The parafoveal stimulation is the first of the 11 exercises from PTS II I will describe.
The parafoveal stimulation exercise is designed to make you identify stimuli outside of the parafea (see posting on November 18, 2009).
The working position should be the Harmon distance (see posting November 25,2009). This sitting distance makes a world of difference.
The goal of this exercise is to get 70% to 100% right answers in order to move to the next level. The stimuli type are upper and lower case letters and numbers. The speed range from 15/60ths of a second, 10/60 of a second and 5/60 of a second.
The computer screen shows a small box with a dot inside. The dot will move in different combination from left to right. At random intervals, two letters or numbers will flash on the screen. One inside the box and one outside. With the keyboard arrows, you have to match the dots. You push the space bar only when the stimuli match.
This exercise requires VTP (see posting January 11, 2010), motor and eye hand movement coordination.
Everything happens very fast. So far (I am now on level 10) I have been doing very well. I will keep you informed on how future levels go.
Before I started on this program,I had hit a wall. Improvements on my sight-reading were happening very slowly if any. Practice alone had helped for the first 5 months only.
A month into this program, my tempo is faster and my playing is more accurate. While sight-reading Mozart violin sonatas, I was able to add ornaments, dynamics and articulations. I have been through 27 sections and several practice trials. There are 123 to go.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Temporal Visual Processing
TVP is a very complex subject for me to discuss. At this point, I have been reading a lot about it and I am yet to learn more. However, I am prematurely going to write about it because this is one area where I have been noticing great improvement. I will try to explain in a very simple and summarized manner. According to the PTS II manual, TVP controls the ability to change visual fixation from one point to another as we read. It enables us "to read smoothly, rapidly, and efficiently. It enhances reading fluency and comprehension." A deficit in temporal visual processing will compromise reading ability. Minor deficit in temporal visual processing can cause loss of place while reading, slow speed, visual fatigue, poor comprehension, frustration reading and images overlapping or running together.
Temporal processing interprets the messages that reach the visual area. Temporal processing is responsible for recalling memories of previous visual experiences or activities.
I have gone through 26 sections of the PTS II program and I have already noticed a substantial improvement. I am now much faster. My parafoveal vision has improved and allowed me even to see or recall previous accidentals. I believe memory of previous activity, such as where my hands were on the keyboard so I can plan for future placements, are vital for successful sight-reading.
Besides doing the tests required by PTS II, I have been working through a lot of the practice sections.
I suggest you read the article:
Temporal processing interprets the messages that reach the visual area. Temporal processing is responsible for recalling memories of previous visual experiences or activities.
I have gone through 26 sections of the PTS II program and I have already noticed a substantial improvement. I am now much faster. My parafoveal vision has improved and allowed me even to see or recall previous accidentals. I believe memory of previous activity, such as where my hands were on the keyboard so I can plan for future placements, are vital for successful sight-reading.
Besides doing the tests required by PTS II, I have been working through a lot of the practice sections.
I suggest you read the article:
Measurement of temporal processing abilities.
Vishakha Rawool, PhD, CCC-A
Doctor of Audiology program
Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology
West Virginia University, Morgantown WV 26506
This article will give you great insight on other functions of the temporal processing.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
PTS II Therapy
The PST II therapy proposes to improve information processing skills, temporal visual processing skills, and rapid automatized naming skills.
During the holidays I started working on this therapy.
The doctor should assign you about 20 minutes of exercises a day, 5 days a week. There is a feature that allows the doctor to customize your therapy, and a feature for you to check therapy results at the end of each section.
For each exercise, there is a practice section which one can do as many times as one wishes.
Exercises are designed according to needs and age of the patient.
I have been using the Auto Mode which advances me through the program according to my performance.
There are 150 sections on the Auto Mode setting.
So far, I have found the PTS II very helpful.
There are 11 procedures one has to perform. Each section goes through 4 of them.
I intend to describe each of the 11 procedures in future postings.
Stand by.
During the holidays I started working on this therapy.
The doctor should assign you about 20 minutes of exercises a day, 5 days a week. There is a feature that allows the doctor to customize your therapy, and a feature for you to check therapy results at the end of each section.
For each exercise, there is a practice section which one can do as many times as one wishes.
Exercises are designed according to needs and age of the patient.
I have been using the Auto Mode which advances me through the program according to my performance.
There are 150 sections on the Auto Mode setting.
So far, I have found the PTS II very helpful.
There are 11 procedures one has to perform. Each section goes through 4 of them.
I intend to describe each of the 11 procedures in future postings.
Stand by.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Harmon Distance
I have been experimenting sight-reading from several different distances. My first instinct (wrong!) was to sit as far as possible from the score so I could have a wider view of it. It turns out, after reading some papers by optometrists, that there is an optimal distance between our eyes and the working area where one can be more efficient. Such distance is called "Harmon Distance". It is calculated by measuring the distance between elbow and knuckles.
Other things contribute to more efficient reading skills. The book or working surface should be tilted between 20 to 23 degrees from the horizontal. The back is to be straight, feet on the floor, and of course, good lighting is a must.
Both Harmon Distance and the recommended sloping working surface, are impossible to achieve while playing the piano without hurting the hand and arm position.
Dr J has agreed to order the TVPP soft ware for me. I am looking forward to do the exercises and learn more about reading.
Other things contribute to more efficient reading skills. The book or working surface should be tilted between 20 to 23 degrees from the horizontal. The back is to be straight, feet on the floor, and of course, good lighting is a must.
Both Harmon Distance and the recommended sloping working surface, are impossible to achieve while playing the piano without hurting the hand and arm position.
Dr J has agreed to order the TVPP soft ware for me. I am looking forward to do the exercises and learn more about reading.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Developmental Optometrist - Dr J
My meeting with the Dr J was wonderful!
She showed me the equipment used on most of the researches I have been reading. I am particularly impressed with the "Visagraph-version 4.0". Visagraph is like goggles. It stays in touch with your skin and it is covered with sensors that can track every single eye movement with incredible precision. She was kind enough to test my reading skills (with a text). Visagraph has tracked both right and left eyes independently. After I finished reading, a computer prints all the information about every single movement.
There is a record of:
- number of fixations
- number of regressions
- average span of recognition (words)
- average duration of fixations
- number of saccade start differences
- events with multiple regressions
- mean regressions in multiple events, and lots of other information more related to the text.
Dr J also talked about the different parts of the eye that I considered important to my quest:
- The macula, is an ill-defined and somewhat yellow area of the central retina which surrounds the fovea centralis, which is important for good visual acuity.
- The fovea centralis is a small, thinned-out area of the retina consisting almost exclusevely of receptor cells, which provides high visual acuity. A healthy fovea is key to reading, driving, watching tv and ohter activities that require the ability to see detail.
- The PARA FOVEA, recognizes letters/notes while simultaneously fixating on a central target.
Understanding the para fovea, was very important for me. Pianists use the para foveal vision all the time. Dr J told me that para foveal vision and peripheral vision are not the same thing. Peripheral vision is much further and it is not what we use while reading. I was fascinated by the para fovea because I find myself seeing more and more out of the fovea as I continue with my sight-reading practice.
There are ways to improve this kind of "vision". She has recommended a soft ware called TVPP (Temporal Visual Processing Program) by Sydney Groffman. I am dying to get a hold of it. If you google TVPP, you can read a more detailed description of it. Unfortunately, this is not sold to "normal human beings". It is only sold to medical facilities. I have asked Dr J for help once again.
My thanks to Dr J for spending her free time enlightening me.
She showed me the equipment used on most of the researches I have been reading. I am particularly impressed with the "Visagraph-version 4.0". Visagraph is like goggles. It stays in touch with your skin and it is covered with sensors that can track every single eye movement with incredible precision. She was kind enough to test my reading skills (with a text). Visagraph has tracked both right and left eyes independently. After I finished reading, a computer prints all the information about every single movement.
There is a record of:
- number of fixations
- number of regressions
- average span of recognition (words)
- average duration of fixations
- number of saccade start differences
- events with multiple regressions
- mean regressions in multiple events, and lots of other information more related to the text.
Dr J also talked about the different parts of the eye that I considered important to my quest:
- The macula, is an ill-defined and somewhat yellow area of the central retina which surrounds the fovea centralis, which is important for good visual acuity.
- The fovea centralis is a small, thinned-out area of the retina consisting almost exclusevely of receptor cells, which provides high visual acuity. A healthy fovea is key to reading, driving, watching tv and ohter activities that require the ability to see detail.
- The PARA FOVEA, recognizes letters/notes while simultaneously fixating on a central target.
Understanding the para fovea, was very important for me. Pianists use the para foveal vision all the time. Dr J told me that para foveal vision and peripheral vision are not the same thing. Peripheral vision is much further and it is not what we use while reading. I was fascinated by the para fovea because I find myself seeing more and more out of the fovea as I continue with my sight-reading practice.
There are ways to improve this kind of "vision". She has recommended a soft ware called TVPP (Temporal Visual Processing Program) by Sydney Groffman. I am dying to get a hold of it. If you google TVPP, you can read a more detailed description of it. Unfortunately, this is not sold to "normal human beings". It is only sold to medical facilities. I have asked Dr J for help once again.
My thanks to Dr J for spending her free time enlightening me.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Cherry Season is Over
After 1500 Hymns and no more cherries, I have decided to explore a more rewarding repertoire.
I am still doing Hymns with the metronome so I have a better idea of my improvement "tempo wise".
Here is a list of new things I have been sight reading:
Mozart - Lieder
Mozart - Violin Sonatas
Berio - Canzoni Popolari
Jaell - French Character Pieces
Italian Arias
Rodrigo - Serenata Espanola
Tiersot - Chants de la Vielle France
Schubert - Lieder
Tagliafico - 15 Melodies
Kirchner - 60 Preludes Op.65
Brahms - Lieder
Wolf - Lieder (I am not there yet but the harmonies are gorgeous-I shell go back to them later)
Faure - 50 Songs Med/Low (very beautiful)
Persichetti - Sonatas (my favorite!)
I have also been going through my students intermediate repertoire (super fun). I read a lot of their Baroque style pieces in order to be exposed to some polyphonic writing.
My new piano professor has suggested that I do Czerny Op.821 (great for "chuncking").
Next post will be about my meeting with the optometrist. It was very helpful. Don't miss it.
I am still doing Hymns with the metronome so I have a better idea of my improvement "tempo wise".
Here is a list of new things I have been sight reading:
Mozart - Lieder
Mozart - Violin Sonatas
Berio - Canzoni Popolari
Jaell - French Character Pieces
Italian Arias
Rodrigo - Serenata Espanola
Tiersot - Chants de la Vielle France
Schubert - Lieder
Tagliafico - 15 Melodies
Kirchner - 60 Preludes Op.65
Brahms - Lieder
Wolf - Lieder (I am not there yet but the harmonies are gorgeous-I shell go back to them later)
Faure - 50 Songs Med/Low (very beautiful)
Persichetti - Sonatas (my favorite!)
I have also been going through my students intermediate repertoire (super fun). I read a lot of their Baroque style pieces in order to be exposed to some polyphonic writing.
My new piano professor has suggested that I do Czerny Op.821 (great for "chuncking").
Next post will be about my meeting with the optometrist. It was very helpful. Don't miss it.
Monday, September 7, 2009
"A Neurocognitive Approach to Music Reading"
A Neurocognitve Approach to Music Reading by Lauren Stewart
Dep. of Imaging Neuroscience
University College, UK and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7 RU, UK
The article, which I highly recommend, investigates how musical symbols are decoded into music response (perceptual and physical) for pianists reading 2 staves.
They found that pianists eyes perform a set of horizontal and vertical mappings. (There was no mention of what kind of "zig-zag or "mapping" is more efficient).
Adults musically untrained who were taught to play the piano for 3 months showed a change in the superior parietal cortex. The experiment was monitored by MRIs.
The author states that these changes correspond to "the acquisition of of a process that deals with the extraction of spacial (pitch) and featural (rhythm) properties of notation, respectively".
The neuroimaging were focused on reading musical pitch, which for pianists is a spacial task (where high notes correspond to the right side of the keyboard and lower notes correspond to
the leftside). However, the study showed that music reading also involves recognizing the rhythms (when to play).
These rhythmic instructions, differ from the pitch instructions because they are not spacial but they are conveyed by visul features.
The imaging tests for rhythm recognition also showed changes on the left supermarginal gyrus.
The conclusions were:
"The studies described above reveal that music reading, at least for keyboard performance, requires coordinated sensorimotor translation between a set of vertically organized stimuli and a horizontally organized set of responses. These spatial mappings, which are likely to relate to the decoding of pitch from notation, develop in the early stages of skill acquisition and are associated with functional changes in the superior parietal cortex. The ability to decode the rhythmic elements of notation, by contrast, appears to depend upon a visual discrimination process subserved by the fusiform gyrus. These “what” and “when” aspects of music reading seem to map onto the what and when occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal streams, respectively".
Dep. of Imaging Neuroscience
University College, UK and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7 RU, UK
The article, which I highly recommend, investigates how musical symbols are decoded into music response (perceptual and physical) for pianists reading 2 staves.
They found that pianists eyes perform a set of horizontal and vertical mappings. (There was no mention of what kind of "zig-zag or "mapping" is more efficient).
Adults musically untrained who were taught to play the piano for 3 months showed a change in the superior parietal cortex. The experiment was monitored by MRIs.
The author states that these changes correspond to "the acquisition of of a process that deals with the extraction of spacial (pitch) and featural (rhythm) properties of notation, respectively".
The neuroimaging were focused on reading musical pitch, which for pianists is a spacial task (where high notes correspond to the right side of the keyboard and lower notes correspond to
the leftside). However, the study showed that music reading also involves recognizing the rhythms (when to play).
These rhythmic instructions, differ from the pitch instructions because they are not spacial but they are conveyed by visul features.
The imaging tests for rhythm recognition also showed changes on the left supermarginal gyrus.
The conclusions were:
"The studies described above reveal that music reading, at least for keyboard performance, requires coordinated sensorimotor translation between a set of vertically organized stimuli and a horizontally organized set of responses. These spatial mappings, which are likely to relate to the decoding of pitch from notation, develop in the early stages of skill acquisition and are associated with functional changes in the superior parietal cortex. The ability to decode the rhythmic elements of notation, by contrast, appears to depend upon a visual discrimination process subserved by the fusiform gyrus. These “what” and “when” aspects of music reading seem to map onto the what and when occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal streams, respectively".
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