[MusicTlk] Question to low-vision piano players

[Ella Yu]

I think it works just fine.  I don't know if I exactly use this 
method, since I'm often not conscious of it, but I think I do.

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Jolls via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org
To: "musictlk at nfbnet.org" <musictlk at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 22:34:44 +0000
Subject: [MusicTlk] Question to low-vision piano players

Hello everyone, and particularly to low-vision piano players ..  
I have a question about sight reading and keeping track of where 
you are on the piano.
I’m a low vision piano student.  Luckily I have enough vision to 
use a telescope and can read standard printed music (although I 
can only read a measure at a time unfortunately, but it’s better 
than nothing).  My teacher has told me to sight read and not look 
at the keyboard.  Even if I do try to look at my hands from time 
to time, it’s difficult (depending on how far down the keyboard I 
have to look) because my low vision makes it difficult to see 
exactly where I am depending on the distance down the keyboard 
where I’m trying to look).  Therefore, I’ve come to the 
conclusion that if possible, sight has to be eliminated in piano 
playing, as far as looking at my hands.  In other words, I have 
to navigate by feel like a totally blind person.  To this point, 
I’ve been struggling with how to do this.  I’ve recently come up 
with a potential solution, but I wanted to run it by you all to 
see if I’m on the right track.

My idea is to play with my fingers engaging the black keys, and 
then using the black keys around my fingers as a reference to 
know where I am and how far I have to go to the next key.  As an 
example, Let’s say I’m playing a G with my right hand.  I COULD 
just play a G with my fingers on the white portion of the key 
(not engaged in, or in between the black heys) .  But then, let’s 
say I had to go to a D above it.  If I was just on the white 
portion of the key, I wouldn’t know how far to go to the D above 
it.   However, if I played the G with my finger in between the 
two black keys, I could then use the black keys to feel my way to 
the D above it, since I’d be able to feel the gap between Bb and 
C#, and I’d know the D is immediately after C# black key.

That’s a long way of saying, use the black keys as tactile 
navigation markers.

I was playing some Bach and trying to sight-read the piece, and 
it seemed that when the distances of the notes were fairly close 
together, being engaged with the black keys helped a lot in 
mentally keeping track of where I was, and realizing where the 
next key was located.  This was because I could use the black 
keys as tactile markers to help me know where the next key was 
located by feel, assuming I understand how the keyboard is laid 
out.  I had to feel to locate the next key, but that seemed to 
work and it seemed I made fewer errors as I sight-read the music 
without looking at my hands.

Now, I realize I can’t use this technique for everything.  Two 
octave jumps (for example) are going to have to be another thing 
altogether.  I might just have to look, if I can.  Or I might 
have to learn the piece and do that from muscle memory.  But at 
least for short distance passages, it seems this is promising.  
If this is something you’ve all learned to do and actively use 
this technique, then I’ve at least solved one part of the 
navigation puzzle, and hopefully I can develop it.

So, has anybody used this technique of keeping their fingers 
engaged in the black keys to give themselves a tactile cue to 
help find their way around the keyboard?  Am I on to something?  
Is this a bad method?  Would it slow you down, especially when 
you had to play fast passages?  I don’t want to continue this if 
it’s going to be a bad habit.

Please let me know.  I have to say I was pretty excited when I 
found I was more successful with this Bach piece with this method 
when I was trying to stay focused on the music.

Thanks for the information.

Mike Jolls



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