KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE: FOLLOWING THE SCORE
or many instrumentalists, keeping one’s eyes on the score need not present a significant distraction from playing. The music stand can be positioned so as to be easily visible, and for more fluent players there may only be an infrequent need to check where the fingers are placed on the valves, holes, keys or strings. Pianists, on the other hand, are tasked with continually navigating a wide expanse of keyboard – what we might call the ‘real estate’ of the instrument – and this quickly poses a potential conflict of interest. Ought we aim to keep our eyes fixed on the pages in front of us, irrespective of the cavernous leaps or shifts of
