| dc.description.abstract | Music sight reading is a frequent practice among professional musicians, especially among pianists -- However, it is a skill that is difficult to master because current sight reading textbooks don't take eye behaviour, the most important aspect in any type of reading activity, into consideration -- Previous studies have confirmed that pianists with an advanced level of sight reading recognize musical patterns inside a music sheet at a fast pace, meaning they obtain more information from fewer eye movements -- An empirical experiment was conducted to analyze eye behaviour in pianists with an advanced level of sight reading while visualizing different musical patterns: scale patterns, arpeggios, counterpoint, chords, sequences, rhythmic and transposed motifs -- Data collected from each participant included the amount, location, and average duration of their eye fixations on the sheet music; the number of times they looked down at the keys; and their performance in several sight reading and functional piano tests -- It was concluded that a close relationship exists in pianists between their theoretical musical knowledge, their eyes' spatial behavior, and their performance while sight reading | |
