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LehmannKopiez2009Sight-Reading HandbookMusicPsychology
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CHAPTER 32
Sight-reading
Andreas C. Lehmann and Reinhard Kopiez
polished performances and relegated sight-reading will outline the course of skill acquisition with
to a useful craft, generally not worthy of public its characteristic differences between novices
notice or competition (we know only of the Karl and experts, and present a model of sight-read-
Bergemann sight-reading competition, Hanover, ing performance.
Germany).
Obviously, most orchestral, chamber, and
studio musicians play from the score and so do Perception of music notation
many performers of contemporary art music.
There are a few known solo pianists who have
and sight-reading
used scores even for standard repertoire. It is To begin, we have to understand how the eye
unclear whether musicians perform better with operates when we try to acquire information in
or without the score, but the audience is likely everyday life. Contrary to what most people
to expect memorized performances. Also, using believe, the eye does not function like a movie
the score requires page-turning or the presence camera. Rather, its operation can be likened to
of a music stand which may be disturbing for that of a flashlight in the dark being turned on
the audience and the performer and might and off at short intervals. Roughly four to five
detract from the sounding music. A music stand times a second the eye moves around the visual
may obstruct the view and hinder gestural free- field in discrete jumps (saccades) with short
dom and the positive influence of expression resting points (fixations). The saccades take
that is conveyed through the body (cf. Lehmann about 15–50 msecs, the fixations about 150–200
et al. 2007, pp. 173–174). msecs. At this point it becomes clear that a con-
In marked contrast to the public neglect and scious attending to every eighth note in a piece
low prestige of sight-reading among perform- at MM = 120 would be almost impossible.
ers stands the steady interest of music psychol- During each fixation, the external image is pro-
ogists and pedagogues in this skill (for reviews jected on the retina at the back of the eye. Wile
see Sloboda 1984; Lehmann and McArthur the retina is comparably large, we are able to
2002; Lehmann et al. 2007, Chapter 6). Starting receive a sharp image only from a narrow part
with the early music psychology experiments of in the middle. This round central part is called
the 1920s (published in Jacobsen 1941) and the the fovea centralis, and whatever surrounds it
development of sight-reading tests (Watkins will produce the somewhat blurry parafoveal
1942, and the Watkins–Farnum Performance image. Hence, the field of vision that will be per-
Scale), all aspects of skills relating to sight- ceived in great clarity only averages 0.5–2°,
reading attracted renewed interest in the 1970s which corresponds to the size of an inch at a
(e.g. Sloboda 1974, 1976, 1977) and have con- reading distance of about 30 inches (75 cm), or
tinued to do so (cf. Lehmann and Ericsson the area covered by a pointed-up thumb with
1993, 1996; Kopiez and Lee 2006, 2008 for the extended arm. The parafoveal vision includes
acquisition of sight-reading skills) up until 10° of the field of vision (e.g. Rayner and
recent psychophysiological studies (e.g. Schon Pollatsek 1989). The role of preview benefits
and Besson 2005; Yumoto et al. 2005). It is and parafoveal-on-foveal effects are currently a
important for research that we measure indi- hot topic in word-reading research. It is from
viduals’ ability to perform at first sight under such individual snapshots that our brain fash-
standardized conditions. Optimally, those con- ions what we experience as a large and steady
ditions should mirror real-life conditions picture of the outside world. Unfortunately, the
encountered by expert sight-readers (Lehmann eye movements cannot be allocated wilfully but
and Ericsson 1993). are in fact guided by preconscious processes and
In this chapter we will briefly look at how drawn by outside stimuli. For example, move-
notation is perceived and then move on to the ments and boundaries in the visual field attract
structure of sight-reading while taking into attention, just as do human faces, but our cog-
account the real-time conditions under which it nition also guides the eye movements. For
takes place. This will include a discussion of per- example, when a car disappears behind another
ceptual and problem-solving issues. Finally we we are likely to scan the plausible location of its
346 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
reappearance, and we search the face of a person performance tempo is that slower tempi neces-
for cues to his or her mood. Today, we know sarily result in more fixations. Lannert and
that information gathered from one or several Ullman (1945) found a 0.45 correlation between
fixations is integrated in meaningful units or tempo and accuracy, and we can never be sure if
chunks of information which are the basis for participants have traded off faster tempi for
further processing. Since the location and dura- more fixations and thus ensure a more accurate
tion of fixations is indicative of the processing performance. Equal speeds can only be achieved
underlying music reading, eye movements offer by using a pacing-voice methodology (Lehmann
important insights into the workings of the and Ericsson 1993).
musical mind. To explain the structure of sight- That notational input has an influence on the
reading, we have to account for how much and eye movements was mentioned previously (cf.
which information is retrieved from the page systematic vertical reading of chords). Notational
and how it is assembled into meaningful units variants (e. g., eighth notes with or without con-
that are sequentially programmed and executed. necting bars) resulted in person-specific eye
The problem in surveying the results of eye movements, and eighth notes (with connecting
movement in sight-reading is that the research bars) tended to be looked at in pairs while quar-
methodologies are not standardized with regard ter notes were attended to individually (Kinsler
to complexity of stimulus, tempo of perform- and Carpenter 1995). Truitt et al. (1997, also
ance, and so forth. Unlike in text-reading Goolsby 1994) questioned why fixations often
research where many studies appear within a landed between notes, and we suggest that read-
few years using the same paradigm, the time lag ers tend to construct intervals rather than read-
between publications on sight-reading is large ing every note. Weaver (1943) found that
and findings are often difficult to integrate. By polyphonically structured music was read in
and large, the earliest studies (Jacobsen 1941) horizontal zigzagging patterns that tended to
established what subsequent studies have con- follow melodic lines in the different voices,
firmed, namely that eye movement patterns are whereas homophonic music resulted in zigzag-
dependent on the level of expertise: beginners ging up and down motions. However, a critical
had many fixations, long pauses during fixa- look at his stimuli unveils that notation and
tions, and unsystematic reading of note combi- structure were hopelessly confounded, e.g. no
nations; intermediate musicians had about as attemept was made to notate polyphonic stimuli
many fixations as there were notes, and they in alternative (more homophonic looking) ways.
read chords in systematic fashion from bottom none of the stimuli was polyphonic, yet it notated
to top; experts showed fewer fixations than as if homophonically structured. Regardless of
notes and also systematic reading of chords the shortcomings, we can say that experience
(from top to bottom). Saccades can point for- and structure of input modify viewing patterns.
ward in reading direction but also backwards Once the information has been retrieved dur-
(regressively)—for example to the current point ing one or several fixations, it is stored and
of performance. This is most likely done to dou- assembled in meaningful units in anticipation
ble-check things that have been read already or of the motor performance. Here also it was
result from attention being detracted to per- found that experience allowed for larger tempo-
formance errors (not a very efficient strategy). ral range of planning (Drake and Palmer 2000).
With increasing experience, the sight-reader The extent and nature of the buffering of infor-
experiences a reduction in the number of regres- mation is part of the memory system to be dis-
sive fixations. Kinsler and Carpenter (1995), cussed in the next section.
who strangely claimed that ‘a thorough search
of the literature failed to find any account what-
soever of the eye movements used to read music’
Memory processes
(p. 12), studied eye movements during perform- The amount of information stored temporarily
ance of notated rhythms. Their results showed from a particular sequence of fixations or during
that slower tempi lead to more and shorter fixa- a certain timespan can be assessed by experi-
tions. One problem in research with self-selected ments that allow sight-readers only limited visual
Sight-reading as problem-solving · 347
access to the score by either very brief (tachisto- typically found among experts (Ericsson and
scopic) display, by limiting the period of time Kintsch 1995). This privileged access to long-term
during which the score is visible, or by using a memory allows expert readers to store briefly
computer that follows the fixations with a ‘moving presented material in long-term memory with-
window’ technique that permits variable pre- out extensive rehearsal.
view. By this we can measure aspects of memory,
namely the perceptual and the eye–hand span.
The perceptual span denotes the distance between Inner hearing
the current point of performance and the far- Some authors have claimed that inner hearing
thest distance the person is looking ahead. Using and audiation processes may be important in
a moving window technique, Truitt et al. (1997) sight-reading, and independent tests of audia-
found that a preview of two beats leads to a tion, imagery, and pattern matching are posi-
slower tempo, larger variability in note dura- tively associated with sight-reading ability
tions, and errors. Subjects performed better (e.g. Kornicke 1995; Waters et al. 1998; Kopiez
with previews between two and four beats or, and Lee 2006). These processes would suggest
ideally, with previews to the end of the next bar. that the mental representation of music nota-
Furneaux and Land (1999) found the number of tion involves the building of melodic and other
notes to be about four for experts and two for expectancies by the performer. Recent electro-
novices. Unlike Truitt et al. (1997) who found physiological studies have confirmed this point.
the time between fixation and performance to In studies in which listeners followed a visually
stand at 0.5 secs, Furneaux and Land (1999) presented score that was accompanied by the
documented between 0.7–1.3 seconds, depend- corresponding sounds, discrepancies between
ent on the tempo. Similar results have been the printed score and auditory events resulted in
found in studies on typewriting (Gentner 1988). a recorded mismatch negativity about 150 msec
This narrow preview is at odds with the phe- after the dissociation in the vicinity of Heschl’s
nomenological experience of sight-readers who gyrus, where auditory pitch detection is located
claim a much larger preview. With multiple fix- (Schon and Besson 2005; Yumoto et al. 2005).
ations that can go anywhere in the piece, musi- This means that performers are likely able to
cians construct motor programmes that rely on know if their sounds match the score or not.
more than mere visual input of the foveal area Whether or not auditory images are used for
(see below for further details). This leads to the planning of movements may depend on the
larger eye–hand spans that can be measured musician. For example, Banton (1995) found
when withdrawing the notation unexpectedly that sight-reading without auditory feedback led
(Sloboda 1977). Sloboda found that meaningful to only slightly more mistakes than normal feed-
musico-structural units influenced the length of back; however, omitting visual access to the keys
the eye–hand span. For example, a larger dis- resulted in markedly poorer performance. A clas-
tance from the next phrase boundary tended to sic experiment by Allport et al. (1972) revealed
stretch the eye–hand span; a shorter caused it to that pianists could repeat words that were pre-
shrink. Hiding a longer piece of music at arbi- sented while sight-reading at the piano, which
trary points might still allow for cumulative suggests that auditory feedback is not necessary.
effects of the previously sight-read material, However, it may be used to create expectations.
whereas the method of briefly displaying dis-
jointed snippets of information for several hun-
dred milliseconds does not. We know that the Sight-reading as
reading context influences patterns of fixation
(Bekkering and Neggers 2002). If we consider
problem-solving
that repeated trials lead to better sight-reading We already mentioned that not all notes can be
accuracy and that better sight-readers have a focused on and that problem-solving processes
better recall for material after a single trial will have to complement the incomplete visual
(Lehmann and Ericsson 1993), we have to con- input. In fact, everyday experiences teach us that
sider the effects of long-term working memory some pieces are able to be sight-read more easily
348 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
than others, which suggests that those processes Sight-reading is more than pressing the right
may be more or less easily accomplished. Ortmann notes at the right time; it also involves adding
in 1934 (cited in Clifton 1986) showed with musical expression. Although no specific studies
brief presentation times of stimuli, 400 msec have been done so far, we suggest that expression
and 2 sec, respectively, that diatonically organ- is added algorithmically according to a likely
ized music, smaller intervals, and sequences that grammar of musical expression (e.g. Friberg et al.
were congruent with tonal expectations were 2006). Most interestingly, merely counting up the
more easily read than others. This suggests— number of correct notes in a sight-reading task
and this conclusion is backed by much research correlates highly with expert ratings of the same
in other domains—that we tend to form mean- performance (Lehmann and Ericsson 1993),
ingful units that are influenced by our previous suggesting that better sight-readers integrate
knowledge, and hence, expectations. Kinsler musical expression and correct notes on the fly.
and Carpenter (1995) found that repeated ren- This may be due to a larger temporal range of
ditions of the same piece were accompanied by planning. Only when the performer knows what
a reduced amount of ocular movements. is ahead can meaningful musical expression be
Presumably, larger chunks were formed, more added (e.g. slowing at the end of a phrase).
previous knowledge was brought to the task, In essence, problem-solving or reconstructive
and the visual input functioned as a retrieval cue processes during sight-reading are considerable
to a known motor programme (just like playing if we consider how few fixations are available and
well-rehearsed music from notation). how much material needs to be covered.
What happens when our expectations are not Obviously, those processes function more effec-
met by the printed score? In a clever study tively in better sight-readers. While plausible
(Sloboda 1976), pianists performed a classically expectations are constantly being constructed
sounding piece of music in which several notes and will usually facilitate performance, in rare
had been altered by a half or whole step to violate instances they may lead the sight-reader astray
tonal expectations. These violations were either and cause errors that unveil the underlying
introduced in the beginning, middle or the end of mediating processes.
a phrase, and they were evenly distributed across
the left- and right-hand part. Participants were
asked to play exactly what was written. As the
Acquiring the skill
researcher expected, many of the artificial altera- Sight-reading is such a specialized skill that it is
tions were erroneously corrected to sound tonal futile to look for specific inborn traits that may
again, middle positions being more likely cor- cause individual differences in sight-reading
rected, and a repeated trial led to even more such skill. Among musicians observable individual
corrections. These alterations may be termed differences in sight-reading ability are great and
proof-reader’s errors. Sloboda (1974) asked need to be explicated. Several variables have
music experts to judge mistakes made by sight- attracted the interest of researchers: all sorts of
readers with regard to their musical adequacy. In training variables, intelligence, other musical
keeping with our expectations, the errors were skills, musical ability, general indicators of
plausible alternatives to or reductions of the writ- memory, and reading performance.
ten music. Expectations are powerful: one can The most promising predictors so far have
ask pianists to fill in blanks in an unfamiliar piece been training variables. Kornicke (1995) and
while sight-reading it, and they will generate suc- Banton (1995) found that higher self-rated expe-
cessful inferences (i.e. improvise) based solely on rience as an accompanist or more regular sight-
the context of the piece, their stored knowledge, reading practice was related to more accurate
and current expectations (Lehmann and Ericsson sight-reading in the authors’ studies. In Kornicke’s
1996). Fine et al. (2006) showed that singers also study, a cumulative index of experience from
made more mistakes when sight-reading tonally several scales correlated reliably (r = 0.4) with
modified Bach chorals compared to unmodified sight-reading achievement. In a regression anal-
ones and that they were also hindered by modi- ysis the best predictor was the estimated number
fied notes in other voices’ parts. of pieces sight-read. Lehmann and Ericsson
Summary · 349
(1996) assessed first, the size of repertoire that of predictors. Hence, those factors that contrib-
pianists possessed to accompany soloists and ute to better performance at lower levels of dif-
ensembles and second, accumulated duration of ficulty may not be the same as those which
accompanying experience. Both indicators mediate superior performance at higher levels.
accounted independently for individual differ- Many educational studies and reviews have
ences in sight-reading: a larger accompanying offered suggestions on how to improve sight-
repertoire and more accompanying experience reading (e.g. Lehmann and McArthur 2002, pp.
led to better sight-reading performance under 147–148; McPherson 2005 ) and insightful
standardized conditions. One could conclude teachers have developed graded material to train
from this that experience with the representative sight-reading systematically. However, some
situation (real-time demands, short or no prepa- advice might be more useful than other: for exam-
ration time, etc.) as well as the knowledge base ple, training eye movements by rolling your eyes
acquired through the performance of many or similar exercises are certainly futile—you
pieces facilitates future performance. In general, would simply get better at rolling your eyes.
among the participants of the study the experi- Rather, young performers should get accus-
ence as accompanist started a few years after the tomed to playing their instrument without con-
onset of piano training. They reported playing stantly looking at it (e.g. piano) to free up their
progressively more difficult accompanying piano vision to look at the score while still finding
parts, commensurate with their parallel increase their way on the instrument. Performing under
in pianistic skills. Counter to many musicians’ real-time conditions also precludes stuttering,
intuitions, this explains nicely why positive cor- i.e. stopping at every mistake and correcting it,
relations are found between general instrumen- but rather ‘faking’ one’s way through the score,
tal skills and sight-reading at pre-professional i.e. trying to infer plausible content. This can
levels (McPherson 1995, 2005). only be done if the student has ample experience
A similar study on the acquisition of sight- with a certain style of music and can build up
reading skills included different levels of musical suitable expectations about how the music might
complexity (Kopiez and Lee 2006, 2008). In continue. It is here also that knowledge of music
their experiment, subjects sight-read pieces of theory can be applied. One has to acknowledge
five levels of difficulty. Sight-reading perform- that a stable and deliberate interpretation may
ance was assessed along with indicators of psy- not be possible at first sight but that attending to
chomotor speed (tapping speed, trill speed), dynamic and articulatory signs along with
elementary cognitive skills (reaction time, speed applying simple rules of expression (e.g. creat-
of information processing [number connection ing phrase arches of tempo and loudness) will
test]), general cognitive skills (tests of short- generate a musically sounding first impression.
term and working memory and general mental
capacity), and expertise-related indicators (inner
hearing, practice times for piano alone and
Summary
accompanying, starting ages). The best single Sight-reading provides a complex problem-
predictors for the overall score across all five lev- solving situation with an intricate interplay of
els of difficulty were trill speed between the third bottom-up mechanisms (driven by the input
and fourth fingers, sight-reading experience up stimulus of the score and auditory feedback) and
to age 15, scores on the number connection test, top-down processes (driven by expectations and
and inner hearing (Kopiez and Lee 2008). While cognitions). It is conceivable that limitations on
those results emphasize the impact of experience the general playing of an instrument or a lack of
and efficient perceptual encoding, they also sug- technical proficiency exist that may consequen-
gest that pianistic abilities play a role. The tially impact the ability to sight-read: One can
authors also analysed their results separately for never sight-read beyond the level of rehearsed
the individual levels of complexity (Kopiez and performance, but how close to it one sight-reads
Lee 2006, see Figure 32.1) and showed convinc- seems to be very much a matter of training.
ingly that performance at different levels of dif- Sight-reading ability at lower skill levels may
ficulty was mediated by different combinations partly emerge from general instrumental skill
350 · CHAPTER 32 Sight-reading
1.1 SR 10
SR 15
1.0 SR 18
SR total
0.9 ST 3–4
ST 1–3
0.8
Standard beta coefficient
WM
NCT
0.7 IH
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
1 2 3 4 5
Level of sight-reading
Fig. 32.1 Significant predictors of sight-reading performance, separate for five levels of stimulus
difficulty 1=easy, 5=difficult (data from Kopiez and Lee 2006). Predictors: SR, sight-reading
experience up to age 10, 15, 18 or total up to the time of the experiment; ST, speed trilling between
fingers 1–3 or 3–4 of right hand; WM, working memory in a number task; NCT, speeded number
connection test; IH, inner hearing using an embedded melody paradigm.