Don't look at your fingers!

[Tate Ferguson]

The longer I play the more I realize that I don't want to look at the fingerboard when I practice, rehearse or perform. There are things that are more fun to look at, anyway... sometimes it's good to practice in the dark with a metronome too. If I know it by touch, I REALLY know it...

Saxophonists and trumpeters don't look at their fingers - why should I?

George Shearing, Doc Watson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles...

[Sakamichi]

I agree with you to a point. For me it all depends on my my familiarity with the part of the fretboard I'm playing. Since I'm learning, I spend my time in the first and is second position and I prefer to feel where I am than rely on my eyesight. I imagine that once I start learning more to technical pieces approaching the higher register, I'll have to glance now and then to make sure I'm going to be fingering the proper fret.

I was watching a video of that Thile fellow and I thought he was looking closely at his fretting hand, but as he raised his head, it looks like had his eyes shut the whole time.

[Bill McCall]

When I change positions in tunes with some tempo, I find it useful to look at the fingerboard. Especially if there are multiple, rapid shifts. I know a lot more practice would help, but it is useful to avoid practicing without errors.

[CES]

I try not to as well, but if I'm playing relatively new or unfamiliar chords, it's a must until I get them under my fingers.

[fatt-dad]

yes. And, no. My problem is what happens when I just do look at my fingers? Often, it leads to some confusion. So, when I can look at my fingers and play, I know I really got it!

f-d

[JeffD]

My opinion:

Looking at your fingers from time to time, or even a lot, is fine.

Having to look at your fingers a lot is perhaps something to work on.


Kind of in line with the book "The Inner Game of Music" I have started really consciously watching my fingers as I play, to enjoy what they are doing and marvel when the do something right. To see them dance and experience the whole thing a little more.

[foldedpath]

Looking at your fingers from time to time, or even a lot, is fine.

Having to look at your fingers a lot is perhaps something to work on.

Yeah, that's my take on it. I play almost exclusively fiddle (and pipe) tunes out of first position, and if I've memorized the tune I'm pretty much on autopilot. So at a pub session I'll be looking around the room, or at the other players for cues on where we're going with the sets. It's easy to get distracted though, so sometimes I'll look at the fingerboard to avoid staring at the TV across the room at a pub.

Performance is different. The lead singer in a band might want to make eye contact with someone in the audience, but for an instrumentalist that can be a bit creepy (IMO). The instrument you're playing is a safe landing point for eye contact.

Also, I think some performing instrumentalists look at their instruments to attract the audience's visual focus on what's being played. I notice this with world-class Irish and Scottish fiddlers when performing solo or in a small band. They don't have to be looking at their fingers; they're far above that level in ability. But they smile and stare at the fiddle fingerboard as a point of focus for the music.

[EdHanrahan]

Having gotten into a mandolin orchestra situation (even if I usually play guitar!) where the score is complex enough to require looking at the sheet music, looking at your hand is pretty much of an unneeded distraction and, too often, an opportunity to lose your place on the music ... not fun at all!

[JeffD]

Having gotten into a mandolin orchestra situation (even if I usually play guitar!) where the score is complex enough to require looking at the sheet music, looking at your hand is pretty much of an unneeded distraction and, too often, an opportunity to lose your place on the music ... not fun at all!

What works for me is to put the music stand down low and tilted back (like for a dance band - the lowest on a standard Manhasset). That way the music is right above my left hand in my field of view. No extra motion needed to go back and forth.

[Beanzy]

In the orchestra situation surely you're looking at the conductor & only glancing at the music?


How does a conductor change a light bulb?; nobody knows because noone watches a conductor.

[guidoStow]

Sax players don't look at their fingers because they play (mostly) one key per finger and it has two positions open or closed. Frets are a different beast entirely.

But I do agree you shouldn't look at the fretboard when you play. Makes reading infinitely easier...

[Bertram Henze]

The instrument you're playing is a safe landing point for eye contact.

I agree that you shouldn't need to look at the fretboard in first position, but long-range shifts on larger instruments are another matter. You should be able to look at your audience sometimes in between, though, out of friendliness and to prove to them you're not nailed to the fretboard.



I also agree that looking at your fretboard can be confusing, especially because vision is slower than hearing, and I did have fits of motion sickness that forced me to look away from the fretboard. The ultimate test when practising is playing in front of a mirror and looking at your other fretboard.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Why not look at your fingers ?. Or the fingerboard ?. The side marker & top marker dots were put there for a reason,& who says that trumpet players etc. don't look at their fingers ?.

It seems to be a bit of misguided thinking that NOT looking at your fingers is a demonstration of one's expertice as a musician - IMHO ,it isn't. I don't mean that we should look at the our fingers all the time,but a quick glance does no harm. If a quick glance means the difference in getting it right,or not,i'll take a peek every time.

I was watching a YouTube clip of John Reischman yesterday - he was playing ''Walk Along John To Kansas'' with Bruce Molsky,& every now & then,he'd take a look at his fingers. If it's ok for JR then it's ok for me,
Ivan

[T.D.Nydn]

If I'm playing a known tune,I know some so well I can actually talk to other people while playing it,but I play a lot of jazz improvisation,,chord inversions and scale substitutions all over the place,,I'm constantly looking at my fingerboard,I don't care what anyone else thinks..

[Tate Ferguson]

Thanks for the replies!

T.D., regarding jazz improv, my contrasting experience is that this is the type of music for which I'm least likely to need or want to look at the fingerboard.

Many roads to the same destination.

[Bertram Henze]

I know some so well I can actually talk to other people while playing it...

Now that is another field of neural crosswiring I have yet to understand. I can talk while doing chords, but any kind of melody immediately falls apart at my mere attempt to say more than "hup". I have seen musicians tell jokes and complicated stories out of sync with the music and never miss a note and I still don't believe it

[Stevo75]

If you're doing a lot of nighttime jamming at summer festivals, then you will learn very quickly whether or not you need to look at your fingerboard. You can always wear a headlamp to see what you're, doing but that gets annoying for others when you look up and blind them with your headlamp. There's nothing wrong with looking at your fingers, but if you have to look at them, you'll find that to be a limitation if only for the nighttime campground situation.

[T.D.Nydn]

Now that is another field of neural crosswiring I have yet to understand. I can talk while doing chords, but any kind of melody immediately falls apart at my mere attempt to say more than "hup". I have seen musicians tell jokes and complicated stories out of sync with the music and never miss a note and I still don't believe it

Thanks Bertram,but it's no big deal,and the least favorite thing I like to do,,just route memorization overkill,usually all first position,pretty much always the same thing,it's a sign to me of totally removed,boring,unemotional and complete uninspiring playing..

[David L]

In the orchestra situation surely you're looking at the conductor & only glancing at the music?

Actually, most of the time in orchestras, you are looking at the music and glancing at the conductor (watching the conductor with peripheral vision).

[fifths]

I am a novice and a finger-watcher, which, for me, is a step up from a tab-reader. I work to get away from it, but in some sticky passages, I find the visual memory of the geometry of the finger positions helps me along.
It's easier to hear what other players are doing when NOT looking at the fingerboard, definitely.

[bratsche]

Looking at the fingers while playing a violin or viola can make a person go crosseyed.

I never knew looking at the fingers was a thing, so I never got into it. Until I started trying to fingerpick, that is - then I found myself looking at my right hand fingers. But I'm trying not to.

And I also find people who can simultaneously play and talk utterly mind-boggling and enviable. Especially teachers who can get on YouTube and explain the intricacies of how they are playing a certain complex thing, just while they are playing it. Amazing!

bratsche

[JeffD]

Now that is another field of neural crosswiring I have yet to understand. I can talk while doing chords, but any kind of melody immediately falls apart at my mere attempt to say more than "hup". I have seen musicians tell jokes and complicated stories out of sync with the music and never miss a note and I still don't believe it

The reason we can't talk while playing is that we learned to talk first, and later learned to play. Were it the other way, we would not be able to play while we are talking. ... ... ummmm... Never mind.

[fatt-dad]

sometimes I walk around the yard and play. It helps to practice playing with distractions!

f-d

[Jim Garber]

Playing multiple instruments including fretless ones makes playing without looking an advantage especially if you move to higher positions. On fiddles and other fretless strings, you have to get used to muscle memory to land at the right anchor point. On mandolin or other fretted instruments it isn't an indicator of proficiency but it is one method of playing with accuracy and hitting the right notes. When moving to a higher position in performance I usually do look at my hands momentarily to get to the right place but in practice I try not to and see if I can do it without looking.

I can rarely see the front of the fretboard and many of my mandolins and banjos do not have side dots so that is another incentive to forego staring at the fretboard.

[sbhikes]

I thought you were supposed to look at other people's fingers?

I will sometimes look at my fingers but I don't know why, they do what they want to do whether I look at them or not. A stern look doesn't make them behave. They do what they do. I don't think the music is coming from them anyway, the music comes from somewhere else and if it can't come out my fingers then maybe it's not really inside me yet. As my friend says, you get the music in your ear bones before it can come out your finger bones.