When you optimize your glasses for piano, you naturally will feel more control and freedom as you play. Distance glasses are not correct for piano. Reading glasses are not correct for piano. Bifocals are not correct for piano. Progressive lenses are not correct for piano.
What ARE the Right Type of Glasses for Piano?
- Single Lens
- Oversize Frames
- Intermediate Prescription (20″ – 25″ distance)
The piano sheet music stand, similar to a computer, is “intermediate distance.” And the keyboard itself is ALSO intermediate distance. People have suffered for years with the wrong type of glasses. It is ideal to have ONE prescription for the piano. UNLIKE bifocals or progressives, where the prescription is different on the upper and lower portion of the lens, piano glasses need to be the SAME prescription throughout the lens.
Benefits of Piano Glasses
Studying piano is hard enough but there is no reason to make it even harder by using the wrong glasses. One of the benefits of using the correct glasses at the piano is that you will less likely lose your place in the sheet music. This will help your sight-reading. Another benefit is that you will be inclined to play more accurately because you will be able to see the keyboard more clearly. Piano Glasses: The Art of Not Getting Lost.
Howard B. Richman Demonstrates Optimal Head Angle at the Piano (WATCH THIS VIDEO FIRST)
Howard B. Richman Explains Benefit of Piano Glasses
If you were to tell the eye doctor that you want to order special glasses for the piano, 90% of the time, their FIRST response will be “Oh… you want progressive glasses.” And most people trust their doctor, of course and they order these progressive “piano glasses.” They are all excited to try them out but in every case they are super, super unhappy with the results and never use them. (This is because for the piano you actually need the SAME PRESCRIPTION for the whole lens!) There are thousands of cases all over the world where this exact scenario has played out. So you have to have a bit of fortitude when you are speaking to your eye doctor regarding your interest in piano glasses. Even though he/she will try to get you to order progressives, you have to say: “I want SINGLE LENSES, optimized for intermediate distance (20″ – 25″) in OVERSIZE FRAMES.”
“Single Lens” means ONE PRESCRIPTION per eye… NOT bifocals and NOT trifocals and NOT progressives. Why? This is because the distance from your eye to the sheet music and from your eye to the keyboard is the SAME DISTANCE! So to have different lens refractions for the upper and lower portion of your glasses is basically terrible. You want the exact same prescription for the WHOLE LENS!
“Oversize Frames” mean big “1980s-style” frames that are so big that they are higher than your eyebrows. This way when you aim your head partially downward, as is correct for sight-reading purposes, but your eyes are looking slightly UP at the sheet music, your view will still be looking THROUGH the lens, rather than above the frame.
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