I have one little piano student who gets extremely frustrated. Her eyes are glued to her page – desperate to not miss a single detail. Then her hands accidentally migrate up a step or two and the resulting mistake causes facial contortions of extreme frustration. She hasn’t yet learned how to have “dual vision” when playing… and, because this student is also my daughter, we spent the weekend working on this skill in an attempt to relieve this frustration.
Teaching Piano Students To See Their Music AND Their Hands
When you or I play we have an amazing ability. Our peripheral vision is truly astounding when you think of it. We can read music while keeping an eye on the keyboard. Not only that, but our eyes can dart back and forth when needed; never losing our place on the music.
This ability is something that some piano kids pick up on without any explanation at all – they just do it. For others (like my daughter) it’s all or nothing… eyes only on the music or eyes on her hands.
For your budding pianist to truly develop fluency when playing from music, it’s important to teach this skill. Ensure that your piano students are quite comfortable with their music before trying these activities to eliminate other struggles (and using these activities will really help them to practice efficiently to get to this point quickly).
4 Ways To Teach Dual Vision To Piano Students
I like to teach using games or fun imagery for almost anything. These ways of passing on information create strong visual memories and are sure to last longer than having someone repeatedly tell you “eyes on your music” or “check your hands”.
1. Sneaky Mouse
Grab yourself a small figurine from your dollar store (it doesn’t have to be a mouse, I used to use a ladybug). The game goes like this: As your student plays you sneak a mouse onto the piano either above or below their hand position. As they play the need to name the key the mouse is sitting on. It’s not a rush, and they can take as much time as they need to answer… but the rule is they can’t stop playing and their tempo cannot change. This teaches the ability to split your vision side-to-side while playing which then strengthens the ability to do so in the “up and down” arena too.
2. Measure Madness
Using a highlighter, make a random selection of measures brightly colored. These are your “Mad Measures”. When your student encounters one of these colored measures they need to switch their visual focus to their hands. While watching hands while playing is not a habit we want to encourage, we do want to encourage the back and forth ability. After the colored measure is over, their eyes shift back to their music and so on.
3. Concentration
This activity is done away from the piano. Have your student sit sideways on the bench and use double-sided tape to tape something to your studio wall for them to focus on. As she stares at her focus point, you place objects just under her line of vision. She needs to say what the object is while maintaining their focal point. Ramp up the fun factor by placing silly objects for them to name. Kids love this one as it’s almost like magic to them that they can still see while their eyes are otherwise engaged!
4. Where’s the D?
As your piano student plays through their piece cover their hands with a piece of paper and ask “Where’s D?”. If they haven’t been looking back and forth (and if their keyboard awareness is still developing) they’re going to want to look… but it’s too late… the paper is there! Students learn quickly that they need to keep an eye on where D is (or whatever note you choose – change it up so it’s not always the same one) as they play just in case that paper comes back! This encourages that back and forth ability as they anticipate your question.
Developing Skills Takes Time
For some kids, this is a totally foreign concept. Keep in mind that developing skills takes time; your student may need several months of help learning this skill before they easily breeze through a piece with half an eye on their hands and the other half on their page. Students who struggle with other areas of their playing will often abandon this skill in the interest of devoting all of their attention to what causes the most struggle. And that’s okay – allow them the time to develop in other areas. Piano requires so much coordination from so many parts of your body. It’s no wonder that we pianists are so brilliant 😉
Erica Sipes says
Thank you so much for these great ideas! I am eager to try these with my college students who are non-pianists learning how to accompany at the piano. It definitely is a foreign concept for so many of them. Up until now I’ve primarily focused on getting them to play without looking at their hands as much as possible but these games bring up a good point – that part of the trick is being able to go back and forth and using our peripheral vision.
Many thanks again!
Erica
Andrea says
Hi Erica,
So glad you enjoyed the article! Thanks for reading 🙂
Claudia says
Like Erica, I have older students that I am excited to try this with, as they really seem to struggle with this skill! Any ideas how to get adadults to do it without it feeling too juvenile?
Patricia Moore says
I’ve used the book over the hands when a student who always looks at their hands is playing, and they are amazed that they can actually do it. I always tell them to trust themselves that they know the piece, and what’s the worst that can happen. It may just need more practice.
Beth Yantz says
I have long been an advocate for utilizing peripheral vision! Mostly because I have one eye that must bear the full burden both of near and far vision. Most folks have one eye that excels best for one or the other and they work together well. My other eye has limited function, and that primarily is peripheral in nature. Keep in mind that you will need to tweak this for students with this kind of condition because rapid focus changes are extremely uncomfortable and frustrating (speaking from YEARS of experience!). If a student has a “lazy eye” they may not be able to do the back and forth quickly from music to keys with good results, initially. I absolutely LOVE the wall focus idea (not unlike my visual therapy as a child, to preserve a little vision in my weak eye) and putting something on the key to name the note! The more ways to involve vision and touch, etc. can’t be bad! Thanks for the reminder and the great practical ideas!!!
Milla Gotlib says
Thank you for great suggestions. I definitely will try them with my students. I teach them to “look” at the music, and “glance” at the hands, and we practice “glancing”. My adult student has a hard time, though, because he looses his place in the music the minute he takes his eyes of it. Maybe you can give me an idea how to help him with this. Thanks.
Jeanine Tegg says
Hi Andrea and Trevor,
Thank you for your wonderful assistance by providing all these great resources and ideas. I have an adult student (47) who struggles with the dual vision issue. Any suggestions particular to adults? Thank you again. You are truly inspiring. 🙂
Andrea says
Hi Jeanine – I would use all these same games with an adult too – often times we treat adults as though everything has to be quite serious. In fact, adults learn through play just as well as kids do! You can obviously change some aspects to make it more “adult-ish” – but they’ll probably find the humour of “finding a mouse” refreshing 🙂
Morgan Weisenburger says
You’re telling me I’m supposed to have dual vision? I’ll be honest, I’m going to be trying some of these games on myself! I’ve always been an amazing memorizer, but a terrible sight reader. I never even thought about being able to watch both things at the same time….