The effects of skill on the eye–hand span during musical sight–reading
The eye-hand span (EHS) is the separation between eye position and hand position when sight-reading music. It can be measured in two ways: in notes (the number of notes between hand and eye; the 'note index'), or in time (the length of time between fixation and performance; the 'time...
Saved in:
Published in | Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 266; no. 1436; pp. 2435 - 2440 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society
07.12.1999
|
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | The eye-hand span (EHS) is the separation between eye position and hand position when sight-reading music. It can be measured in two ways: in notes (the number of notes between hand and eye; the 'note index'), or in time (the length of time between fixation and performance; the 'time index'). The EHSs of amateur and professional pianists were compared while they sight-read music. The professionals showed significantly larger note indexes than the amateurs (approximately four notes, compared to two notes), and all subjects showed similar variability in the note index. Surprisingly, the different groups of pianists showed almost identical mean time indexes (ca. 1 s), with no significant differences between any of the skill levels. However, professionals did show significantly less variation than the amateurs. The time index was significantly affected by the performance tempo: when fast tempos were imposed on performance, all subjects showed a reduction in the time index (to ca. 0.7 s), and slow tempos increased the time index (to ca. 1.3 s). This means that the length of time that information is stored in the buffer is related to performance tempo rather than ability, but that professionals can fit more information into their buffers. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | istex:151BE05B140D7B55C7145A9A80AD0B319B171D3D ark:/67375/V84-4K42SRH5-9 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.1999.0943 |