Piano Street Magazine

What Does a Pianist See?

April 14th, 2017 in Piano News by | 4 comments

In this video, eye-tracking glasses are used to show exactly where the gaze of a pianist is directed while playing. A professional concert pianist and his student take turns using the glasses, revealing interesting facts about how experience makes a great difference in terms of effective eye movement, both when playing from memory and from a piano score.

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Comments

  • Matthew says:

    I’ve often wondered what I’m actually looking at when I play stuff like Chopin’s Waterfall etude. As far as I know it’s my second finger of the right hand everything else is peripheral... but who knows? Wish this stuff was cheaper…

  • Edward Epstein says:

    I find that my eyesite moves to where I intend to place my hands a measure or more ahead. After long practice of a peice my brain knows where to place my fingers and where to move my hands but I seem to value a reference a few measures ahead. I have praceiced with my eyes closed and find that this is also possible with similar results to keeping them open. I have been playing for 69 years.

  • Gloria Tamura says:

    Was interested in “How do they do it?” about expert teachers and their results. The Un. Of Texas link went to another article about music and the brain
    . Please, would love to read about expert teachers!

  • Drew Graham says:

    I would love to see what Glen Gould was looking at!

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