My New (odd!) Method Of Sight Reading...

[camperbc]

As some of you likely know by now, I have recently returned to playing, after a decades-long hiatus, having purchased a new digital piano (Casio Privia PX-870) in October. I'm enjoying it immensely, although I do kick myself daily for not having kept at my music all of these years, particularly when I think of the many thousands of dollars that my parents had paid out for years of formal training (University of Toronto's Royal Conservatory Of Music) for both my brother and myself. Anyway, it's all water under the bridge now, as I am back playing once again and having an absolute blast, despite my health issues which really limit the amount of time I am able to sit at the piano. (irreparably crushed upper vertebrae, permanent nerve damage to both hands, advanced Rheumatoid Arthritis in fingers, wrists and elbows, severe Polymyalgia Rheumatica in shoulders and hips, off-the-charts RLS and IBS)

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I was still, after about 40 years, somehow able to remember/play every single note of most anything from all of my favourite composers, (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Wagner) which I had mastered way back in the late 1970's. But the big issue I've been having lately is that I really suck at sight reading now. I suppose that my advancing age, worsening eyesight, and of course the fact that I hadn't read a single musical score in decades certainly hasn't helped. Also, I doubt it helps that I'm viewing my sheet music on a relatively small (9.7 inch) tablet. Anyhow, even though I can still play pretty much anything that I had ever learned way back then, when I now attempt to learn something new, it's a struggle. If I could just sit there at the piano in relative comfort for an hour or two at a stretch, I'm sure that I would soon begin to catch on again, but Jeez, my spine just never wants to play nice anymore!

 

So, due to my spending so many hours flat on my back in bed these days and thus having oodles of spare time on my hands, I have discovered that when I lay here and read through a musical score once or twice, I am then able to play it perfectly well the next time I sit at the piano. This sort of reminds me of the recent thread on here about a boy who desperately wanted to learn to play piano but couldn't afford one, so he ended up drawing out a keyboard on a piece of paper, and he practiced/learned this way. Some forum members were a bit sceptical that this could be 100% true, (myself included) yet if someone had told me that they could just look at a rather complicated musical score for a few minutes and then sit at the piano and play it through in its entirety, precisely as it was written, without any music placed in front of them, I would have found this to be a bit hard to swallow too... and yet this is precisely how I am currently learning new material.

 

So I'm curious if perhaps others too might be learning to play something new in this rather unorthodox fashion, or am I just an alien or something? Perhaps someone may want to give this method of mine a try, and just see if it might come easily to them as well?

[mike71]

You were able to sightread before, so it's a latent skill you've.

So you can actually memorize the piece only reading it. A lot of people that have studied at a conservarory can solfege.

Unfortunately solfege is normally taught at the most boring thing in the world, and not using actual sheet music but made up notes.

 

 

 

 

[Joe Muscara]

This is a famous photo, but I don't know what it is nor where it came from.

 

 

😁

 

Like you said, your eyesight is probably a factor as well. After having LASIK around 2000, my eyes have begun to deteriorate again. I haven't figured out what glasses I need to read sheet music and be able to see the keyboard yet. So I struggle at times to read the music in front of me, though I never was a sight reader anyway. I'm sure the combination of both of these factors slows me down immensely though. If I could figure out my eyes, I'd go back to simply having the one excuse instead of both.

[Jokeyman123]

Congratulations to you for even trying...as a  retired educator who has recently had cataract surgery on both eyes-it has helped although I am not such a fan of note-reading anyway for reasons below. I am not surprised at your ability returning. Having taught children with disabilities and watching one of my students, a so-called "idiot savant" (not my term-this is what certain students were actually labelled as)- play beautifully with no training at all of any kind-whew! I discovered the best way to learn and teach in my situation-with some students not all- is to get away from the notation, just use it as a guide which obviously you are able to do, that and a good memory. I am teaching someone now who is over 50% blind, and I approach lessons from the physical aspect-that is to learn the instrument in a physical way-through touch, hand-span interval sizes etc. and i use notation only as a guide as to what to do.After all, the piano is mostly a mechanical contraption! One of the most telling incidents I recall-as a teacher one day I heard someone playing Bach, Beethoven and Mozart in the music room-none of my students had that repertoire until this new student who had just arrived from a different district. I walked in, saw no music and asked him whom he had studied with. He said, no-one-I listen to CDs my mom gets me, and learn the pieces by listening....and he was good, was playing the pieces correctly, as accurately as anyone who had ever learned from scores. He couldn't read any notation at all, and I was reluctant to teach him, thinking it might actually cause him problems. Looking at a Chopin Etude and hearing one are entirely different experiences. So whatever works. Good for you!

[XW-Addict]

I'm happy myself I took lessons and so now and then do little practice reading scores.

Not fast at interpreting the notes quickly as to set hand position 

but to read it at all is inspiring and a joy learning this skill where I once could not. 

[camperbc]

Thanks everyone, for your kind comments; much appreciated!