Learning to play piano without constantly looking down at your hands can be challenging, but it’s worth the effort. Here are seven practical strategies that will help you develop this skill and play with more fluidity, confidence, and focus.
Reasons to avoid looking down at your hands while you play the piano:
Reason No. 1: Continuity
Learning to play the piano without looking down will help you play with much more continuity and fluidity. You won’t have to keep checking whether the note you’re about to play is correct. You won’t hesitate as much, because your fingers will know where they need to go automatically.
Reason No. 2: Free up Mental Space
If you’re spending your time and energy looking up and down between the music and your hands, too much of your attention will be based on visual processing. There will be little space left in your awareness to actually focus on how it’s sounding.
Reason No. 3: Increased Confidence
Learning to play the piano without looking down will make you a more confident pianist. You’ll be able to start trusting that your fingers will play the notes you intend them to, without having to continually double-check yourself.
Reason No. 4: Improve Sight-reading
Playing the piano by touch is actually a prerequisite to sight-read well. Sight-reading relies on being able to play with rhythmic continuity through a piece the very first time you look at it. Therefore, you need to be able to keep your eyes on the music while playing and use your hands and fingers to feel the keys.
Why it takes effort to learn not to look down
Reason No. 1: Changing Hand Positions
Advanced keyboard literature requires the hands to move all over the keyboard, from one hand position to another. This is why there is a strong temptation to look down and make sure the hands are over the right notes as they change hand positions.
Reason No. 2: Anxiety
At first, playing the piano without looking at your hands can cause an anxious feeling. We rely on our visual sense in so many contexts that it can feel uncomfortable to resist the urge to look down.
Playing the piano without looking down: 7 Practical Suggestions
1. Practice without visual cues
Practicing with your eyes closed, in complete darkness, or looking up at the ceiling will force you to rely on your sense of touch and sound rather than your visual sense. This will help you develop your proprioception—the ability to sense the position and movement of your body and limbs without visual cues.
2. Master your scales and arpeggios (without looking down)
Scales and arpeggios are fundamental patterns that you’ll encounter in many pieces of music. Practicing them without looking down will help you develop muscle memory and improve your ability to play by touch. You’ll also be able to focus more on the music and your sound.
3. Use the printed fingerings as a guide
While fingerings are a personal preference, the printed fingerings in music scores are designed by professionals who understand the mechanics of playing the piano. Use them as a starting point, then adjust as needed to fit your hand size and shape. Over time, you’ll learn to recognize patterns and develop your own fingerings.
4. Focus on FEELING the intervals
To improve your sense of touch, pay attention to how intervals feel on the keyboard. Use your fingers and hands as reference points as you move around the keyboard. This will help you develop a better sense of spatial awareness and make it easier to play without looking down.
5. Use your arm to measure distance
When playing large jumps or leaps, use your arm to measure the distance across the keyboard. By practicing this, you’ll develop a more reliable sense of distance and make it easier to hit the right keys without looking.
6. Cover your hands
Cover your hands with a cloth or place a piece of cardboard to hide the keys while you play. This can help you break the habit of looking down while playing. By eliminating your ability to see your hands using peripheral vision, you’ll be forced to rely on your sense of touch and sound.
7. Sit in the center of the keyboard
When practicing, make sure you’re sitting in the center of the keyboard. This will help you develop a more consistent sense of distance and spacing across the keyboard. Remember that the middle of the piano is E and F above middle C, not middle C itself.
Notice how the decal on the piano is centered above the E and F (not middle C):
Bonus tip: make sure you always sit in the same place when you practice. This will help your arm learn to measure distances from your torso as well as from your fingers.
In conclusion, learning to play piano without looking down takes time and practice. By using these strategies consistently, you’ll develop your sense of touch and sound, and become a more confident and fluent pianist.
This is the scale and arpeggio book I recommend to my students: Brown Book of Scales
HAPPY PRACTICING!
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