Procedures for Sight-Reading (PTSII)

PTS II is a computer program available only through your optometrist. It is installed in your home computer. There are 11 exercises to work on and you advance levels only if you meet the requirements. (I have been describing my experiences with each exercise on this blog)

PTSII procedures for sight-reading are:

-Speed of information processing;
-Perceptual span;
-Peripheral Vision;
-Visual attention;
-Visual memory;
-Ocular motility.

All 11 exercises enhance these skills.

How Musicians Process Information

In our everyday activities, all of us learn and process information either simultaneously or sequentially. This perceptual-cognitive theory was developed by Alexander Luria (1966) and later expanded by Das (1979) and Naglieri and Das (1997).
When musicians look at a triad they quickly recognize its shape and its inversion (spatial configuration). They see it as a whole, all at once. This is an example of processing information simultaneously. In order to spell such triad (and scales), musicians have to use their sequential processing skills (linear approach).
The speed of information processing skills is an essential component to learning and reading and can be improved by doing the appropriate exercises. “It can be shown that increases in processing speed are linked to increases in other cognitive domains, which include sight-reading” (PTS II Documentation and sight-reading).


According to the authors, the exercises presented on the PTS II program are designed to enhance Information Processing Skills, Temporal Visual Processing skills and Rapid Automatized Naming skills.

Information Processing Skills is the ability our brain has to recognize, understand, stores and responds to information collected by our five senses. (article)

Temporal Visual Processing (TVP) is the means by which musicians process brief short stimuli and rapid sequences of information during sight-reading. TVP is responsible for the manner musicians make choices and prioritize information. Such choices vary from identifying and individualizing single notes to perceiving large stimuli presented in sequences such as chords, scales, accompaniment styles, arpeggios, etc. TVP also controls the musician’s capacity to change fixations form note-to-note, beat-to-beat, and so on. Improvements on this area result in more fluency and better comprehension. Even a small deficit on TVP can compromise reading ability, can cause loss of place while reading, visual fatigue, slow reading speed, symbols overlapping, lack of comprehension and frustration. (PTS II)

Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) is the ability to recognize and name harmony, notes, accompaniment patterns, sequences and rhythms in a fast an accurate way.

A Second "Look" at the Tachistoscopic Exercise and Reading Music

Tachistoscopic perception is the capacity to identify and reproduce a visual stimulus presented rapidly, usually faster than 1/25 of a second. It is used chiefly to assess visual perception, memory or to increase reading speed. Tachistoscopic perception requires Perceptual Speed, Visual Memory, Visualization and Temporal Visual Processing.
This exercises is recommended for reading fast music. It spans the visual field and problem solving. One has opportunity to group fast stimulus into chunks. It develops working memory by adding a distractor before you enter your answer. The purpose of the distractors is to retain certain information while simultaneously processing the other task.

Tachistoscopic Exercises for Musicians

Although tachistoscopic ability is a very important skill for all readers, exercising this ability alone does not guaranty improvements on your sight-reading. In fact, experiments with tach practice for musicians by using musical examples had unimpressive results.
I found a reasonable explanation for such results on an article called “Eye Movements in Reading: Facts and Fallacies” by Stanford E. Taylor. He reports:"No studies to date have shown that training to widen span has resulted in the ability to see in phrases during continuous reading. Feinberg's study (1949) suggested that physiological limitations of the eye will probably prevent readers from ever reaching this goal. It is rather startling to note that despite the findings of over a hundred studies of eye movements, writers of reading improvement texts have persisted in this misconception. Perhaps they have done so because they know a person can see 3 or 4 words when STARING at a print or when words are flashed TACHISTOSCOPICALLY. This is possible because the seeing situation is STATIC, allowing time to assimilate the less distinct impressions that occur in the periphery. The situation is in direct contrast to that encountered during reading, when retinal impressions are superimposed on preceding ones at the rate of 3 to 5 per second in a DYNAMIC act where the kinesthesia of the ocular activity and the sequence of impressions further reduce the already tenuous peripheral impressions. In addition, there is the demand for continuously ORGANIZING the MULTIPLE IDEAS presented in reading material. Consequently, the span of recognition in reading is distinctly smaller than that occurring and measured in STATIC seeing situations and may be thought of as "salvage" span. "


Musicians in order to improve their sight-reading abilities need more then just tach exercises because seeing a stationary target is different then seeing dynamic ones
K.L. Bean(1938)has researched and tested musicians doing tach exercises by using musical samples. His results are mentioned in detail on a paper called "A Cognitive Model of Musical Sight-Reading" by Thomas Wolf (1976). Here is the conclusion about musicians practicing tach alone: ” While there was some improvement, the results were generally unimpressive. Only 25% of the subjects improved significantly in both speed and accuracy of reading."
Wolf goes on reporting that “To get to the heart of this matter, we must worry less about what musicians see on the page and devote more attention to the cognitive processing which allows him to transfer the visual image into muscular act.”

This option by Wolf is what researchers call "information processing skills" or "problem solving". I wrote about problem solving on my previous entry.


The best tach exercise I found so far is the one on the PTS II program. I will describe them and post my results once again. I have not yet found a tach exercise for musicias. However, it really DOES NOT matter how you exercise this skill. Once your eyes learn a skill, they will apply it everywhere despite the target you are using. (This is the focus of a lecture I am giving for the MTNA Conference in March 2011 - Milwaukee).
Last night I reader e mailed me about suggesting some tach exercises. There is good exercise on a site called "Tachistoscope-Electronic Literature Collection"*
Another option is the PTS II which you need to acquire through a developmental optometrist. - If you know some tach exercises for musicians, we would love for you to share with us.
I am currently trying a program called EyeQ which although very good, has a brief and very simple tach exercise. There is a program called Eagle Eye available on the Luminosity.com site. I have not seeing it yet. But their exercises are usually great.
I will work and report on the Eagle Eye in the future.

Curiosity: Measuring perceptual span by using tach tests( performed by Weaver, 1943), produces an overestimate because musicians are able to guess some notes (Wolf,1997).

*I am sorry, for some reason, I failed to print the link for you

The Problem of Problem Solving in Sight-Reading

Along with short-term memory, our capacity to solve problems is crucial to for sight-reading. It involves very sophisticated perceptual and cognitive abilities. Given that we cannot read all the notes on the score while sight-reading, we must sometimes:
- Leave out “unnecessary” notes.
- Complete or even “guess” musical passages.
- Make instant decisions about fingering, articulation, phrasing, harmony, etc.
- Make rapid decisions about where and how to look at chords and different compositional styles such as polyphonic and homophonic writings.
- Combine long musical passages into chunks (e.g., scales, arpeggios, accompaniment patterns, melodic sequences).

Garzia (Vision and Reading,1996) says, that decision making refers to visual cognitive style and there is a continuum decision making while reading that requires a reflective and thoughtful problem solver.

PTS II offers several exercises that enhance working memory and problem solving skills.

Exercise X - Visual Sequential Processing or "Eyes out of Orbit"

According to the PTS II manual, Visual Sequential Processing develops the ability to identify and count a specific stimulus that is repeated in a sequence of different stimuli. Visual Sequential Processing requires Temporal Visual Processing, Perceptual Speed, Visual Attention, Visual Concentration and Saccadic Fixation.

You have to count the number of times a specified stimulus appears in sequence of stimuli. The target flashes inside of a box and then a series of letters, numbers or pictures will be flashed on the screen.

Variables:

There are four types of stimuli: Pictures(very difficult because they are somehow stylized and not very clear), Upper Case Letters, Lower Case Letters, Numbers
Stimuli Size: Medium and Large.
Speed of Stimuli: there are seven speeds ranging from slow to fast.
Number of Stimuli: it varies from 20 to 60 stimuli.
Stimuli Placement Patterns: there are six progressive placement patterns utilized.

The patterns could have a fixed or a random presentation.
In the fixed presentation, the stimuli will be presented in a fixed order and location. In the random presentation, the location of the stimuli in the sequence within a level will be randomized: it could show up on random places on the screen.
At this point, the speed is very fast. Hold on to your eye balls her or they go out of the orbit :o

It improves concentration, attention and saccadic fixation and speed. Good exercise for fast music.

Eye-Hand/Voice Span and Perceptual Span

Eye-Hand/Voice Span: measures how far ahead the eyes are from the hand/voice

Skilled readers Less skilled readers

4 notes 2 notes (Furneaux and Land)
about 2 beats under one beat (Truit at al.)
2 beats 0.5 beat (Rayner and Pollatsek)
1-2 notes 1-2 notes (Weaver) (more complex music)
4 beats (singers- Goolsby, 1994)
0 up to 2 notes (Jacobsen, 1941)


(I think it is more effective to measure EHS in beats because of the “chunking” abilities of the musicians-one beat can include several notes).

All researchers agree that the EHS of the musicians is small.
Truitt at al conclude that musicians do not need to see more then one measure ahead of the hands/voice in order to read well and readers rarely extract information beyond a measure (4 beats). However small, that does not mean that the visual process of the music is not ahead of the fixation (Weaver, 1943; Goolsby, 1994; Kinsler and Carpenter, 1995).
Rayner and Pollatsek state: “This discrepancy between the data and conventional wisdom might be due to the fact that musicians, like all human perceivers, are seduced by the illusion that information can be extracted from a wider region of vision than is actually possible”. (1997)


Perceptual Span: it measures the size of the visual field and our awareness of it. The perceptual span is the region around the fixation in which we obtain some information.

Both Truit at al and Rayner and Pollatsek (1997) found that, contrary to the musicians believes, the perceptual span is also small (the visual processing is also close to the hands). Its size is more or less one measure. That is > 2 < 4 notes ahead of the hands. Visual processing for musicians is also comparable to reading aloud (1.1 words for adults and less then half a word for a 1st grader-Garzia) and typing (about 6 characters-Rayner and Pollatsek).
(When researchers measure the EHS, they are taking the average and when they measure the perceptual span, they take the maximum).


Rayner and Pollatsek concluded that the less skilled reader when combining the EHS and the PS, extract useful information up to about 3 or 4 beats ahead of the hands. For skilled readers, the combination leads to only up to 5 beats ahead of the hands.

In the article Eye Movements in Reading: Facts and Fallacies by Stanford E. Taylor, he estates that “No studies to date have shown that training to widen span has resulted in the ability to see in phrases during continuous reading. Feinberg’s study (1949) suggested that the physiological limitations of the eye will probably present readers from ever reaching this goal “… when retinal impressions are superimposed on preceding ones at the rate of 3 to 5 per second in a dynamic act where the kinesthesia of the ocular activity and the sequence of impressions further reduce the already rather tenuous peripheral impressions. In addition, there is the demand for continually organizing the multiple ideas presented in reading material. Consequently, the span of recognition in reading is distinctly smaller than that occurring and measured in static seeing situations (Taylor, 1957) and maybe thought of as “salvageable” span”.

Exercise IX - Visual Concentration

Visual Concentration according to the PTS II Manual is the ability to remember the location of pairs of targets that are hidden on various sized grids. This exercise requires visual spatial memory, spatial visualization, visual-motor accuracy, and simultaneous processing.
This exercise also helps the musicians to develop working memory and problem solving.

This traditional grid memory game is played against the computer.

Variables:
- Grid Size - number of boxes in the grid. It varies from six to forty boxes.
- Skill level of the computer opponent – average or above average.
- Targets – there are five targets. Pictures, upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols.

Goal:
The goal in order to advance levels is winning or tying 70% of the time.

Short Term Memory and Working Memory

Working Memory is the ability to retain information in our short-term memory (in our "buffers") while simultaneously processing other material.
The ability to transform a complex input into mechanical results is directly related to this kind of memory. However, short-term memory is never addressed in music lessons. Teachers only focus on the long-term memory, which is the kind of memory used on performances.
During s-r, it is actually good to have a small Eye Hand Span and a small Perceptual Span* because if the input is to far from the mechanical output, we run the risk of loosing the material read. Psychologists say that the brain (buffers) only process 7 chunks at a time.
Our buffers also have the purpose of rearranging information and “solve problems” (i.e., fingering)

Take a look at a study by Simon and Chase, 1973 that discusses the buffers of chess players which are similar to the musicians’ buffers).

Working memory and Short Term Memory are vital skills needed for s-r and easily improved with exercises.
The PTS II addresses short term memory and working memory on the following exercises: "Visual Concentration", Visual Span" and the "Tachistoscope".
Both Visual Span and Tachistoscope use distractors. The purpose of the distractors is to retain one information while simultaneously processing other task.

*I will discuss this subject of small eye hand span and perceptual span on my next post.

Exercise VIII - Visual Closure + Auditory Closure*

"Visual Closure is the ability to identify incomplete targets" (PTS). According to the PTS II manual, visual closure requires form perception, figure-ground perception, speed of information processing and simultaneous processing.

My art professor used to say: “Do not add unnecessary details to your paintings. Leave some room for the audience imagine things”. He used examples of paints with hands missing one finger, for example, and admires would just see a “hand” because their brain would fill in the missing finger.

While sight-reading, we fill in chords, scales, rhythms, etc. Visual Closure is a big part of the musicians' chunking system.
There are ways to improve our visual closure outside of the instrument.
The exercise I have been doing from the PTS requires you “to identify incomplete targets as fast as possible. The target is presented on the screen in an increasing degree of completeness ranging from 1% to 100%.” (PTS).
I confess I struggled with this exercise at first. It wast frustrating because it seemed very easy.

While sight-reading, we also use our "auditory closure"* to complete phrases and even make corrections. Good sight-readers and text readers are both known for making automatic corrections.

According to Lehman and Erichsson (1996) our expectations are powerful. Such expectations along with our previous knowledge, are a big part of filling in the score.
I recommend you to read Wolf (1976),Fine et al.(2006) and Sloboda (1976) on this subject. Kinsler and Carpenter (1995) concluded that sight-reading twice reduces ocular movements only because the first time reading add expectations.
From my experience, atonal and modern music are much harder to sight-read because they do not fulfill my expectation. There are no familiar rhythmic, harmonic and melodic patterns. Professionals also state that playing chamber music is easier since they have a feedback form the other partners (Wolf).

In the book Vision and Reading by Ralph P. Garzia, he writes: "Both visual and auditory perceptual skills subserve learning to read in very important ways...
Visual analysis skills influence strongly how easily a child learns to identify the letters of the manuscript alphabet with consistent accuracy; auditory analysis skills, in turn, have a powerful effect on how readily the child recognizes the letter-sound relationships that govern decoding."

Make sure you know your theory and do your ear training.

* I made up this term to represent our auditory expectations

Vision And Music Making by Frank Kowalsky

Paul Harris, an optometrist and well trained musician sent me the article Vision and Music Making. A real gift.
In this article, Kowalsky writes about how he has learned that improving vision skills helps music learning, comprehension and reading speed.
He mentions two trainable skills, I have mentioned earlier, the tachistoscopic ability and the peripheral vision.
The tachistoschopic exercises I worked on with PTS II program (see post 02-07-2010)were the ones I needed more sections to finish. There is no way to train this skill as traditionally done by musicians (at their instruments).
My performance doing the parafoveal exercises, however, was very good. Which leads me to conclude that I have a good peripheral vision. The fact that I have a good peripheral vision does not imply that I am using it correctly or using it at all.
Kowalsky states: "Peripheral vision (sometimes referred to as
peripheral awareness) is another important concept that I had to redefine for myself. It implies more than merely seeing off to the sides; rather, it is an awareness of the entire background – the space to the sides, the top, the bottom, and the depth of field. Peripheral vision is a consciousness of everything that is not the object specifically being attended to".
After reading this, I went for for a car ride and I decided to check my "peripheral awareness". There was none! I was appalled. I then, started being aware of it, which by the way is very easy to do and I could not wait to try the same thing on the piano. Although I and other musicians know the usual rules: count, look ahead, don't correct, bla, bla, bla... It was not enough. I was using the "tunnel vision" Kowalsky describes while driving and while playing.
I went home, put two objects on both sides of my piano and I started sight-reading while aware of those objects left and right and also aware of a closet right in front of me.
How easy! I can hardly describe to you my surprise. As I became aware of my sides and top, my whole score was available to me. My perceptual span tripled and so did my tempo. This is the "tip" I was looking for. I knew my difficulties sight-reading had do be related to my eyes since I am a well trained musician and I do not lack practice.
OVERNIGHT MY SIGHT-READING IMPROVED A LOT. I have been misusing my visual abilities all my life.
I am impressed how sensitive Kowalsky is to be able to put this "perceptual puzzle" into meaningful words and how he was aware of it when millions of good sight-readers can't describe how they do it.
I will keep researching vision and music with Dr J. I am open to more ideas that will make me even better and help other musicians. Who knows, I might have other bad habits that I can fix.
I might be like these obsessive people that collect things compulsively and are never satisfied.

Exercise VII - Visual Span

Visual Span is the size of the effective visual field and it is also the ability to remember and repeat a series of visual stimuli. This sounds very familiar for musicians. While sight-reading, we exercise this ability all the time. We see sequences on our visual field, we organize them, remember and reproduce them on the instrument.

According to the PTS II manual, this exercise requires "Visual Sequential Memory, Working Memory, Perceptual Speed, Visual Motor Accuracy and Sequential Processing" and this exercise is recommended for "individuals with memory problems, reading decoding problems, early grade arithmetic difficulty and visual magnocellular deficits".

Here, a sequence flashes on the screen one character at a time. You are suppose to remember the sequence and then type it (play it) on the computer keyboard.

Variables:

- Stimuli length: character numbers in the sequence range form 2 to 6.
- Stimuli size: medium and large.
- Stimuli type: numbers, upper case letters, lower Case letters, codes, (combination of letters and numbers).
- Delay: in some levels, you must withhold the answer while a moving distraction (bird, balloon, fish) appears on the screen. The purpose of the delay variable is to develop working memory*.

- Goals: 70% or greater, correct trials.

I recommend you to read:
The Perceptual Span and the Eye-Hand Span in Sight Reading Music**
Frances E. Truitt; Charles Clifton Jr; Alexander Pollatsek; Keith Rayner
Visual Cognition, 1464-0716, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 143 – 161


* Working memory is a process that involves remembering one stimulus while performing another task. This is extremely important when sight-reading.
** I will write a review about this article in the future.

Sight-Reading Satie

Poulenc once said: "When he (Satie) died, the condition in which they found his (Satie's) piano showed that he hardly ever made use of it". Poulenc always wondered how Satie wrote perfect pianistic music without the help of the keyboard. I now wonder the same thing. I've always liked teaching and playing his pieces because they fit our hands perfectly well and it is just plain fun. Another reason to sight-reading his pieces is the amount of patterns (chunks) you will find. His compositions are covered with melodic sequences, scales and arpeggios, broken intervals and chords, and brilliant chains of chord progressions. The rhythms are a bit static but suitable for younger students. If you are tired of sight-reading classic sonatas searching for "chunks", try Satie. You can also be entertained by his writings.

Two years ago, I performed Sports et Divertissements (1914) for my students. Needless to say, this set of 20 pieces really touch my students imagination.
the musicologist Rollo Myers* said: "These little masterpieces of wit and ironic observation reveal his genius perhaps more convincingly then any of his other works, with the exception of Socrate".
The edition I use is Dover Publications, Inc.,NY and it has the original drawings by Charles Martin, a popular illustrator. Perhaps influenced by the drawings, I like to describe these little pieces as "thumbnails" (a term my art teacher loved using for small sketches). The whole set is graded level 10. However, individual pieces can vary in levels.
The text Satie wrote to accompany each piece, according to Myers, is inseparable form the music. However, Satie has issued the following WARNING: "I forbid the text to be read out loud during the performance of the music. Failure to conform with these instructions will cause the transgressor to incur my just indignation".**
You can find the whole history and description about Sports et Divetissement in Myers book.*
They are ideal for sight-reading because they are very short and usually each of them explores one or two patterns.


The teenager's favorite! Sonatine Bureaucratique (1917)-level 8.
This sonatina in one movement is a parody of Clementi's Sonatina Op.36, #1. Great sight-reading material since everybody HAS once learned Clementi's Sonatina. He wrote it in neo-classic style and all classic patterns are present in a different key (A Major). Half way through the piece, Satie writes: " A nearby piano plays Clementi" :)
This is a fun work not musically interesting.


CHORD PROGRESSIONS


Sonneries de la Rose + Croix (1892-level8) and Le Fils des Etoiles (1891-level 7-8) are good examples of pieces where Satie writes great chord progressions to practice sight-reading. The length of these medieval sounding progressions, the fact that the chords are static and all written in quarter note value and the 'lack of bar lines' forces one to keep the eyes on the page or else, one is lost. Satie alternates these chord progressions with sections where he explores single rhythmic ideas. There are no phrase markings providing a good opportunity to explore this subject with students.

Satie often writes sets of three pieces almost as if he were a sculpture who wishes one to look at his work from three dimension (i.g., 3 Sarabands, 3 Gymnopedies, 3 Gnossiennes, 3 Morceaux en Forme de Poire-4 hands, 3 Embryons Desseches, 3 Preludes Flasques).

Last year, I performed Embryons Desseches (1913-level 10) on Halloween for a group of teachers and for my students. Teachers and students were amused by the parody of Chopin's Funeral March and by the mocking chords who tease the audience at the end of the first and third movements clearly making fun of the Romantic composers.
These pieces written exploring many familiar patterns. They are good sight-reading material. Also, audiences love it.
If you don't have the score, Rollo Myers has a very detailed description of each piece.

This is getting too long. I will write more about Satie's works later on. I will include some elementary sight-reading repertoire too.

* I wrote the name of Myers' book in the previous posting.
** I have been to a concert where the pianist had her husband reading the text before each piece. Satie still hates them :o

Tale About Title, Hen, Sea Cucumber, Octopus and Other Creatures - Part II

If you read the part one of this tale, you know that I can be very childish and sarcastic. I can't help it.
I have this same feeling about Erik Satie. He often comes through as an irreverent, ironic, and rebellious teenager.
If I were a composer, I would be Satie. I identify a lot with his humor. Satie writes descriptive music, just what I was complaining about in the previous post. However, I enjoy the conciseness and simplicity of his compositions. Just like him, I rebel against virtuosity and excessive romanticism.
Satie is to music what Coetzee and Jorge Luis Borges are to literature. They only write essential things. Nothing redundant and unnecessary. Nothing needs to be added or removed.
Satie foreshadowed the Dadaism, Impressionism, Neo-classicism and Surrealism. He was known for saying "I arrived too young in a very old world".
His work can not be ignored by music teachers and students. Poulenc, Ravel, and Milhaud have confessed that Satie was the composer who most influenced them. Stravinky's Sonata for two pianos uses (on the second piano part) chords almost identical to the ones on the first Gymnopedie.

I recommend you to read the first important work published (1948) in English about Satie. It has a very good section about his piano work. It is called Erik Satie by Rollo H. Myers.
The recording I recommend is Satie Oeuvres Pour Piano by Ciccolini.

Even if you don't like this eccentric and humorous composer as much as I do, his music is a great source of material for sight-reading. Young students are usually fascinated by the titles (as most people are) and his writings.
Milhaud has stated that Satie was a miracle who would always remain young and the younger generations would always stand up for him because of "the perfection of his music and for complete and uncompromising sincerity".

My next posting will be a description of several Satie's works and their relevance to sight-reading.

Tale About Title and Hen Part I

I am an Opus number musician. Titles and program music turn me off as soon as I see it. I like absolute music. I don't want to be contaminated by titles.
A former student of mine, was playing for me a piano etude named "Little Flower". He told me - I do not dislike this piece, but I hate its title.
I told him that the composer had not named this set of etudes and in fact, I had a different edition where that same piece had a different title. I then told him to rename the piece to his liking.
A few weeks later, the same boy played the same etude for the state syllabus examination. The adjudicator, having nothing else to tell him, said - Imagine a little flower in your mom's garden... He replied - This piece is now called Page 53 (the page number where the piece had been printed).
Another student of mine performed a sophisticated and abstract Kabalevsky Prelude for a young and talented pianist who had just won an important competition. The pianist, after stating he did not know that piece, told the 13 year old boy to imagine a walk in the park, birds, bla, bla, bla.
I am sure Kabalevsly wasn't thinking about strolling in the park and getting his exercise done. He dedicated the Preludes Op.38 to his teacher Nikolai Miakovsky. The closest thing to a walk in the park was the tempo marking Andante non troppo.
When attending an Oregon Symphony concert, the conductor, trying to be friendly, disclosed to the audience that the Haydn Symphony we were about to hear was named by someone clever "THE HEN SYMPHONY" because the second theme sounded like the "jerky back-and forth head motion of a walking hen". Scary! All I could think from that moment on was... You guessed! The conductor achieved his goal.
Why do some people have the need to name music? What is wrong with Symphony in g minor or Hoboken I/83?
(there is a explanation for my change of tone)

To be continued...

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"

Exercise III - Visual Scan

*
Visual Scan is a vital skill for sight-readers. While reading music, our eyes scan the score searching for targets. In order for you to understand visual Scan better, I will post a few definitions before describing the exercise.

Ocular Motility: the system that controls eye movement. It brings the fovea into alignment. It is very important for fast search (eye saccadic movement) while reading. Saccadic movement is the fastest movement our body performs. It happens between fixations.

Ocular Motility/Visual Tracking: it occurs when our eyes move without blurring or loosing the image. Very important for reading.

Directionality: it is the way our eyes follow text and music: top/bottom, left/right and return sweep (changing lines).

Temporal Visual Processing: see post January 11, 2010.

Exercise III

Visual Scan according to the PTS II manual, is a "perceptual cognitive practice that requires temporal visual processing, directionality, ocular motility, figure ground recognition, perceptual speed and planning".
The exercise requires you to spot targets among random characters. According to your level, these characters can be scarce or abundant.
The reader has to perform a very complex task. Besides identifying the targets, the main problem for me is the directionality. When the characters are scarce, spotting the target is easier. However, changing lines is harder because often there are no characters at the beginning of them. It is also hard to keep a strait eye movement when there are so many gaps between characters and target.
As the levels advance, directionality is easier and finding targets is harder since the screen is crowded and the targets are more disguised.


The goals in order to advance levels are: < 4.0 average errors per trial,
there is a time limit to finish the task according to the size of the target.


Variables are: size of the target,
number of random characters,
number of targets,
targets can be numbers, upper or lower letters and symbols (*,#.?,{,],etc).

At the beginning, I really struggled with this exercise. I am improving thanks to lots of practice. It looks like my visual scan needs work.

* Double click on the image to see my results.

Tansman's Piano Music

I love teaching 20th Century and Contemporary music because primary, elementary and intermediate repertoire is so diverse and abundant.
Tansman is one of my favorite composers and yet, I do not hear a lot of students performing his pieces.
Tansman has a very diverse background (I will post a few links about him at the bottom of this article). It would be a shame not to expose students to his music.

If you want to keep students interested in sight-reading, I believe you should give them beautiful music to read. Modern harmonies are more attractive to students then transcribed folk or classical.

I recommend Tansman's collections: On S'Amuse Au Piano
Je Joue Pour Papa
Je Joue Pour Maman
Ten Diversions for the Young Pianist
Novelettes Pour Piano
Vingt Pieces Faciles Sur Des Melodies Populaires
Polonaises.
Pour Les Enfants

Happy Times or On S'Amuse Au Piano is my student's favorite! Even adults cherish these books. They offer progressive technique development since they are somewhat contrapuntal, and therefore help students develop independent hands.

Book I (Primary): levels 2 and 3
Common Tones (#3) is wonderful for sight-reading allowing students to spot connections between two beats.
These are so popular with my students that I am starting to get tired of them :)

Book II (Elementary):levels 4 and 5
I love these pieces!!! The melodies are so beautiful that students learn phrasing with no afford at all.

Book III (Intermediate): levels 6 and 7
Some pieces were inspired by Gershwin, Schumann and Bach
If you don't own it, order it right now!

You can find more detailed explanations about all of these pieces on The Pianist's Guide to Stand Teaching and Performance Literature by Jane Magrath. . You can also find descriptions for all Pour Les Enfants on Marath's book.

A great collection for SIGHT-READING is Vingt Pieces Faciles:
These 20 pieces are very short and go through lots of different keys. Most of them are written in 4 voices. I use them to test levels 6 and above. They are not, however, as easy as the title suggests. Intervals are wide and they are very chromatic. Harmonies are sophisticated making hard to predict what is coming next. The sight-reader has to be paying lots of attention.

Another favorite is Ten Diversions for the Young Pianist (level 7):
Very beautiful slow pieces (adults also like them) requiring lots of introspection. For mature students. The fast pieces, on the other hand, are exciting and somewhat virtuosic.

Novelletes: This is also a precious set that I bumped into while working on this project. I can not believe I did not know it before :( I will list their titles bellow in order to illustrate how diverse in style they are.
- Caprice
- Etude
- Exotique (Danse Javanaise)
- Danse Tzigane
- Obertas (Danse Polonaise)
- Blues
- Prelude Et Fugue
- Improvisation

Je Joue Pour Papa and Je Joue Pour Maman (beginners):
Tanman wrote "douze morceaux tres faciles et en grosses notes" (12 little pieces very easy and with big notes).
Measures go from 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 and 2/2.
Key signatures are: C,a,G,e,D,F,d.
There are many dances that explore ties, broken intervals and chords, balance, the C Major scale and sequences.
Because of the size of the notes, they are great to teach how to read intervals and to recognize "chunks".
Low points: a) melodically they are the least attractive pieces Tansman has written; b) the edition I have (Esching) does a good job with the large print but the fingering is bad and the teacher has to add phrasing. There are none.

I have bumped into a lot more of Tansman's piano music during the past months. They are not suitable for student's sight-reading because of their higher level.

I will write more about repertoire in future postings.

www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Tansman-Alexandre.htm
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Tansman
www.musimem.com/tansman_eng.htm

Exercise II - Visual Motor Integration

According to the user manual, Visual Motor Integration "is the ability to integrate a visual target with an accurate hand movement". It is a very important skill for a sight-reader to have.
The way this exercise is designed needs no adaptation for us musicians.
The "player" has to accurately hit moving balls with a bat which is controlled by the mouse.
The variables are:
- Ball speed: there are 6 different speeds according to the level you are.
- Bat size: there are 4 different sizes.
- Distractions: the distractions include moving objects sometimes on the upper part of the screen and sometimes on the lower part of it, still objects and moving walls.

I find it interesting that moving objects are easier to deal with because I can trace the angles ahead and the direction of the balls are more predictable. The still objects many times make the balls wiggle and the outcome is always a surprise.

The goal, in order to advance to a higher level, is to hit the ball 30 per "game".

So far, this exercise along with the visual concentration program (I will explain it later), have my best scores. In 50 sections (2 games per section) I have missed only one ball.

However good I am, I take Exercise II very seriously because a musician can always improve his or hers eye-hand coordination.
This exercise also works the parafoveal vision because many times, you have to "see" several things at once.

"Sight-Reading" Twice

Before I talk about eye exercise #2, I would like to ask my readers to participate in a survey. So next time you log in, leave your opinion about sight reading a piece for a second time and whether or not it is helpful.
Thanks.

Exercise I - Parafoveal Stimulation

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.

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:

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.

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.