In the professional and amate, the world the pianist sees is so different, it turns out by tracking camera tracking

The movement of the fingers of the top pianist is supple and fast, but it is impossible for ordinary people to imagine what kinds of worlds they see realize such transcendental skill. An experiment to shoot with a eye tracking camera was done to see exactly where and how professional pianists look, and I know that they are doing a big different eye movement than an amateur expert.

What Does a Pianist See? | Eye Tracking - Episode 1 - YouTube


Professional pianistDaniel BillyvskyMr. The piano history has been 33 years, and professors of universities andSteinway artistI am serious.


I wear an eye-tracking camera of the glasses type and play the piano.


"Are you ready?"


The instruction "Look at the camera" will jump.


Then "Look elsewhere". Mr. Billy-Husky's line of sight is indicated by a yellow dot.


The last instruction saying "Look at the camera of you". Eye tracking camera can be confirmed to function normally, and preparation is complete.


Mr. Billy Husky, who places his finger on the keyboard and starts playing.


It is Mr. Billievesky who plays while playing a relaxed melody, but you can see that there is very little to look directly at your hands.



When the line of sight flew to a place far away from the place of playing ......


My hands have moved to follow that line of sight.


The pianist who plays is looking down on the keyboard and does not seem to be looking at his hands.



"Will you also try this time?", Ms. Billiahusky spoke to the woman sitting in the back of the piano.


Woman is Charlotte Bennett. A student who is taught by Mr. Billy Husky for two years piano, so to speak, "egg of a professional pianist". It must be an advanced pianist.


Mr. Bennett began playing with an eye tracking camera attached.


Compared to Mr. Billiahusky, you can see that there are many scenes that are watching hands directly.


Mr. Billy Husky, who stated his impression that "the movement of eyes is busier than my imagination."


It is also pointed out that Mr. Bennet's movement range is narrow.


The image of the eye tracking camera is disturbed, but this is because he made a mistake and shook his face to the left or right.


Again, Mr. Billy-Husky's view of sight.


Even dynamic dynamic songs that use a wide range of keys, the point of sight travels in and out of the surrounding zones instead of hands.


Two people who laugh with intense eyes and movement of hands' seems to be dizzy.


You can see how the gaze moves greatly so that it moves back and forth around the left and right hands.





I am not conscious during the performance that the gaze changes one after another as if changing hands, so the picture of eye tracking camera is also very interesting for Mr. Billy Husky.


Next, experiment with "Performance of new score".


Although I go around between the staff, the line of sight is just to see the music score, and I rarely see the keyboard.



Although I glance at the keyboard at key points ... ...


A momentary event, the gaze is mostly directed at the score.


"The vertically moving view is moving horizontally as the song progresses," said Billy Husky.


Then Bennett.


In the case of Bennett, the line of sight goes back and forth between the score and the keyboard.



Compared to Mr. Billiahusky, we can confirm that we pay more attention to hands.


As an instructor's position, Mr. Billy-Husky says that it seems interesting that Mr. Bennett feels comfortable viewing the keyboard.


"I never blame you, but for me who has more experience, the one who does not see the keyboard is more comfortable to feel the keyboard"


The result of examining "movement of the line of sight while playing the piano" with the eye tracking camera is as follows. Mr. Bennett has 42% of the time he is watching his hand, while Mr. Billy Husky is only 17%. I knew that I was playing the piano without looking almost at my hand.


Furthermore, the image below made a heat map of the movement range of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Billievsky's eyes. Mr. Bennett (upper) gaze at a rapid pace, while Mr. Billiahusky (bottom) understands that the movement of the gaze is stable.