The FIRST Thing to Consider in Purchasing Piano Glasses is the Frame Itself
If you can find “oversize,” “square,” “aviator” or “browline” frame design, you are off to a good start! The reason this is CRUCIAL is because the frame needs to be up to, or even covering the eyebrows in order to make piano glasses effective. Otherwise you will tend to bob your head up and down as you look up at the sheet music and down at your hands. You want to aim your head half way between these two targets and let the eyes do the work. If you have frames that don’t go up to your eyebrows, you will tend to look up at the sheet music over the rims of the glasses in this head position. This defeats the point of getting piano glasses.
Now unfortunately, many opticians do not carry large or oversize or square or aviator or browline frames! We have done a bit of research of online glasses stores and the stores listed below DO carry the type of frame needed for piano glasses.
The SECOND Thing to Consider in Purchasing Piano Glasses are the Lenses
Single Lens
“Single Lens” means “one prescription per eye. For piano glasses, DO NOT GET bifocals or progressives or trifocals. The whole lens must be what is called “intermediate distance.” This is between 20″-25″. (See the “piano glasses” video on our home page for details on this.) YOU WANT A PRESCRIPTION FOR SINGLE LENS GLASSES!!!!!
Pupillary Distance – Ask to Include This in the Prescription
NOTE: When you acquire your prescription from the eye doctor, make sure you ask the them to include the “pupillary distance” (PD). This measurement indicates the distance between each of your pupils which is important. This measurement is often not included in the prescription because the in-person optician at the eyeglass store normally will measure this for you when you order your glasses. BUT… if you are ordering glasses online, try to have this measurement added to the prescription when you have your examination.
Astigmatism – Ask Doctor to Under-Correct
ALSO, if you have astigmatism, there is one more thing to consider. Most eye doctors will correct the astigmatism up to the maximum. The problem with this at the piano is that, even though it sharpens the image and eliminates gray dots, it does tend to distort your ability to judge distances. So if you are fully-corrected for astigmatism, when you look down at the keys, it can cause you to miscalculate the distance and when you move your hands from one location on the keyboard to another, you are more inclined to miss, which causes mistakes. I have found that if you talk to the eye doctor and request that they “under-correct” the astigmatic prescription, even though when you look at the sheet music, it will not be the maximum sharpness, you will be less likely to miscalculate your jumps on the piano keyboard. This means that you will make fewer mistakes. I would consider this under-correcting for astigmatism to be a compromise but really something to discuss with your eye doctor.
Online Stores That Sell Piano Glasses
If you cannot find a local optician that offers oversize frames to fill your prescription, The following online companies do a wonderful job! All you do is upload your prescription to them and pick out a frame.
