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The Role of Visual and Auditory Feedback during the Sight-Reading of Music

Department of Psychology, The University, Leicester, LEI 7RH

This study examined the role of auditory and visual feedback during the sight-reading of a short piece of piano music. Its purpose was to identify errors that arose due to the removal of feedback and to compare the performances of pianists at different levels of sight-reading practice frequency, general musical experience and sight-reading ability. Subjects were tested under the following conditions: normal sight-reading, sight-reading when unable to view the keyboard (no visual feedback) and sight-reading where auditory feedback was unavailable (no auditory feedback). The findings indicated that performances where visual feedback was unavailable resulted in a significantly increased number of adjacent note errors, suggesting that visual feedback is utilised by pianists in order to guide the discrete movements of the hands over the keyboard, but that the degree to which it is relied upon is dependent on the pianist's familiarity with the sight-reading situation itself. Sight-reading when auditory feedback was unavailable proved to be indistinguishable from normal sight-reading, both being superior to performances where visual feedback was unavailable. General musical experience and sight-reading ability were significant factors in distinguishing between errors which might produce a breakdown in performance and those which will not impede fluency. This raises a series of questions concerning (a) differences between high ability and low ability pianists and (b) efficient practice techniques and objectives.

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