenings!

Maybe relax + focus = flying performance?

I love using wine in cooking. Sometimes I even put some in the food!

I told you we were related Sol.

It'd be lovely to have such a musical relation!

LOL Perhaps next time I need to try Czardas! Last time it was Salut D'Amour and I just got through it, sounding absolutely terrified...and it's not a difficult piece - I'd performed it 25 years before!!! It is fight or flight with me, definately, that huge surge of adrenalin I get that kicks in at 30 secs into the piece is uncontrollable!! I haven't tried shoeless yet, but at this point I'm happy to try anything! I am taking my Dip teaching next year, and I could fail it due to the nerves....

Interesting idea. In a similar vein, I had an operation last Monday which required general anaesthetic. I was given the standard advice that I should not drive for 48 hours as my reactions would be adversely impaired. On getting home – only about 4 hours after the op - I decided it would be a good test of this to try and play some of the most difficult pieces I can play (from memory only - I did not try sight reading). If anything, I seemed to be playing slightly better than normal?
… but then, perhaps the anaesthetic was easing the pain!

I used to find my first note of a slower piece such as Salut D'Amour would sound horrific.
CRUNCH SQUEAK WOBBLE WOBBLE
The solution I found was something that is good practice anyway really...
A couple of seconds before the first note you play breathe in, stand a tiny bit taller (extend your back and the scroll of the violin up), start the bow moving smoothly in the air just above the string and then when it is time to play the note, gently place the bow on the string while maintaining the horizontal movement you have already started and out pops a beautiful quiet note with gorgeous tone (in theory! :-))

I'm not sure what to do about adrenaline 30 seconds in though because mine dissipates after 2 bars!

In the past I used to write much better code (as in computer programming code) after a beer or two at lunchtime. I think that is because it is because it is such a low-level task that if your brain is fully alert it is too boring, whereas after a few drinks it is a real challenge, you have to really concentrate hard, and it ends up being engaging and enjoyable.

As for piano playing, a few years ago as little as a half pint of weak lager was enough to so desroy my co-ordination as to make it almost impossible for me to play at all. Nowadays I can still play when I have consumed so much alcohol that i can no longer stand (not that I make a habit of it). Not sure what it sounds like - but it shows how - as a result of much practice - a lot of what once used to require conscious effort can now be done semi-automatically.

Sight reading skill seems to vary randomly for no apparent reason. Some days I fly through new and difficult material, on others it is all halting and difficult. It seems to be completely alcohol unrelated. And physical condition has nothing to do with it either. I can play/read either well or badly whether I am well rested and feeling on top of the world, or on the verge of falling asleep, with a headache, and other aches and pains; whether I am consumed by worries, or have not a care in the world.

Any alcohol renders me completely unable to play the piano. Split note after split note!!

I've never tried to play after a drink (well, it's hard enough trying to play something sober!!! ) but can only guess that the result would be a total disaster!!

Maybe I should try having a few tonight!
I would probably play better than I've ever played before lol
PSL

Piano + Alcohol = Big no no for me.

I can improvise a bit but can't play anything that resembles music.

What do you drink to get split notes on a piano (and can I have some)?

Excuse my ignorance but what is a split note on the piano??

I wondered that too. Maybe he means sort of hitting two keys at once?

Maybe he was too inebriated to recall that it was in fact a brass instrument that he was playing or even, dare I say it, a breathalyzer!

Or, instead of a split note, something spilt instead!

I'd call that a split note too.
Is it a Northern expression?

More likely a clipped note, rather than a split one, perhaps?

Such as happens when you inadvertently slide/fall off a black note onto one of the adjacent white notes.

I was thinking more of when you don't quite get there (or overshoot) and land in the nick between 2 whites.

Alcohol...reading...memory

I've forgotten why I'm posting in this thread

'Playing on the cracks' is what I'd call this!

Doesn't Christopher Robin try to avoid this, otherwise the 'bears' will get him?

That was my point, though on reflection a point not very clearly made by me. What was meant by a "Split note"?

Of course you can't split a single note on a piano.

The term describes the unintended effect when two (or more) notes that are intended to sound at precisely the same instant come out a tiny instant apart.

Most pianists do it at least some of the time, and are not aware of it.

In the middle and lower registers it is not horribly noticeable for what it really is (unless you are listening with a more than usual degree of concentration) and is perceived as "poor tone quality". It is one of the differences that makes the sound of a really good concert pianist seem so much more beautiful than anything that most of us can produce.

It becomes more obvious when you play in the top couple of octaves of the piano.

I don't know for certain about split notes, although I think I know what was meant.

I do recognise when people split hairs, though.

Thanks for that explanation.
I definitely do it some of the time and am aware of it! But maybe I do it more times than I am aware of.
Going to video myself later and have a look to see how obvious split notes are and often I am doing it.

This is not what I took the expression to mean at all in this context! I thought it meant clipping the edge of the neighbouring key, so that when a D is intended, in a leap, for instance, C will accidentally be played as well. Or did I pick this up completely wrongly? What I'm talking about is something that is more likely to happen on a particularly sensitive organ, where the key only has to be depressed very slightly for it to sound, and it will boom out across the church with the same volume as the intended note.

I don't know if that is a split note but I do that too and on the organ it is cringeworthy - no place to hide
If only I could stop pulling a face and blushing when it happens, then it might not be as noticeable

Just shows how easy it is for misunderstandings to arise, even b etween supposed experts in a narrow field, through each of us having slightly different ideas of what some terms mean.

I'd have called the fumble/flub/clumsiness that you describe as simply a wrong note, a mis-strike, an unintentional extra note, or some such expression. It would never have occured to me tolabel it "split notes". [The note is double - it is the finger that is split between two of them]

That's what I'd call a split note on the piano.

Well whichever split note definition is correct I do both of them
And a lot more besides..... better go and do some practice!