no memorization only sight reading

[drazh]

hello
I am self taught in piano and practicing for 1 year . may I improve my sight reading note to be a professional ?
I have a memory  problem because of my age (38)
any advice?
do you have any online teacher on this forum to see my work and suggest useful recommendation ?
thanks

[richard black]

may I improve my sight reading note to be a professional ?

I hate to dash dreams and stuff, but.... no.

[lostinidlewonder]

The main way to improve your sight reading is through application. This requires countless time reading music, physically transfering what you read to your body and through to your instrument. As you get better in sight reading you can observe multiple bits of information simultaneously just as you do with reading words. So you will notice yourself getting better as you learn to see more at once and actually read less on the score.

Beginner sight readers must read everything, they get overwhelmed by the amount of information they have to digest. It could resemble an advanced reader sighting some incredibly difficult piece. So first aim to forget about reading the dots but the spaces between the dots. Then start learning about chord, arpeggio and scale forms and progressions. Learn to notice these building blocks in music. Developing a musical IQ to observe pattern is important. Also having a very strong sense of fingering.

A good sight reader plays any score by sight with almost all the correct fingers. If you find you are lost with the fingering you must push to understand how to read "movement groups" in your score, that is parts of the score which you can play with one position of the hand.  Then you have to observe how do you move between these groups as well. Developing a good sense of fingering with your sight reading can be trained very well from Bach stuff I find.

All this talk is very generalized and because each person is unique and with different  strengths and weaknesses in music it is difficult to be precise.

[quantum]

Your sense of "memory problem" may be self-prescribed.  Yes, music does involve using your memory a lot - you need to get your brain churning.  You need to exercise your memory - just like you do your muscles when you do physical activities.  Just as muscles that do not get used frequently get fatigued easily, using your memory with the kind of activity needed for music is something you may not be used to.  Exercise it and it will improve. 

[cloches_de_geneve]

To get a piece into your memory system, it's not enough to have a piece in memory from start to end. It's a good beginning but it remains fragile. You should be able to start off a piece from any measure in the score. Say your piece has 100 measures. Choose 10 measures randomly (like 3, 19, 23, 29, 39, 45 etc..) and make sure you can play it from there and then pick another set of random measures and repeat. That will burn the piece into your memory system. To enhance memorization, Michelangeli used to also learn pieces backwards. But that was Michelangeli.

[drazh]

hello
thanks for your reply.
you suggest how to improve my memory but I mean I want to improve my sight reading to
be able to perform an excellent job without any practice .I read in a book that some pianist were able to play difficult pieces at the first time they read it .
yours sincerely

[canardroti]

Those sight reader who can play anything at sight for the first time have SOLID technique. Not only that, they have read countless music sheet. You're going to need to work on your technique and sight read easy stuff everyday. At least, that's what i'm trying to do.

[richard black]

I read in a book that some pianist were able to play difficult pieces at the first time they read it

Yes, I can do that - I do it for a living, for instance when I play for opera auditions - but I and all the others like me who I have ever met were good sight readers from as early as we can remember. Of course you can improve sight reading, like any ability, but 'extreme' sight readers are the ones who were born good at it _AND_ worked at it!

[Petter]

Are there any renowned blind classical pianists? 
 
Art Tatum was partly blind wasn´t he? Perhaps that´s why he turned to jazz. Or maybe it was just his origin...Lennie Tristano was blind and so was George Shearing, both of who I think very highly. I wonder what special ability blind pianists develop except hearing. Must be some synthetic response to sounds...

What would you do as a proffesional pianist if you lost your eye vision? 

[quantum]

To enhance memorization, Michelangeli used to also learn pieces backwards. But that was Michelangeli.

Actually I do that, and it does help.  Not learning strictly from last measure to first, but mixing up the order of sections I learn.  Most difficult ones usually first. 

Before performance in order to prepare more solidly, I like to play a piece backwards by phrase.  It emphasizes anticipation and forward thinking, and if one were to make a slip it would be much easier to move on to the next section because chopping up a piece wouldn't have been an alien activity. 

[richard black]

Are there any renowned blind classical pianists?

Bernard d'Ascoli comes to mind.

[pianoperformer]

Are there any renowned blind classical pianists? 
 
Art Tatum was partly blind wasn´t he? Perhaps that´s why he turned to jazz. Or maybe it was just his origin...Lennie Tristano was blind and so was George Shearing, both of who I think very highly. I wonder what special ability blind pianists develop except hearing. Must be some synthetic response to sounds...

What would you do as a proffesional pianist if you lost your eye vision? 

I'm not renowned, obviously, but I am blind. I don't learn by ear, though. I have someone read the music and I memorize it, usually about a page an hour depending on the difficulty of the piece. I've been doing it since I started playing the piano 15 years ago so it isn't that hard now.

Just thought you might want a different perspective.

I am trying to find a way to get the music translated into braille, though, because I fear having to maintain a large repertoire in memory. I've not hit an upper limit yet, but I don't want to test it.

[0range]

I'm not renowned, obviously, but I am blind. I don't learn by ear, though. I have someone read the music and I memorize it, usually about a page an hour depending on the difficulty of the piece. I've been doing it since I started playing the piano 15 years ago so it isn't that hard now.

Just thought you might want a different perspective.

I am trying to find a way to get the music translated into braille, though, because I fear having to maintain a large repertoire in memory. I've not hit an upper limit yet, but I don't want to test it.

 

[Petter]

Just thought you might want a different perspective.

Yes 

I am trying to find a way to get the music translated into braille, though, because I fear having to maintain a large repertoire in memory. I've not hit an upper limit yet, but I don't want to test it.

I thought they´d invented something by now. I guess it would still be hard to sightread but I´m surprised there´s no notation of music for blind people.
 When the person reads the music for you does he/she tell use abbreviations for chords, scaleruns and common figures or do you go through note by note?

[pianoperformer]

I thought they´d invented something by now. I guess it would still be hard to sightread but I´m surprised there´s no notation of music for blind people.

Oh, there is. But to get it transcribed costs money, and I am on SSI so don't have enough money, and the university won't pay for it. To get this concerto transcribed that I'm learning, for instance, could cost several hundred dollars. I might look into it more eventually, though.

When the person reads the music for you does he/she tell use abbreviations for chords, scaleruns and common figures or do you go through note by note?

Depends on the person. My piano teacher at home sometimes does, but the students here I have read the music to me just usually read note-by-note. But if I notice a pattern, I'll bring it to their attention, and we'll figure out how far it goes, especially if it is some sort of arpeggio.

Yeah, I have to pay a student to meet with me several times a week in order to help me memorize, so that I can learn it for my actual piano lesson. It works out well, though.