Hymns. God help me!

As I have mentioned before, my main problem reading music is seeing vertically. Therefore, I have started my sight-reading practice going through hymnbooks. The treble and bass clefs are separated by the words, making the distance from one to another even greater then on a regular piano score.
Other advantages for playing hymns:
- They are short and I can go through many different key signatures in a short period of time.
- The four-part writing keeps me busy.
- They are simple enough that I can focus on looking ahead and I can still remember the past so I know where I am on the keyboard.
Disadvantages:
- I really dislike the way they sound. Most of them seem to have the wrong time signature.
I play 20 hymns to get my eyes “warmed up” but since this process is so painful to me, I reward myself with one cherry after each one. Thank GOD for cherry season!
The other day, while my daughter was sleeping, I practiced them on my keyboard with the volume turned off and guess what? I could still hear them in my head and they were still bad.
When I die, if God happens to be waiting for me, I’ll let him know about my twenty hymns a day in a quest for forgiveness and admittance to heaven. If I do have to tell this tale, I’ll leave out the rewards for playing the hymns in an attempt to sound more dramatic. I am sure if He is there, He is not watching “every detail”. Let’s not exaggerate…
If you and God disagree with me, try playing a “Mexican style” hymns. Jesus Cristo!
- If they are not helpful, at least I can guarantee you will get quite good at playing 10ths on the left hand ☺ (Maybe this should go on the advantage list).

Wagner Songs

After the hymns, I play through some Italian songs and Wagner songs. These are “music” to my ears. I highly recommend them. The Italian songs are less challenging to read than the Wagner songs. Wagner is very chromatic, touching upon yet another problem I have: remembering accidentals other then the ones on the key signature.
Right after a new person is introduced to me, I forget his or her name. It is something I can’t help. My brain immediately sends me a message telling me that I didn’t pay attention to the name. Well, this very same thing happens with the accidentals. Much like when I see the new person and don’t remember their name, when I play an altered note and the same note comes back in the same measure, I don’t remember it. Wagner makes me work very hard on it.

After the songs, I play Scarlatti. I have already gone through all Haydn Sonatas.

I had another major break through. I will right about it next time.