Eyeglasses for Reading Sheet Music

[Rob Ross]

I was born with really sharp vision, something like 20/12. However, after the eye strain of engineering school and only a few years after flight training, my eyesight decided to go the way of everyone in my family, and my distant vision suffered. Over the years, I was good with bifocals; top corrected for distance, bottom pretty much plain glass. This worked until my mid-range vision got fuzzy, right where all the flight instruments were in the cockpit, about arms length away. My optometrist was good, and gave me trifocals that fixed that problem. I thought about it, asked him if he could make me a set of music glasses bifocals. The bottom half is the mid range for music on a stand, and the top half is distance, so I can see things like dancers and band leaders. They work very well. I also had him prescribe a pair of computer bifocals: mid range on top to see the monitor, mostly plain glass on the bottom to read mail and papers at my desk. They are much spendier than cheaters, but I haven't found any cheaters that my eyes can tolerate, and the prescription glasses allow me to do the things I want to do. They have been well worth paying for.

[Wayne Shelton]

I am an ophthalmologist and might be able to help. I agree that the best answer is to get specific glasses prescribed by an eye doctor for your music needs. You would need to have the exact measured distance from your eyes to the music stand, or take your instrument and stand to the office for exact measurements. Multifocal lenses are not ideal because they require you to hold your head in a specific position to play Full lens music glasses work well but will blur distance objects. Walmart readers are ok to use but would only work if your eyes are essentially equal and have no other anatomical problems such as astigmatism or extreme power needs. Most of these problems are age related and will change over time after the onset of presbyopia which usually begins in the early 40s. Wish I had an ideal solution, but father time is not a nice guy.

[tremolo jones]

I wear progressives in daily life to correct for my nearsightedness and presbyopia. I have been nearsighted all my life, and I have found that my last pair of single vision glasses are perfect for the music stand. They are no good for distance or up close, so they conveniently stay by the music stand.