Vision 視覚: Holistique Pianism (7)

Vision requires a great deal of brain power.

It accounts for a significant portion of the brain’s energy metabolism.

In fact, visual processing alone is estimated to consume up to 70% of the body’s total energy used by the brain.

Given this fact, I have always wondered why there is an increasing number of children who struggle to read music notation.

Please keep in mind that deciphering notes and reading music fluently are not the same as recognizing all the letters of the alphabet and reading a sentence.

Perhaps some of you have already heard about the link between excessive screen time and difficulties in reading notation.

I noticed a significant difference when my students used digital devices while waiting for their lessons.The most noticeable change was in their attention span and overall attitude.

I observed that they struggled to focus, and I began to suspect that this difficulty was not simply a matter of attention.

They were being asked to shift from a passive visual state, following a screen that requires very little active engagement, to an active one, where vision must be used to understand, predict, and organize information.

The brain is shaped by use.

Neural pathways that are not regularly engaged tend to fade, while frequently used ones become more established.

Extended exposure to screen based visual habits, especially early in childhood, may subtly affect this balance over time.

Later, I realized that their discomfort was rooted in music notation itself.

Reading notation requires the eyes, the body, and multiple layers of perception to work together.

This made me begin to see a connection between the type of vision we use in everyday screen viewing and the way we are asked to use vision when reading music.

My own screen time has also increased dramatically over the past four to five years.

So I decided to experiment on myself.

While playing the piano, I recently noticed a few coordination issues.

That evening, an idea suddenly came to me.

What would happen if I limited my vision?

These strange looking glasses are designed to improve vision.

Their mechanism is simple. Small dots prevent the eyes from focusing only at the center, release eye tension, and encourage the use of peripheral vision.

If you have tried them, you may know that you can sometimes see farther and more clearly without corrective lenses, particularly in cases of nearsightedness.

I removed my contact lenses, put on these glasses, and played the piano.

The first thing I noticed was that I could hear the sound of the piano much more clearly than before.

It sounded at least twice as vivid to me.

That was not all.

I felt that my proprioception improved significantly.

I could sense both of my hands very clearly.

Some of the coordination issues I am experiencing are due to changes I have made to my piano technique over the past two years.

Old habits still surface from time to time and can feel confusing.

Reading brand new and highly detailed music also challenges me.

So I tried the glasses.

There was nothing to lose.

The results were remarkable.

Not only could I hear the sound of the piano more clearly, but I also felt that my proprioception was enhanced.

I could distinctly sense each finger on both hands and how they interacted with the keyboard.

I practice with the piano lid open, and even so, the physical presence of sound felt stronger and more tangible.

Eventually, I closed my eyes, as reading the music with these glasses was difficult.

I began to read the music in my mind.

When I could not recall the sound, it was not because I had forgotten the notes.

It happened when the next movement my body expected did not match the sound I believed I had learned from the score.

When the sound returned to me, physical motion, how to move between notes and which ones to play, and the music itself quickly aligned and were absorbed into memory.

What surprised me even more was the moment I opened my eyes again.

My vision felt unsettled, and I could not focus sharply.

However, my hearing felt even more acute.

I could feel the physical volume of the sound coming from the piano in front of me.

Voices and inner lines that I had not been paying attention to suddenly emerged.

I whispered, “How come?”

At that moment, sound, movement, and music felt synchronized and settled in my body.

From a developmental perspective, vision is one of the senses that matures relatively late.

This process is closely linked to overall brain development.

In many children who later experience challenges in learning, this developmental process plays a significant role.

There are early developmental factors that strongly influence this process, though I will not explore them in detail here.

Another key factor is the integration of primitive reflexes, which normally occurs naturally in early childhood.

When this integration does not happen in a timely manner, it often reflects limited opportunities for full body movement.

Through natural, physical movement, children strengthen their bodies, and in doing so, their brains develop, allowing primitive reflexes to be integrated naturally.

When this process is limited, some primitive reflexes may remain active into the school age years.This often appears as differences in learning ability.

Seen from this perspective, it becomes easier to understand why vision, one of the most energy demanding processes of the brain, can be challenging when overall development is incomplete.

The ability to understand music notation visually is not something that improves simply through repetition or practice.

It often develops naturally as the body and nervous system mature and integrate.

The relationship between excessive screen time and brain development is complex.

Beyond factors such as blue light and electromagnetic exposure, there is another important aspect.

When vision is limited to tracking a single, fixed area on a screen, the range of eye movement becomes extremely restricted.

Over time, this can influence how visual attention and coordination develop.

Finally, vision does not function in isolation.

Human beings are organic systems in which all senses and neural processes are deeply interconnected.

Focusing on vision alone and attempting to fix it through isolated training reflects a reductionist approach.

Such methods may appear efficient, but they often create more problems than they solve.

Integration, not isolation, is essential.