Walking
Imagine walking down a crowded sidewalk. Where are your eyes looking? Mine are looking ahead of me trying to find a
gap in the crowd, so I can get to where I’m going.
Imagine walking down that same crowded sidewalk with your
eyes glued to your shoes. You’re going
to bump into a lot of people that way and chances are when you do find a break
in the crowd, it means you’re in the middle of a street!
Driving
Now, imagine you’re driving on the Interstate. Where are your eyes looking? Hopefully, they
are looking at the road ahead of you and occasionally glancing in the rearview
mirror, so you can get to where you’re going safely.
Imagine driving that same stretch of Interstate with a
glass-bottom car that allows you to focus on the road beneath you. You’re going to crash that bizarre vehicle
very quickly!
Reading
Read the following sentence out loud and pay attention to
where your eyes are looking as you say each word:
“It is important to look ahead while walking, driving,
reading, or sight reading.”
If you’re like most people, your eyes were at least a word
or two ahead of your voice.
Go back and read that sentence out loud again, but this time
don’t let your eyes go to the next word until you’ve finished reading the word
you’re on. Go on. Try it. I'll do it with you.
My reading was a lot choppier that way. Was yours?
Short-Term Memory
Your brain is amazing!
Your short-term memory is able to playback information that you heard or
saw in the past 7 seconds. This is why
you can ask someone to repeat what they just said and remember what they said before
they actually repeat it. Your brain heard
what they said, it just didn’t pay attention to it the first time around.
Sight Reading
Thanks to your short-term memory, you can approach sight
reading the same way you do walking, driving, and reading words!
If you fix your eyes on the spot you are playing or singing
at that moment, the next beat or measure will catch you by surprise and your
playing will be choppy at best or accident-inducing at worst, derailing an
entire audition, exam, or rehearsal.
If you look ahead while still holding the previous beat or
two in your short-term memory, your performance will be much smoother.
Consider this musical example below. Imagine playing it on your instrument,
singing it, or even just tapping the rhythm. (I’ve included both clefs to accommodate all
instrument and voice types.)
If your performance was choppy, chances are you were
focusing on each note as it came.
If your performance was smooth, you were likely looking
ahead as you went.
Try it again. This time be intentional about looking at
least one beat ahead, which means before you clap, play, or sing the first note
you have to look at the second one and maybe even the third as well!
How did that feel?
It may feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn to look
ahead. Maybe it felt good!
Either way, I guarantee that your reading will become faster and smoother as you
learn to look ahead while remaining aware of where you are.
Hmm…there’s a life lesson in there, I think. 😉
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