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Please forgive me for starting another eyesight thread...you all were so helpful on my first one. I have since gotten an astigmatism contact for the eye that is affected with that, and new glasses. However, I have found myself actually in tears more than once in the last couple weeks, frustrated and rather hopeless.

The contact...I guess it is OK for awhile, tends to get blurry the longer I wear it. I have been forcing myself to practice with glasses on most days, trying to get used to them, though not for sightreading as I still find it distracting to have that blur area near the bottom of my vision (where the glasses end, as referenced in my last post). However I am still having issues after a (for me) hefty practice session. After about an hour and a half I can't do the glasses anymore so I take them off and my eyes tweak for a few moments and then I can go on for awhile. I did two hours or so this morning and sat down again tonight for another hour and half without the glasses; I was getting tired so put them on to see what might happen and it was AWFUL, quite blurry and tired feeling.

I am 40....is this just life? Is it unreasonable to try and practice 2 1/2 hours? (I ask that somewhat sarcastically as I know many of you DO practice more than that daily). Does anyone have suggestions for how to avoid strain, and do you think I am making things worse by switching back and forth from glasses to no glasses? I am insanely discouraged.

Sorry to hear you're having problems. On the specifics of your issue with the contact lens I don't think I can help, but just generally, as a 40+ (well and truly! ) person with eye issues, my advice is that you really need to give your eyes a break more often than every hour-and-a-half. By "give your eyes a break" I mean 5 minutes where you take your focus off close things and gaze into the distance. I do this fairly frequently, whether reading music at the piano, or reading a computer screen. I also get up and walk around. It may not solve your problem - but I think it's something you should try.

As to your other questions:
Is it just life? Well, eyes certainly do change after 40 or so. Some things you just have to accept. Whether this is one of them I can't say.
Are you making things worse by switching back & forth between glasses and no glasses? All I can say here is that, in my experience, when getting used to multifocals the key is to wear them all the time for 4-6 weeks, rather than shifting back and forth.

Have you been back to your optometrist/opthalmologist to talk about these issues? I think I would. Best of luck.

I, too, sympathise with the difficulties you are experiencing; dealing with vision problems can be very frustrating when there are no immediate and no definitive answers to the problems that may plague us and prevent us from getting on with the things we love to do.

My only suggestion, weak though it may be, is as currawong suggested, to return to your optometrist/optician/opthalmologist and talk in detail about the problems, discuss those solutions that seem only temporary in the hopes of finding one that will be a permanent solution.

I know some of what you are going through as I am also experiencing changes in my vision, with no definitive solutions for comfortably reading scores at the piano. Do see your eye care specialist and let us know what "solutions" you find.

Regards,

i had specific glasses read for piano sight reading. They are small and sit close to my eyes so i look thru the top and middle of them.. i needn't tip my head back.

perhaps a specific type like that would help you. (i don't wear contacts so my suggestion may be unhelpful).

Thanks Currawong.. i'll try the distance gazing

Now, whether you subscribe to the belief that some natural medicine may help or not, I just had to post and tell you what I do.
I've had a great deal of success using this technique for relaxing strain on the eyes:

Sit straight up, head straight and look directly in front of you. Hold your arms up at shoulder height, with "thumbs-up" fists. Pull your thumbs-up fists out to the sides, wiggling your thumbs until you reach the far sides of your periphery. Holding your arms outstretched like this and keeping your head straight, move your eyes to the right and hold your right thumb at the edge of the periphery in focus. Hold this maybe 8 seconds without moving your head, then move your eyes to center and go cross-eyed looking at the space above your nose between your eyebrows another 8 seconds. Then move your eyes to stare at your left thumb, then back to cross-eyed, never moving your head, eyes only.

Do this for several minutes after your eyes begin to feel some strain. I spend equal time working online and playing piano each day, so I use this little trick 2-3 times every day, and don't wear glasses! (Except for night driving)

thank you so much everyone!!!!!!! I did talk with the Dr. about trying another contact, and he did warn me that it might take awhile to find the perfect one, as I guess the astigmatism ones are a bit more finicky. As far as the glasses go, I still need to address that somehow. It really did freak me out, though, after working so long and feeling so tired and putting them on and seeing it WORSE..*sigh*. Anyway I will have to get some more consultation as I pursue this, and I am eager to try out this eyestrain trick, it sounds easy and interesting! Thanks again everyone.

I wear contacts while practicing. The only time I have problems is when sightreading because I blink less often, so they dry out!

I've had the misfortune of needing multifocals for about the last 4 years, and the first pair nearly made me nauseated everytime I put them on and tried to play the piano. I kept switching back to my single focus lenses from before, and felt that I could see better. I finally got used to the multifocals (no-line progressive bifocals) and stopped using the old glasses. Then, I got new multifocals, which work great for everything EXCEPT playing piano. Once again the nausea and blurring. I went back to the single focus glasses again, and used them just for piano for about 4 weeks, and then I started being able to see pretty well with the multifocals.

As a member of the 40+ crowd, I know how frustrating it is to have to deal with the focus issue. I am working with the optometrist to find the focus that seems to work best for me for piano, and am planning to have a set of "piano glasses" like Apple mentioned. The problem with the multifocals is still, as always, trying to see my hands... everything is blurry, but getting better.

The single focus lenses may work well if you play a grand, but for me, at least, they are terrible when I play an upright. On a grand, the music and my hands seem about the same distance, not quite as near as a book would be but not as far as the "infinity focus" that the top part of my glasses is for. So, it may be that the answer is something in between the bifocal power and the inifinity focus on your new glasses.

I also have switched to doing shorter periods of practice with built in breaks where I "look into the distance"

Hi. I don't know if anyone is following this thread, but I wanted to share that I might have a solution for those of you straining to read the music. I learned of folks having issues when I started piano lessons three years ago (yes, I'm in the over 40, over 50! club) so designed something that brings the music down in front the pianist. You can see a video and images here: www.grandstandforpiano.com. My hope is to help everyone experiencing visual issues.

Indeed -- this thread is over seven years old.