Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 1

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Keeping Your Eyes on the Score (2)

"In order to become oriented at the keyboard and thus make easier the acquisition of a necessary skill at sight-reading, it is a good practice to play memorised pieces in the dark." - C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments

Introduction

One of the first requirements of fluent sight-reading is the ability to keep our eyes on the score as we play. If we look down at our hands, we lose our connection with the score, and forego the possibility of reading ahead to see what is coming next. To keep our eyes on the page, we need a strong tactile connection to the piano. Through our fingertips, we must develop an intimate knowledge of the geography of the keyboard. If one of the objectives of ear training is to create eyes that can hear and ears that can see, then sight-reading adds to those essential musical skills hands that can also see. C. P. E. Bach’s suggestion to play memorised pieces in the dark is one way to cultivate this seeing hand.

Students who are learning advanced repertoire have already been studying the piano for many years, and usually have a good sense of the keyboard. Simple melodies, intervals, and chords are generally easy enough for them to find without looking down. (Test your ability to find isolated notes, intervals, and chords without looking at the keyboard using the diagnostic test.) The biggest challenge in keeping our eyes on the page comes when there are changes of hand position and leaps in one or both hands. This module collects a large number of pieces containing leaps of different kinds, providing concentrated practice in leaping without looking.

The pieces are graded in order of difficulty, but difficulties are individual, and some might find the later pieces easier than the earlier ones, or vice versa. If any of these pieces are too challenging to play in a regular, moderate tempo, it is perfectly permissible to play them well under tempo, or even with one hand alone (usually the left hand, where the leaps most often occur). Normally, when sight-reading, one does not play very slowly, hands alone, or with repeated attempts, but in this case, all of these practice methods are encouraged in the interest of developing an essential skill that will benefit all your future sight-reading activity.

General Advice

• Take C. P. E. Bach’s advice and practise memorised pieces, chord progressions, and technical exercises in the dark, or with your eyes closed.
• Be aware of the keyboard at the bottom of your visual field. Without actually looking down, you can nevertheless see the keyboard to some extent in your peripheral vision.
• Become intensely aware of the contact of your fingers with the keys. Your fingertips are your connection to the piano, and the quality of every sound you make depends on their sensitivity to the movement of the keys. Silent practice (touching the keys without sounding them) is a good way to develop this sensitivity.
• Use the black notes to find your way around the keyboard. The alternating groups of two and three black notes make it possible to find any note on the keyboard without looking down.

Leaps in the Left Hand

• Find the closest connection between two positions. Usually we measure the distance between two positions by the outer notes of each position. But if we measure the distance by the inner notes, the leap seems less far. In this excerpt, for example, the distance between the inner notes in the first measure is only a fifth, compared to two octaves plus a third between the outer notes. In the second measure, there is a repeated note between the top note of the octave and the bottom note of the chord.
• Follow the thumb. When the left hand jumps back and forth from bass to chord, as in waltzes, follow the top notes of the chords with your ear. This makes it easier to hear the connection (voice-leading) from one chord to the next. In the preceding example, these top notes are only a step apart (B – A – B). Singing this line, or bringing out the thumbs slightly, helps the ear to follow the voice-leading more easily. In this way, the ear guides the hands.
• Use the imaginary octave. When jumping from a single bass note upward to a chord, imagine adding the note an octave higher to the bass note. This gives you a closer tactile connection to the chord. In this example, the imaginary thumb gives you a third between the inner notes of the first bar, and a repeated note in the second.
• Use good fingering. When leaping from a single bass note upward to a chord, use the pinky on the bass note, and if possible avoid the pinky in the chord. That way, the pinky is left free to “seek out” the bass note with the fingertip. See the two excerpts above for examples.
• Move harmoniously from position to position. Sometimes, in an effort to get to the next position quickly, we jerk the hand rapidly from side to side. However, it is actually easier to gauge the distance between two positions accurately if you move a little slower. Staying on each note or chord a bit longer also helps us to feel the keyboard better.

Leaps in Both Hands

• Find the closest connections between the hands. When the two hands leap in the same direction, one hand usually has a note that is common to, or close to, a note in the other hand. Feel this connection, as if one hand “passes off” to the other.
• Move one hand first, then the other. If the two hands move at the same time, it is difficult to feel the connection between them. Instead, the hand that “receives” should move before the hand that “passes off.” For example, if the two hands leap upward, the left hand should move first, then the right, as in the first two chords of the preceding excerpt. Leaping downward, the right hand moves first.

Consecutive Octaves

• Feel the keys with the non-playing middle fingers. In slower-moving octave passages, you can often touch one of the notes of the upcoming octave before you play it.
• Make flowing lateral movements. In faster-moving consecutive octaves, focus on the lateral movement that unites them, rather than on each individual octave. Group the octaves together mentally by direction, as shown by the arrows in this example. You may find that using the pinky for the outer notes of all octaves makes them easier to find and play.

Practice Suggestions

• Look before you leap. Take time to scan the score before playing, looking for leaps and position changes that may tempt you to look down. In the beginning, it helps to draw lines between the closest connections, as in the examples above.
• Touch the keys silently before playing. When you see leaps in the score, try touching them silently on the keyboard. This helps you to feel the closest connections, and to find the best fingerings and arm movements
• Take the time you need. Take a tempo that gives you time to find the notes without looking down for them. Stretch the tempo where needed to give yourself extra time.
• Have someone cover your hands. If you find it difficult to avoid looking at your hands, ask a friend to hold a notebook (or something else of a similar shape) a few inches above your hands as you play. You can even use a barber’s cape, attached around your neck and at the two corners of the keyboard lid.