Piano Glasses help prevent getting lost

[soundfeelings]

I've been teaching piano since 1975. The subject of "piano glasses" has come up hundreds of times with my students and I've finally written a little article on the subject. If you have the right kind of glasses, it helps you not get lost, which helps with sight-reading. It also helps with finger accuracy on the keyboard itself. https://www.piano-glasses.com

[psipsi8]

Huh? Please explain. I restarted playing the piano after a long absence and I found that I could no longer read scores like I used to. In many of the scores the notes or the staffs are too small and I have to take off my glasses (for near-sightedness) and learn the music from a too-close distance, which wreaks havoc on my back. Are prescription glasses for near-sightedness unsuitable? These were prescribed by a doctor, in order to correct my vision and when I was younger I wore glasses and had no problem reading music while adopting a normal posture. The eye doctor did not say anything about far-sightedness. What exactly should I be asking for?

[lostinidlewonder]

In a couple years or so we will all have access to Augmented Reality glasses which allows you to see projected sheet music in front of you anywhere you like and as large as you like, literally the size of your entire vision if you like lol. It likely will also replace mobile phones in the following years since you can create a phone in front of you without having to hold anything physical at all!

We already have the ability to read sheets in Augmented Reality on platforms like the Meta Quest although that requires a headset to be worn which is not the most comfortable for some and the passthrough type video (since you cannot see through the goggles and into reality you need to see a projection of reality) can take a little to get accustomed to (although on the Quest 3 and 3s its very impressive and you do forget you're looking at a screen).

[lelle]

IDK I have played at my usual standard with my normal glasses. I'm pretty nearsighted at -7 too.

[yqxpiano]

Maybe one day we will get AR piano glasses with auto flipping pages courtesy of AI

[brogers70]

Depending on what the problem is, there may be a simple fix. I use bifocals for distance and reading; neither lens works well for the maybe 2 foot distance between my eyes and my hands or the score. The easy fix was just buying cheap, drugstore reading glasses much weaker than my reading prescription. You can take a score with you, hold it at arm's length and see what strength of reading glasses you need to bring it into focus. It makes all the difference in the world to have glasses that work at a piano appropriate distance. If you have more complicated vision problems, an optometrist could probably get you a prescription designed to bring things at that distance into focus, but odds are $20 drugstore reading glasses weaker than you'd use to read a book will do the trick.

[lostinidlewonder]

Maybe one day we will get AR piano glasses with auto flipping pages courtesy of AI

It's a certainty and yes AI could easily do that too. I've used AR to read sheet music and it's really good, it's funny to have giant sheets you can move around yourself or have 100 sheets surrounding you in a sphere lol. It has to be the single most flexible and interesting way to view sheet music I reckon. I teach a very poor sighted student and it was the first time in a long time they could actually use sheet music and play the piano at the same time since we could enlarge the sheets as large as we needed.

[psipsi8]

Depending on what the problem is, there may be a simple fix. I use bifocals for distance and reading; neither lens works well for the maybe 2 foot distance between my eyes and my hands or the score. The easy fix was just buying cheap, drugstore reading glasses much weaker than my reading prescription. You can take a score with you, hold it at arm's length and see what strength of reading glasses you need to bring it into focus.

Thanks, that sounds like some great practical advice. I will check it out.

[larrys]

I'm short sighted, and I have an old pair of glasses that I use specifically for playing piano (or other instruments) so I can read the sheet and look at the keys without eye strain. If I were to use my regular glasses I would get eye strain or headache. And if I don't use any glasses I'd have to lean right forward to see the sheet. And pose like Bill Evans to see the keys. Not ideal!