alt Hacker NewsCounter point: people get too hung up on staring at the sheet. The sheet is just a tool to help you remember what you intend to play. The goal should always be to not need it anymore, and while using the sheet, it's like using a crutch.
The "looking at your fingers" challenge then becomes that you start to play "by eye" instead of "by ear" (or "by feel") which I find is very hard to overcome. Especially when you are improvising.
Though in a sense "by sheet" is just as bad.
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> The goal should always be to not need it anymore, and while using the sheet, it's like using a crutch.
Uh, why? Lots of pros use sheet music, especially for complex pieces. I’ve never heard of an orchestra conductor insisting everyone be off-book.
It’s one thing to memorize pop songs or whatever, but nobody is out there shaming people for not memorizing Rachmaninov
I am not a big sheet player myself, I love to improvise and play by memory, so when I said "don't look at the fingers", I didn't mean "instead look at the sheet".
Look at the audience, out of the window, into nothingness — or even close your eyes. As long as you're there.