When playing and instrument, our memory is being used. Did you ever wonder which part and to what extent? Memory is such a complex thing that any model of it is only a first approximation to reality. But in a crude model, in what regards to sensory memory, we can speak of touch, aural and visual memory. Accordingly, Alfredo Casella, in his book Il Pianoforte, distinguished three types of memory: visual, auditive and digital. He adds: "Of these, the most important is the visual one, as being the most cerebral and, hence, the most safe". And that's all. But these words lend themselves to development and ask to be explained. So here are some thoughts.
Touch is the fundamental sense. It's so basic to our interaction with the physical world that, though there are blind and deaf people, you have likely not heard about somebody having lost the sense of touch. It's much older than sight or hearing, which being more recent conquests of evolution, are more fragile and less safe. It is only natural then, that many people play the piano depending upon this memory. It is generally corrected and guided by the auditive memory.
I have talked with people regarding the complexity of audition as compared to sight. We were referring really to the difficulties presented to the engineer when trying to reproduce the sounds of an orchestra. To give an idea of the subtleties of hearing, just look into your computer for files having to do with audio and those used by the video system. These files (programs) determine the way you hear and watch multimedia contents. You'll see ten times more audio drivers than video ones. OK. I mean, the hearing process is very complex (another comparison shows that the ear can analize sound, decomposing it into its components whereas this is a property the eye does not enjoy). But a very large portion of the cortex is used to process visual information, do not forget (here I think the cause is primitivism. The sight is near touch, by seeing we almost touch things. From this, the point to point mapping in the brain, I mean, a point in your fingertips is mapped to a point in the neocortex and a point in your visual field mapped to a point in the neocortex too --a different area). So sight is complex too.
Why is sight considered the intellectual sense? Everybody would agree that mathematics is both an abstract and a highly intellectualized area of knowledge. It had its beginnings in Greece. Don't think of measuring fields or computing the Pharaon's rents. I mean math as a science. The Greeks gave it its birth certificate. And what was mathematics to the Greek intellect? Fundamentally geometry. That is, mathematics began as geometry and as such it persisted until the Reinnasance. This is not to say it is the foundation of math. It just came first. What I think is that there is a strong connection between geometric intuition and sight. And that we apply our geometric intuition in our everyday thoughts. Intellectual operations have a constant reference to geometry and, therefore, to the visual aspects of reality. Let it be there.
Now, this whole thing is a subject of consideration when trying to answer this question: why so many people looks at his hands when playing the piano? Leaving great masters aside, whose technique I do not pretend to discuss, I think the answer drops down of its own weight: education. Visual memory is above auditive and this above digital memory. But in practice you'll see it is the other way around: for students and performers alike, digital memory dominates the other two. If you educate yourself from the first day not to watch the keys but the paper in front, you'll discover yourself learning new pieces in a short time and with less effort. Suppose you have to play an octave in the far left side of the keyboard in a piece you are learning. You can quickly watch the target keys or, without any furtive glance, try to hit the F_2, F_3 with absolute confidence. You'll miss them. But in a few tries, one discovers the body now remembers the exact position of those keys (while you are playing the piece). So let the body do subordinate work, freeing the mind to do more important things, for example listening to oneself. I say, to study a piece of music, first, study the score away from the instrument. Second, study it in on the piano, violin, whatever, not looking at the keyboard, but at the score. The pianist who was formed in this way, I think, will be in a commanding position, not only as an instrumentalist, but more important, as a musician. Do you agree?
Touch is the fundamental sense. It's so basic to our interaction with the physical world that, though there are blind and deaf people, you have likely not heard about somebody having lost the sense of touch. It's much older than sight or hearing, which being more recent conquests of evolution, are more fragile and less safe. It is only natural then, that many people play the piano depending upon this memory. It is generally corrected and guided by the auditive memory.
I have talked with people regarding the complexity of audition as compared to sight. We were referring really to the difficulties presented to the engineer when trying to reproduce the sounds of an orchestra. To give an idea of the subtleties of hearing, just look into your computer for files having to do with audio and those used by the video system. These files (programs) determine the way you hear and watch multimedia contents. You'll see ten times more audio drivers than video ones. OK. I mean, the hearing process is very complex (another comparison shows that the ear can analize sound, decomposing it into its components whereas this is a property the eye does not enjoy). But a very large portion of the cortex is used to process visual information, do not forget (here I think the cause is primitivism. The sight is near touch, by seeing we almost touch things. From this, the point to point mapping in the brain, I mean, a point in your fingertips is mapped to a point in the neocortex and a point in your visual field mapped to a point in the neocortex too --a different area). So sight is complex too.
Why is sight considered the intellectual sense? Everybody would agree that mathematics is both an abstract and a highly intellectualized area of knowledge. It had its beginnings in Greece. Don't think of measuring fields or computing the Pharaon's rents. I mean math as a science. The Greeks gave it its birth certificate. And what was mathematics to the Greek intellect? Fundamentally geometry. That is, mathematics began as geometry and as such it persisted until the Reinnasance. This is not to say it is the foundation of math. It just came first. What I think is that there is a strong connection between geometric intuition and sight. And that we apply our geometric intuition in our everyday thoughts. Intellectual operations have a constant reference to geometry and, therefore, to the visual aspects of reality. Let it be there.
Now, this whole thing is a subject of consideration when trying to answer this question: why so many people looks at his hands when playing the piano? Leaving great masters aside, whose technique I do not pretend to discuss, I think the answer drops down of its own weight: education. Visual memory is above auditive and this above digital memory. But in practice you'll see it is the other way around: for students and performers alike, digital memory dominates the other two. If you educate yourself from the first day not to watch the keys but the paper in front, you'll discover yourself learning new pieces in a short time and with less effort. Suppose you have to play an octave in the far left side of the keyboard in a piece you are learning. You can quickly watch the target keys or, without any furtive glance, try to hit the F_2, F_3 with absolute confidence. You'll miss them. But in a few tries, one discovers the body now remembers the exact position of those keys (while you are playing the piece). So let the body do subordinate work, freeing the mind to do more important things, for example listening to oneself. I say, to study a piece of music, first, study the score away from the instrument. Second, study it in on the piano, violin, whatever, not looking at the keyboard, but at the score. The pianist who was formed in this way, I think, will be in a commanding position, not only as an instrumentalist, but more important, as a musician. Do you agree?
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