[musictlk] New Member Introduction

[Ella Yu]

Hi Mike,
In terms of jumping, at first you'll make lots of mistakes when 
learning a new piece, but after some repetition, you'll be able 
to play fluently without too many mistakes.  In my experience, I 
did not require a special music teacher who taught those who were 
blind.  I have had very successful experiences with regular 
teachers.
Ella

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Jolls via musictlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org
To: "musictlk at nfbnet.org" <musictlk at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:11:33 +0000
Subject: [musictlk] New Member Introduction

Hi, My name is Mike Jolls.  I’m new to the list

I’m not a professional musician, but I have a music related 
question that I hope someone can answer … relating to the 
piano.
I’m a visually impaired person taking piano lessons, and the 
teacher has said to sight read the music (I do have vision to 
sight read print music).  And of course,  I need to do so without 
looking at my hands.  Some pieces I’m learning have large 
jumps.  Without looking at my hands, I don’t know how far to 
jump to hit the target keys accurately and I make a lot of 
mistakes if I just try to jump by trying to guess the distance or 
do it by muscle memory.

What I’d like to know is what techniques do totally blind 
people use to know where to go when they have to make jumps of 
say two octaves on the keyboard accurately?  The teacher I have 
has not taught blind people and his answer is … “you just 
figure it out”.  But I’d like ..  if possible ..  and answer 
that tells me HOW to do this.  I’ve figured out that if I feel 
the black keys as they pass under my fingers, I can (it seems 
like most cases) accurately know where I’m at and where I need 
to stop.  This is especially true if I’m at one note and have 
to move a 5th up or down, or a 4th, etc… I use the feel of the 
black keys to know when I’m where I need to be.  This seems to 
be working.

The question, however, is whether this is a good strategy?  Do 
you eventually, with repetition, develop the ability to quickly 
and accurately feel the black keys to know where you are and thus 
make the large jumps required?  Or, is this method too slow and I 
need to abandon it and select a different method?  And if so, 
what is the method and where do I go to find out about it.

One final thing.  How do I locate a teacher that teaches blind 
piano students?  Call the state school for the blind for 
contacts?  Other ways?

Any help in this matter would be appreciated.  I’ve wanted to 
take piano for quite a few years and am making progress, but my 
teacher (at least in this issue) doesn’t know how to advise me.  
Perhaps getting a different teacher would be in order.

Thanks in advance.

Mike Jolls

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