Playing Without Looking at Your Hands

[ryankmfdm]

 How important do you deem this ability? One of my former teachers used to always tell me it's like driving: you should be looking at the road, not your hands. This makes sense to me, but is harder in practice than in theory. Personally, I've been trying to work on this more and more lately, though I feel that I'm improving my peripheral vision more so than my proprioception. Can anyone offer some advice on breaking this habit, short of memorizing the music and playing blindfolded?

[j_menz]

It is a very useful ability in two main circumstances: (1) when you are sightreading (or reading from the score) the need to constantly look at your hands means you have a lot more looking around to do which will slow you down, sometimes a lot, and creates the risk that you will skip or repeat sections in scores that contain visually similar sections; and (2) it is not uncommon, especially in more advanced repertoire, for the two hands to be doing complex things sufficiently far apart that you simply can't look at both at once.

Good peripheral vision is not a bad thing, so don't sweat that.

To develop the skill further, lots of sightreading will help. Particularly if you try and be conscious of when you look away from the score to check your hands. Don't try and do it all at once, but try and consciously wean yourself off the habit. If you catch yourself looking, ask "do I really need to do that there?" - for some things, particularly initially, the answer may well be "hell yeah", such as large leaps; for others (a scale, an alberti bass figure etc) the answer will be "probably bot". Concentrate on the latter ones - go back and repeat the bit where you looked, consciously trying not to.

[diomedes]

I'd second the sight reading claim, best approach. And depending on your level, you might want recommendations on what sort of repertoire would develop that. Even at intermediate levels there's music that would make such demands. As is, yes it's a very valuable skill, i think working on it for the sake of working on it is a bit odd. When you reach the stage where something specifically expects it you'll deal with it as all normal people do. Go with sight reading for now.

[bronnestam]

I met a pianist last summer who was completely blind and also had some hearing issues (but he had a microphone device as a hearing aid for that). He was a marvellous player and improviser. It took a while before I understood that he WAS totally blind, though, as he seemed to look down at the keyboard anyway while he was playing. Well, not every blind pianist has to behave like Stevie Wonder.

Conclusion: if he could do it, so can others. And that does not mean that you HAVE to look up to the ceiling in order to "avoid" looking down.

[timothy42b]

Accomplished players do glance at their hands, it's not a fault.

But in the beginning stages, avoiding looking at your hands can greatly speed the process of acquiring a sense of keyboard geography. 

[michael_c]

Yes, it's a useful skill and can certainly be practised as such. Anything you can play from memory, including scales, arpeggios and chord sequences, can be practised with your eyes shut or even in the dark. I find playing in the dark very pleasant and restful: with no visual distraction I can concentrate on sound and physical sensations.

Even for a piece that you don't have memorised, you can work on it like this:
- Take a short passage, 2 bars, 4 bars, anything that you can memorise on the spot.
- Play it with your eyes shut. Don't worry if you hit some wrong notes: if that's the case, slow down and fell your way around the keyboard.
- When you've played the passage a few times with your eyes shut, open your eyes and play the passage again.

Working like this will make your playing more secure and, as a useful byproduct, you will memorising the piece.

[ryankmfdm]

 Thanks for the input, everyone! I think I'll focus on working on my sight-reading for a bit and see how that serves me.

[nj61]

I have a bust of a glowering Beethoven on top of the piano - sometimes I look at him whilst playing scales, its quite scary! 

Sight reading is a good idea - maybe first try some sight reading which you will not find too challenging, eg little movement of hand position, rather than something your teacher would use to prepare you for an exam.  Also play things you are very familiar with, shutting your eyes and getting carried away

Sometimes when I have learnt something enough not to need the music I start watching my hands instead and find it very very distracting, I start making lots of mistakes because it is quite odd to watch.  So I usually only glance down for leaps etc.  And you will find your hands learn the distance of eg a set leap in a familiar piece, especially with waltzes etc.  Sometimes I find playing a piece far too fast helps me learn the muscle memory for leaps.

[richard black]

If you're ever going to work as any kind of repetiteur or orchestral pianist, in both of which jobs you have to follow a conductor, you'd better be good at playing without looking at your hands.

[iansinclair]

It is, perhaps, worth noting that while it is customary for piano soloists -- either individually or playing with an orchestra -- to play without the music, that is not the custom for almost any other performance!  Organists, for instance, almost always have the music and refer to it constantly; as Richard noted, a repetiteur or accompanist or orchestral pianist (as distinct from the soloist) will have the music -- and refer to it and, if there is one, the conductor (or the soloist whom he or she is accompanying).

This is not to say that one is always looking at the music or conductor, and never at the hands.  One does look at the hands, and there is no harm to it.  But one should be able to play without doing so except at odd, quick intervals (big leaps?  Probably a good idea.  Very spread chords?  Probably.  if you are an organist and changing manuals -- most definitely.  etc.).

And of course sight reading...