Exercise VI - Visual Sequencing

The ability to retain visual sequences in the short-term memory long enough to recall them is crucial for sight-readers.
A person with problems retaining visual sequences because of a lack of the left/right directional tracking is not able to perceive the order of stimuli in which they appear and switch the order of letters in a word or notes in a music.

According to the PTS II Manual, Visual Sequencing "requires Temporal Visual Processing, Visual Attention, Visual Discrimination, Visual Figure Ground, and Visual Speed".

This exercise calls for you to find the characters presented on top of the screen in the same order in which they are presented. Using the right arrow key, you have to move a yellow box over the "first occurrence of the first letter or number in the sequence at the top of the screen, and then press the spacebar on your keyboard". You continue using this strategy until the last letter or number in the sequence has been found.

Variables are:

- Target Type: numbers, upper and lower case letters;
- Codes: combination of letters and numbers sequential order (i.e., ABCDEF, 12345) or random order (i.e., HDUER, 574839);
- Length of Sequence: number of characters in the sequence varies from 2 to 26;
- Number of Characters: number of characters on the screen varies from 40 to 300.

- Goals: to advance to the next level you need less than 2.5 average errors per trial.

It was easier for me to recognize stimuli in sequential order rather then in random order.
As the sequence of characters became longer, I was advised by the optometrist to memorize as much as I could. In order to do the exercise this way, I was required to find the memorized characters, then move my eyes to the top of the screen, back to where I stopped and then come back down and continue where I left. Exactly the same thing as looking at the keyboard while sight-reading and having to go back to the score to the same spot I was previously looking down to.

Please go to http://www.eyecanlearn.com
On this site you are going to find wonderful eye exercises designed for children. However,they can help you visualize what I have been describing.
Bellow the exercises this site offers offers, there are many interesting links to other eye training activities .

Alexandre Dossin, Tchaikovsky and The Seasons Op.37bis

The Seasons, edited by Dossin and recently published by Schirmer (Performance edition), is a set of 12 pieces, one for each month. Whether you want to play or teach The Seasons, this is the edition and CD.
Dossin makes you wish the year had more then 12 months. His imagination and skill made me hear an orchestra playing (I am a big fan of Tchaikovsky's orchestral work).

The level of the pieces range from early intermediate to late advanced. Although they are not technically challenging, they are part of the 3rd year examination at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition.

This edition includes: Historical Notes, Performance Notes and a section About the Editor.

The Performance notes are very helpful in explaining how and who commissioned this group of pieces as well as the origin of the subtitles and poetic epigraphs.
I found the suggestions given by Dossin on how to perform the work as a whole or in smaller groups very interesting.*
There are priceless notes on how to perform and practice each "month".

This edition was based on the composer's manuscript but Dossin added fingering, provided a small range of metronome markings and pedal. Dynamics and articulation are original and suggestions are in parenthesis.

Dossin wrote the fingering for a medium-size hand. It is hard to describe it but the fingering is extremely unique. You have to try it for yourself. Obviously he put a lot of thought on writing them. I like how the fingering helps the phrasing (e.g., April), legato (e.g., April), articulation and even dynamics (e.g., placing strong fingers on accents).
There is a lot of fingering redistribution (e.g., May) in order to help pedaling and suggestions on hands placement (e.g., January, April).

I hope this new edition helps popularize this set. The two well known pianist's guide for repertoire by Magrath and Hinson have small descriptions of this set.
I have taught just about every piece from Album for the Young Op.39 (levels 3 to 8) and I am sure I am not alone. During my sight-reading exploration, I read the Op.40 and I confess I was very disappointed. I could not believe this was the same guy that wrote one of my favorite concertos for violin Op.35 :(

Alexandre Dossin has several recordings. Go to http://www.uoregon.edu/~music/About/bios/dossina.htm to see his complete discography.
My favorites, as a teacher, are the Kabalevsky Preludes and Sonatas and (finally!) a great recording of Kabalevsky Sonatinas.
Dossin is also editing and recording Tchaikovsky Album for the Young Op.39. It will be published by Schirmer this coming March.

*I was amused to read on Hinson's Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire the following description: "Twelve pieces, one for each month. More effective when performed individually". I am sure Dossin will be amused as well. Dossin wrote: "In my opinion, performing one piece at a time works well only as an encore...but not in a recital program. These pieces are very simple and of a small scope, and they tend to feel even smaller when accompanied by other major works".

Exercise V - Tachistoscope - Don't sight-read and chew gum at the same time!

Tachistoscope is a device used in exposing visual stimuli, as pictures, letters, or words, for an extremely brief period (faster then 1/25 of a second), used chiefly to assess visual perception, memory or to increase reading speed.
According to the PTS II manual, "the tachistoscope program requires you to identify a group of stimuli presented all at once for a brief exposure speed. Tachistoscopic perception requires Perceptual Speed, Visual Memory, Visualization and Temporal Visual processing".
You can find an immense amount of information about this subject on the internet. You can even download free tachistoschipes if you want to try Exercise V at home.

When I first started this exercise, I had a very easy time. Now that I am on the final levels, my performance is decreasing rapidly*. It became very complicated. Five characters, a combination of numbers and letters, flash in front of my eyes and it is virtually impossible for me to identify them. If I am "cool" enough to scan the given stimuli left to right quickly or better, grouping numbers and letters, I am successful. Otherwise..... If I am chewing gum, it never works (this is not a joke).

The variables for this exercise are:

Stimuli Type – numbers, upper case letters, lower cast letters, and codes (combination of letters and numbers).

Stimuli size – medium and large.

Length of stimuli – length of sequences presented vary from one to six.

Speed – fast (1/4 second) and slow (1/2 second).

Delay – in some levels, you must withhold the response while a moving "distraction" (bird, balloon - my favorite is the flying banana) appears on the screen. Your eyes have to follow the "distraction" until it disappears. Only then, you enter a response. The objective is to activate your working memory**.

Goal - 70% or greater correct trials.

* Double click on the image to see my results so far.
** Working memory is a process that involves remembering one stimulus while performing a different task. Such a skill is necessary for sight-reading.

Sight-Reading Exercise - Piano Trios / Muczynski's Piano Music

Last weekend I checked out from the library Muczynski's and Haydn's Piano Trios to sight-read. It occurred to me to read the cello and the violin parts together before I got to the piano part. It turned out to be a wonderful exercise. As you know, the cello part is written on bass clef and the violin, on treble. Such exercise allowed me to read horizontally and it provided me with an overall idea of the work. Once I got to the piano section, the piece was familiar and a I had an easy time predicting the harmony as well as looking ahead.
I strongly suggest you try this exercise. It is very rewarding!

Muczynski's Third Piano Trio Op.46 (1987) is reasonably easy to try. This work was commissioned for the Western Arts Trio by the University of Wyoming Foundation in commemoration of the university's centennial celebration. It is an interesting piece with modal flavors and a variety of tempo changes that reflect different atmospheres and moods.
The entire trio is a theme and variations which is my favorite kind of piece to read. Sight- reading theme and variations often give you familiarity and fluency necessary to move your eyes forward.

Go to http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/muczynski for a complete list of Muczynki's works and biography.
My favorite Muczynski pieces to teach are Six Preludes Op.6 (levels 9,10). It is dedicated to Tcherepnin who taught him composition at DePaul University in Chicago.

Other good teaching material: Fables Op.21 (levels 5,6,7),
Toccata Op.25 (level 10),
Diversions Op.23 (level 7),
Sonatina (level 9),
Seven Op.30 (level 9),
A Summer Journal Op.19 (levels 8,9),
Collected Piano Pieces (late intermediary) published by Schirmer.

"Again and again, I am admiring the personal drama and lyricism in the piano writing of Muczynski - which gives the pianist every opportunity of displaying his musicianship and virtuosity" (Tcherepnin)

Go to http://www.cmnc.org/newsletters/tales_pn_sight_rd.htm and read Miriam Blatt's articles "Tales of Piano Sightreading" and "Piano Sightreading: Technical Tips" on the News letter of CHAMBER MUSICIANS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA



I will write more about Piano Trios in a future posting.

Musicians, Athletes And Their Eyes

I always tell my students that "practicing the piano is sports for their fingers" in an effort to get them to practice their drills. Just like a basketball player would.

I have been working on these eye exercises in order to improve my sight-reading and hopefully, help others.
While my research is an original idea for musicians, to my surprise, I found out that athletes have also been working on similar exercises.
I recommend that you read a paper available on the internet called "The Impact of Vision Training on Sport Performance". This paper reflects exactly the same work I have been doing. Go to http://www.sportsci.org/news/ferret/visionreview/visionreview.html
This article discusses how visual ability affects performance. Sports such as basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, football can all benefit from improving, e.g., visual search and peripheral vision. The authors state that motor skills are starting to take advantage of this new area of research called Sports Vision.
They conclude that teachers and coaches should include in their programs visual perceptual skill exercises. "Teachers must learn to observe how performers use their eyes in intercepting skills like catching or striking and provide appropriate vision feedback. Knowing about visual limitations can assist in providing instruction and feedback on the use of vision in sport."(Knudson,Kulka)

If you read the article, let me know what you think.

Avner Dorman's Piano Music

Last month, I ordered the Piano Sonata No.3 - Dance Suite (Prelude, Oud and Kanun, Techno) by Avner Dorman. I had never heard his work before. I read a description of this sonata and it seemed very exotic. This morning, after successfully being able to sight-read it, I kept asking myself why I did not know about his piano music before.
I would like to share the description by the that "tickled" my curiosity:

"When Soheil asked me to compose a new piece for his March Alice Tully concert, I had already begun contemplating the writing of a suite of dances. However, instead of following the traditional form of a dance suite (i.e., a sequence of unrelated dance movements), I chose to compose a dramatic piece, one that combines the vividness of dances with the emotional content of drama.

Dramatically, Dance Suite is the journey through sound of a blind oud player. (The oud is a traditional Middle-Eastern instrument that resembles a lute or a guitar.) The piece opens with a prelude which symbolically represents the blind player’s wandering through the darkness and finding his expression through sound rather than light. The prelude is very passionate and deals with the musician’s inner conflict.

The movement that follows the prelude (Oud and Kanun) is based on a traditional Arabic maqam and incorporates several Arabic dances. A maqam is a series of notes or gestures that form the basis of most classical Arabic music. The second movement is constructed like a taqsim - an improvisatory piece that is based on a single maqam.

During the second movement, sounds from a different world begin to penetrate the classical Arabic music. These are sounds of modern street-life and include modern dances (such as techno and house). The oud player is fascinated by these new sounds and begins to follow them instinctively in his music.

The last movement begins when, unexpectedly, the serene atmosphere disappears. The modern dances take over, leading the piece into an exuberant finale. It is solely based on motives from the first two movements, combined with rhythms and gestures of modern dance styles.

Dance Suite is played continuously as one movement and is approximately 15 minutes long."(Avner Dorman)

Dorman is a young Israeli composer and onetime physicist. He got his doctorate from Juilliard where he studied composition with Corigliano.
The first American recording of his piano music was recently released by Naxos.
Eliran Avni, the pianist does a wonderful job, with impeccable technical skills and sensibility. Go to YouTube to watch him performing Dorman's Piano Concerto in A.

Schirmer has recently published the Sonatas No1*, No2**, No3, Prelude No1, Moments Musicaux, Azerbaijani Dance and more (you can hear them all on the CD by Eliran Avni).

*this neoclassic work is inspired by classic rock, classical music and Brodway music"
**it is inspired by Art Tatum, Messiaen and Nancarrow

Exercise IV - Visual Search or " Where's Wally"

Do you remember Where's Wally books? I always had a great time looking for Wally, totally oblivious to the science behind it.
Exercise IV is the most challenging of all. It is a "not so fun and extremely demanding" version of my childhood's colorful books.
According to the PTS manual, this drill requires: "Visual Planning, Perceptual Speed, Figure-Ground Perception, Visual Memory, Ocular Motility, Directionality, and Temporal Visual Processing".
Before I go further, I would like to define Figure-Ground Perception, Visual Planning and Visual Memory.*

Figure-Ground Perception: it is the ability to discriminate between target and background.
A well known example of it is the "white vase and the two black faces". When you choose the white stimuli as target, you see a vase and the black becomes background. When choosing the black as stimuli, you see two faces and the white falls in the background.


Visual Planning: is the strategy chosen for searching a target. Just like you do while sight-reading. You make choices grouping the notes, searching from bottom/up or top/down, horizontally or vertically, etc.

Visual Memory: is a very important skill while sight-reading. Visual memory is the ability to recall images such as faces, words, musical notation, objects, etc.
Professional sight-readers call it "buffers"**. They scan the score ahead and keep the memory of it in order to retrieve it later.

Exercise IV: it requires you to search for a specific target among several columns with objects very similar to the target being searched.

It is a very complex task. When the targets are numbers or letters, it is easy to group them since we have been doing this all our lives. When the target is composed mostly of consonants, it requires more strategy and memory skills. If the target is a combination of symbols such as {]{#%@, it becomes overwhelming and confusing.
I have not arrived at combination of letters, numbers and symbols (I am not sure I want to get there).

Target Type: numbers,
upper case and lower case letters,
symbols,
combination of numbers, letters, and symbols.

Length of Sequence: number characters in the sequence varies from two to six.

Number of Combination: number of different combination to select from varies from 15 to 140.

Goal: less than 3.0 average errors or omissions per trial.

Wish me luck!

I will be updating my progress on all exercises. See the comment section below them.


* Ocular Motility, Directionality and Temporal Visual Processing have already been defined in previous posts (8-23-09, 1-11-10).
** See post 8-23-09 "The effect of skill on the eye-hand span during musical reading"