hand-eye coordination and instrument playing

Post Reply New Topic

Do any instrument players here have a hard time learning music due to poor hand-eye coordination? My guitar playing suffers from this greatly. But I play very sloppy and miss a lot of notes no matter how well I know the music.

I have tried to learn piano formally. Oh, Boy! what a disaster, no
coordination, and YET BY EAR AND NO FORMAL SHEET MUSIC
I AMAZED HOW my autistic pitches were a TERRIFIC GIFT.

the only thing that i can't do with my hand-eye coordination is play the drum set. Although, i'm working at it, with lessons, but playing two or more different rhythms at the same time is really hard to do.

My coordination is fine, I guess. I play flute and piccolo very well, and have for almost 20 years. Since then, I've also taught myself the basics of clarinet, guitar, oboe, and now I'm teaching myself piano. The hardest part of piano is just that I've never read bass clef before. The coordination has never appeared to be a problem for me since my first instrument (flute) was one in which you only move fingers up and down on the keys, as opposed to moving them from fret to fret. I think that helped get me started. I'm a little slow at learning a tricky fingering, so I work harder at it; but once I get it down, I can play it faster than others. Plus, I have a skill no NTs have: hearing the notes. I can play any song, in any key, just by hearing it (top line only, being one note at a time). Eventually I hope to be able to do that on piano too, with chords. It is true that multiple rhythms simultaneously is very hard. I'm 31 and just barely attempting it for the first time (on piano). That's why I intentionally stopped my piano lessons at age 7 and took only flute, because it's a melody-playing, one-note-at-a-time instrument. Then, after 12 years of that, I learned enough about music, chords, keys, and especially harmonies, that I can hear it all so well in my head and I'm finally attempting to play two at once.

So, ya, it's hard. And I think Aspie's do need to work as hard, or maybe harder, than normal people do to learn the instruments. But I figure that's fair. Because we get the advantage of being able to hear and play by ear. And there are so many people jealous of me for that skill, it still surprises me.

In the past 24 hours, in fact, I've had two people begging me to play solo for their event. But my Austism just doesn't understand why they'd want to hear a flute all by herself. A full concert, maybe, who knows. It just doesn't make any sense. I've told these two ladies maybe, and probably no, merely because I think it would be boring for the listeners. I play for me, I don't understand other peoples' desires to hear me play. My mom hates this quality in me as well. My guess is that in the NT world, it's enjoyable for some reason, but my other guess is that I'm never going to understand their perspective and if I play for them it will be entirely for them. I just wish there was something in it I could understand. Can anyone help me understand why they all want to hear me play so much?

[So, ya, it's hard. And I think Aspie's do need to work as hard, or maybe harder, than normal people do to learn the instruments. But I figure that's fair. Because we get the advantage of being able to hear and play by ear. And there are so many people jealous of me for that skill, it still surprises me. ]

I completely agree with this gift of translation that most people aren't
able to grasp. You also said something about annoying your mom for
not playing in public.
I can understand this. I play in hotels I sneaked in so I can be not
demanded upon, I PLAY FROM WITHIN not I-physically for others.
I find peace with this.

They see it's inner beauty. They may call it a gift, but it is the signal
of inner beauty they may actually be hearing. I don't know what you
play so I can only see it as your inner gift shine through.....!

You aren't supposed to look at your fingers when you play guitar, or any instrument really, so hand and eye coordination shouldn't have anything to do with it. It is just rote memorization of finger configurations.

this is true, but its impossible to learn the guitar from the beginning without looking at it !

Ive been playing guitar for about 6 years, never really had a problem though.

I found it VERY hard intially to learn to play the guitar - I started when I was 10. However, I found that playing with my eyes closed forced me to learn. Also I developed an obsession for The Beatles, and HAD to learn the chords for While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It may have blistered my finger tips, but it was worth it.

I was wondering if instrument players consider playing a riff / chord progression / section of melody / whatever over and over and over an "acceptable" form of perseveration. (Did I get that word right?). I ask this as I play Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep for the 500th time today.