Post Musicians and Progressives Experiment Musings

This is my third day with my short-corridor progressives firmly closed in their case. It's been heavenly without the nausea. My appetite has returned in full force, I'm back to being my mostly even-keeled self. I've returned to my regular activities. I continue to receive feedback from various sources. Here are some of the comments that I've received from of of my piano students' parents:

• In one family, the mother adjusted to the progressives but the father did not adapt. The mother actually has to juggle more than one pair - reading glasses and progressives. It sounds like she's even having challenges with her progressives and needs office progressives. The father, who drives trucks, now wears bifocals and I believe uses single-vision wear for driving.

• Another parent, who learned music as a child, said "NO WAY!" when I told her that I was supposed to use my progressives to read and play music. She also juggles two pairs - office progressives and reading glasses.

• One of my adult students detests her progressives. Not only can't she read her music but she's having trouble with her other daily activities. She is shopping for a new eye doctor who will work with her to explore other options.

• Another parent said that the transition between the vision zones should be "seamless". His entire eye exam was computerized, so his readings were extremely accurate. Wow. I want that eye exam!

There is an addendum to my colleague Gwen Richardson Bartek's office progressives success story, "I am lucky with my optometrist. :) I teach his children piano lessons." That's so convenient! She added, "My "office" progressives work."

What it's boiling down to is that musicians and non-musicians alike aren't asked enough questions at the beginning about their daily vision needs. It's taken several tries for most of them and the ones with progressives still have to juggle another one or two pairs of glasses.>Nor are progressives for everyone.

Hindsight is 20/20. This is what I've learned: If you are told that you need progressives, do not feel pressured (and do not let them pressure you) into ordering them on the spot. Go home and do your research. Come back with questions. Do not place the order for them until:

1. You actually have the funds to pay for them.

2. You feel confident that your eye care practitioner understands your daily vision needs.

3. You are satisfied with the purchase and return policy.

4. Ask more questions and do your research.

If you feel that your concerns (and those of your esteemed colleagues) are being dismissed, listen to your gut and go get a second opinion (or try that fully computerized test that my students' father had). If you feel that you need to run an elaborate experiment just to make your daily vision needs understood, there's a huge disjunct.

Gwen's story and my optician-pianist colleague's recommendation of office progressives, namely the NIKON Home & Office Lenses, do give musicians a viable option as far as progressives go. Now, some will find that they must still use single-vision wear for their musical (and driving) needs. It depends on their musical instrument(s) and their playing environment. My colleagues - and my experiment affirms this - that standard and short-corridor progressives do not work for reading and playing music (at least for piano, singing, percussion, conducting and teaching). Those NIKONs may very well work for me. Although they may be passable in everyday situations, I do know that I may still need my current single-vision pair for music and driving; and that my older set of glasses can be used as reading glasses. I do recognize that my prescription has changed and that I may not be able to use my current single-vision lenses for everything.

Whether or not I try the Home & Office progressives really depends on if it costs me extra to get them (or to switch to non-adapts if even those do not work) and how my appointment goes. Otherwise, like I said before, I'd rather just get my non-adapts and be done with this.

Using Multiple Cameras in a Music Lesson Demonstration

After reading "On Teaching Piano with Multiple Cameras", one of my readers had mused how wonderful it would be to see a demonstration of using multiple cameras in a music lesson. My student Dylan and I were happy to oblige.

Here we are working on a short chord progression from U2's "Stuck in a Moment". I used the three claps at the beginning to synchronize the videos (à la Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir).

We used the following cameras for this demonstration:

1. POV Camera on Dylan's head (Top Left): GoPro Hero 2

2. Profile Camera on the Studio Desk (Top Right): Microsoft HD LifeCam 3000

3. Pedal Camera (Bottom Right): Canon PowerShot 5S IS (I can't bring myself to retire it completely because it's still a good camera)

4. Overhead Camera (Bottom Left): Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910

I took a photographer friend's advice and turned off the auto-focus on the two webcams. Another thing I do is try to minimize the number of background programs running on the computer when recording video.

The profile view is essential for checking posture and hand position. The overhead view gives you the musician's peripheral of the keyboard geography. The pedal view is essential with students who are having issues with timing their pedal changes. As for the POV camera - isn't is just fun to see how another musician sees when they play? It's also good for checking where they are focusing.

I will probably swap the positions for the pedal and profile camera.

Now, when a student working on something new, I can show them various perspectives that they can review at their leisure at home. Or perhaps they'd like to show off a newly polished piece to their relatives across the country.

Students, "Record & Review" has never been so easy to do at home. Use any of your portable devices, such as a smart phone, iPod, tablet, netbook, laptop, camera. You can place them at various positions as we have here.

Find out more about how to incorporate webcams into your studio here.

* Special thanks to my student Dylan and his family for granting permission to record Dylan for this demo. *

Musicians and Progressives Experiment - Day 6 Part 2

Continuing on with where I left on in Day 6 of my Musicians and Progressives Experiment... (5:00 - 6:15 PM) Noticed that if I did everything at "granny speed", no nausea. Even nodding and shaking my head at normal speed was an issue as far as nausea goes.

(6:30 PM) Took advantage of a non-nauseated moment to eat supper. Soup and rice - AGAIN! Have I mentioned how tired I am of eating nothing but soup & rice?

(7:25 PM) Friend is driving us to choir practice. If I close my eyes, I don't feel like throwing up. Great, so now I can't even be a passenger with progressives on?

(7:50 PM) I start the rehearsal with the progressives on. Warm-ups are difficult. It's the same feeling I got when driving. Although I can play these without looking at the keys, I must look directly at Eugenia, our conductor, to be in focus. In doing so, I kink my vocal chords, which is a recipe for injury as far as singing goes.

In this clip, I start by having my eyes move naturally (for a musician). Eyes on the music, looking through the peripheral for cues from the conductor and taking quick peeks as needed at the keyboard. Not good. Nausea is really ramping up at this point.

Then, I try moving my head so that whatever I want to focus on, is in focus. That is just as bad. You may want a barf bag handy to watch that part.

In both cases, too many compromises were made: dropped notes, dropped beats, that feeling of not being completely in sync with the ensemble.

(8:15 PM) Now that I've adjusted to having my "normal" glasses on, I can play normally. With quick peeks down through the periphery, with a slight adjustment of my head so I can view Eugenia, the music and the keyboard with one glance. You can see that I don't need to move my head as much. I can keep my vocal chords aligned and sing while playing. No visual distortion. Ain't life grand.

***

Have I sufficiently demonstrated why so many musicians say that "progressives are useless" for reading and playing music? The distortion is in our periphery makes it impossible to function as a successful (even passable) working musician. We need our periphery to be without distortion. Period. I think I've also proven that I'm certainly NOT adapting to progressives. There is a positive correlation between the nausea I feel and the time I wear them for. Things are definitely becoming progressively worse with each passing day, pun intended. I can't drive. I can't teach properly. Nor can I read and play music successfully. Nor can I do computer work. I can't do Tai Chi. I can't even take a splinter out with them on. I'm limited to digestive cookies, soup and rice. Quality of life is severely diminished. I don't even want to try another type of progressive. I can't afford it - on any level. I'm not just talking about financially. I mean, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually as well. I'd much rather have single-vision lenses and just accept that my distance vision isn't going to be as good as it was 20 years ago. I want my peripheral vision to be non-distorted. I want to eat normally. I want things to go back to being normal. At this point, I close the experiment. I refuse to wear my progressives. I'm tired of torturing myself. I want my "non-adapt" lenses. Appointment is on Monday. It can't come soon enough. *** Special thanks to my friends in the 10:45 St. Patrick's Choir for their help!

Musicans and Progressives Experiment - Day 6 Part 1

(11:15 AM) A pattern is starting to emerge but for me to be certain, I need to test it. It would seem that there is a positive correlation between the severity of my nausea to the length of time I wear the progressives for. I will test this by trying to wear these progressive lenses for as long as possible today. I've only told two people at this point, two who will not colour the experiment in progress. I don't want external opinions and suggestions to influence the day. My dear colleagues have been hankering for me to return the glasses for several days now.

You may ask, "Why are you doing this?" Well, two reasons. First,  you need at least three recurrences to really show that there is a pattern. The second time could be a fluke but if something recurs three or more times, then you know there's something. Second, I feel that I need to show that I really am trying.

Time Length Goal: Minimum 8 hours or until I can no longer carry out my tasks for the day/night Time Length Progressives Worn: 11:05 AM - 8ish PM (9 hours) Tasks: Chores, cooking and eating, computer work, Tai Chi, teaching music, choir rehearsal Part of the Lenses Used: All three areas but am using my eyes as normally as possible.

By the way, I should also say I needed two drowsy Gravol before bed last night. Here's the first part of my day:

(12:21 PM) Light nausea. Not enough to pop a Gravol. Will eat cookies instead.

(12:30 PM) Got a splinter putting a soup can in recycling. Tried to use the "fine-print" vision range. Found that it was too blurry. I could see the splinter so clearly when I relied on my own near-sightedness (i.e., sans glasses).

(12:45 PM) Headache is starting in occipital lobe region. Starting to wind its way forward around my head.

(2:00 PM) Just finished teaching a one-hour lesson. Floaty head. Lovely.

(2:45 PM) Head in forehead is starting to hurt. This makes computer work truly lovely.

(3:02 PM) Perfect! Nausea is steadily increasing as I continue to work on the computer. Time for two Gravol and a much needed break to fortify myself to teach.

(3:33 PM) Need another two Gravol. Nausea continues to worsen. Eyes flitting at music, hands, student and studio cameras, which is standard fare. I'm not even done teaching second student of the day!

(4:20 PM) Just finished teaching Student #3. Was just about to vomit over the piano while demonstrating a new piece to a student. I'm still shaking.

On one hand, I'm not impressed. On the other hand, I'm happy to see that my original hypothesis of whether progressives could be used for music, is being proven correct. Gloriously so. Will force another two Arrowroot-type cookies down and try to pace the Gravol. Either way, overdosing on Gravol or cookies isn't something I want to do for the long-term.

At this rate, I should ask my friend to pack me a barf bag for choir practice. I'm also thinking that instead of doing the rehearsal with the progressives on, I'll show how musicians' eyes move in normal (read: single-vision lens) situations. It all depends upon how the last two lessons go.

Click here for Part 2.

On Teaching Piano with Multiple Cameras

This week's lessons feature a fun bonus for my students - the addition of the POV camera. My last student of the evening and I had a ball working with the POV camera. By using trakAxPC, I am able to create a split-screen lesson clip. All it took was a little Virtual Choir genius ("Clap 3 times") to sync the two video clips:

Virtual Choir 3 Conductor Video (Soprano) - Water Night from Eric Whitacre on Vimeo.

Here's what a split screen lesson clip looks like:

This way, my students get the exact same perspectives they get when they are sitting at the bench (the straight-ahead view of the score and an HD shot of the peripheral view of their hands. trakAxPC is so easy to use. I haven't even gone through the tutorials!

Music and technology is a wonderful thing.