 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: howard miner
Date: 2002-05-10 13:46
I have eyeglasses with bifocals located in the extreme lower portion of the lens. This means it is necessary to tilt the head up to read music on a music stand. What's best, a second pair of glasses with bifocals raised on the lens, or stonger non-bifocal glasses?
Thanks, Howard
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Author: Linda
Date: 2002-05-10 13:57
I sympathize with you...I have been wearing trifocals for years..play clarinet and piano....the intermediate area is perfect for reading the sheet music...lower your stand... you will be OK.
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2002-05-10 14:38
There is also the option that I and a few others I know have taken. Get a pair of glasses with single vision lenses optimized for the distance reading music. They also work great as computer glasses and it doesn't matter if you see the director as a little fuzzy so long as you can see his/her direction.
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-10 15:18
What a great idea!
Can I get something to make conductors look 'fuzzy'
At least I wouldn't be able to see if they were scowling at me, or indicating I was too loud.
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Author: Dan Borlawsky
Date: 2002-05-10 17:28
I second Bart's post! I've been using glasses like this for about 3 years, and it solves a lot of problems. Actually, mine have the intermediate lens covering about the lowest 80% of the lens, and the upper 20% is my distance correciton. So, I can see the conductor clearly (although I don't always want to!).
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2002-05-10 21:29
I am not getting old - my eyes are! I have a special pair of glasses as mentioned above with focus where the music should be but also a lens made smaller than the normal bifocal lens for close up vision. I found that I could not adjust my reed properly without the added lens (I too normally wear no-line trifocals). The conductor is a little fuzzy but the movement is decernable and I always have an excuse for mishaps. I keep the glasses in my accessory pocket so that I do not mistakenly use them to back out of the garage with.
The Doctor
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-05-10 21:48
Bart and Omar describe my solution to my music-reading/conductor-watching problems very well, as playing bass cl is even more "confining" than Bb. I discussed this with our Optham.---, a few years ago, suggesting about a 6 ft focus, which works well for computer, hair combing, bridge playing and eating, BUT not auto driving. Several friends also have single-lens [non-tinted] "music" glasses and are happier. Don
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-05-10 23:00
Optometrists can grind lenses so that the varying sections are anywhere. There are special designs for airline pilots with close-focus sections at both the top and the bottom and a long-focus section in the middle, so the pilot can look out the windshield and still read instruments located above and below.
Another possibility is Varilux lenses, which have a continuous change in focus from top to bottom. However, they're in focus only in a fairly narrow band up and down the middle. I'm a very "peripheral vision" person, so they drive me crazy.
Like most other people, I ended up with a separate pair of music/computer glasses, in focus from 2 feet out to 8 feet.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Donn
Date: 2002-05-10 23:53
My opthalmologist told me that the inexpensive reading glasses sold by many stores are OK. Save some money!
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Author: ken
Date: 2002-05-11 00:14
I recently started wearing single vision lense reading glasses due to age. I know my perscription is right but it's like having a set of magnifying glasses on both eyes. It's helpful not to have to squint at notes (I was beginning to read/clam notes on the wrong lines and spaces) but they're absolutely useless for distances over 2 feet. It's annoying as heck, I have to wear them on the end of my nose and put my stand lower then do the fuzzy adjustment thing looking up to see/follow the conductor. I'm thinking of asking if my doc can split the lenses in half and have just glass on the top half so I can wear them properly.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2002-05-11 01:03
For years now, I've been having my bifocals ground with the close-up (lower) portion of the lens beginning as high above the midpoint of the lens as the optometrist will agree to, and then running all the way to the bottom of the lens. So over half of my lens is for music reading, and a smaller strip along the top is perfectly fine for distance. I DO have to be a little careful where I put my feet, because my lenses throw off my distance perception looking at ground level. But this works well in every musical situation I've been in up till now.
The only downside is a little extra time and expense for making the glasses, and also it usually takes a lot of persuasion to get the optometrist to go along with it--when I explain what I want them to do, they always give me one of those did-you-just-escape-from-Happydale looks. But, as I say, it works.
Also, they DO make bifocal contacts--way out of my price range, but as they were explained to me, they should function perfectly fine in this situation.
Good luck!
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-05-11 01:20
My "computer glasses" are focused at the exact point I would have my laptop on my desk. That is also the range for my music stand. I admit I have the "fuzzy conductor" bit over the top, but who ever looks at them ;-] Anyway, what I need to know is HOW the dickens can you make bifocal contacts? What "bubble level" do you set on your head to make sure you have them placed correctly, or are they ground concentrically and in orbit?
Bob A
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2002-05-11 01:53
I also have glasses (an older pair of lesser strength) I use for reading music and computer work in the evening instead of the normal bifocals I would need for driving and seeing the big letter "E".
During the day, I wear contact lenses and I use reading glasses to reduce the strength when looking at a computer or reading music from a stand.
The music distance can be a strain in either way depending on what you wear to correct your vision.
This also means I can keep the stand up.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-05-11 02:01
I wear contacts to correct my near-sightedness for long-distance vision, and wear reading glasses for music and computer work (inexpensive aspherically ground lenses work very well for me).
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Author: Mike Harrelson
Date: 2002-05-11 02:51
I too have glasses for playing. I can get by without them on everything but bass clarinet but now use them for all playing. They have a much higher line for near vision. I simply adjust the top of the music stand to be at the dividing line between near and far vision. Conductor in focus and music in focus.
I was told that you simply take sheet music with you and show them where you usually place it and want to be able to see far vision above that. However the Doctor was a former High School musician and knew exactly what was needed. He said it was not that uncommon. But he did talk to the lab so that they would not "correct his mistake" on the Rx.
But none of this helps me remember the key changes....?
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-05-11 04:37
Now if they would only invent some glkasses that would allow me to see around the neck of my Bass.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-05-11 10:59
My long (driving) distance vision is OK. I use two pair of cheap drugstore glasses...one for adjusting the reed (and normal book reading), the other for reading music/computer.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2002-05-11 12:39
I use separate single vision glasses for music. For normal activities I use the graduated lenses but these don't work well for music as I lose focus if I move my head even a little bit.
I keep my music glasses in my music bag. Basically I assemble my clarinet and put on the reed then I put on my music glasses.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2002-05-11 15:33
For Bob Arney re bifocal contacts: you ought to check with your 'vision professional' about this, but to the best of my recollection there are 2 bifocal contact options:
1) the lenses are made so the center part is distance and the outer edges are close-up; this means you're looking 'down your nose' to read close-up stuff, which would be distinctly uncomfortable if you're reading music; and
2) one contact is for distance and the other for close-up; but it requires several prescriptions to get to your final 'correct' one; the stages are necessary to get your eyes to adapt (which they do, apparently). The downside with Option 2 is you can't alternate with your old glasses anymore, because your eyes have adapted to the contacts' separate prescriptions.
So, between the expense and the inflexibility of both kinds of contacts in terms of reading music off a stand (and also on the principle of 'get a life') , I opted to simplify things and stick with glasses.
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Author: Bob Thomson
Date: 2002-05-12 08:01
My pal the optician says most music (incredibly) is printed to be read as you would a book or from a piano (same distance approx).
Stick it on a music stand, then add the room you need for a clarinet in front of you and then position the stand so you can see over it, (if you actually want to see the conductor). Now in an orchestra, the position of the standbase may also be restricted by the stage steps. You could be at least double the original distance away from the music. Add to this, worn out and poor quality parts (possibly handwritten) and some of us could be in real trouble.
This is why some musicians who don't need specs normally, do for reading music.
So my pal the optician (being a musician himself) built me a pair of half moons with a slightly stronger Px and a focal length of about four feet. I'm quite happy to see conductors in a fuzzy outline - our principal conductor's got a beard anyway.
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