Double Bass Music reading glasses

[fdeck]

I just got my first pair of bifocals, which are helpful for reading close-up, but useless for reading charts on a music stand.

Has anybody gotten glasses for this purpose? Do you know how much weaker the prescription is, than your regular glasses?

 

[drurb]

It sounds like you didn't get progressives. Hard to tell exactly, but backing off by 1.5 diopters or so would likely do the trick. So, if your reading prescription is, say, +2.5 on top of your regular prescription, then +1.0 on top of that would likely do it.

 

[Rockin Mike]

+1 on the progressives. Regular bifocals are just distance and closeup, but a music stand is kind of midrange.

You might try putting a pair of off-the-shelf magnifiers over your bifocals and reading the sheets through the (magnified) distance part of the lens.

Extra light on the stand helps,
and if you have the music in electronic format you can perhaps print it larger or print in landscape mode.
Otherwise perhaps use a photocopier that has an enlarge function and/or landscape mode.

Sucks getting old, but it's better than the alternative

 

[ThumpPlunkJunk]

+1 on the progressives. Regular bifocals are just distance and closeup, but a music stand is kind of midrange.

You might try putting a pair of off-the-shelf magnifiers over your bifocals and reading the sheets through the (magnified) distance part of the lens.

Extra light on the stand helps,
and if you have the music in electronic format you can perhaps print it larger or print in landscape mode.
Otherwise perhaps use a photocopier that has an enlarge function and/or landscape mode.

Sucks getting old, but it's better than the alternative

17 here and I have this problem when playing in pits and dark churches.

 

[Abbyx007]

Very timely. I got headaches last week from using Smartmusic on the computer. Think I need to adjust my glasses!

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I just got my first pair of bifocals, which are helpful for reading close-up, but useless for reading charts on a music stand.

Has anybody gotten glasses for this purpose? Do you know how much weaker the prescription is, than your regular glasses?

Just also got my first pair of bifocals recently. I tried the progressives and couldn't handle the peripheral distortion (a percentage of people's brains will do this). I also find the bifocals useless for reading music on a stand - not because the prescription is wrong, but because I don't want to try to read with my head tilted back. I just use readers from Walgreens now, and push them down on my nose so I can see the music through them and the other players over the top.

 

[drurb]

Progressive bifocal "channel width" is an issue for many. There have been some substantial improvements. The best of the designs are quite pricey. Costco carries a decent lens at about half the price of other outlets. Well worth the comparitively small membership fee.

 

[RSBBass]

I tried using over the counter reading glasses but the stand was too far away. That said the stand was way low and a proper stand may have been at a decent distance. Who thinks that a stand that works for a flute player sitting down will be at the right height for a bass player sitting down anyway.

 

[Roger Davis]

From time to time I get a new pair from the optician for 'computer range' that equates roughly to to the distance from the stand - you can specify any focal length at the time of your test. Plus a non-reflective coating and you're away.

 

[Stumbo]

I got my long-time optician to loan me a couple of his old-timey diopter adjustment monocles to use when my exact prescription(for my specific distance) could not determined exactly) at his office.

Other factors not accounted for in the opticians office included lighting, angle, contrast, font size and color temperature.

I held up each monocle over each eye in the working envronment to figure out how much adjustment was needed for eac of my lenses

I ended up with driving, computer/work and home use glasses.

A bit of work but worth it at the time. Since then I had internal lenses intalled to corect distance and astigmtism(and cataracts). Still need reading glasses.

 

[Jazzdogg]

The glasses I wear every day are blended bi-focals. Yes, it took awhile to get used to the reduction in peripheral vision. But, after wearing them for a decade or so, I am, thankfully, completely used to them now. The bad news is that they're almost as useless as lined bi-focals for sight-reading and computer use.

I have a pair of glasses that I use specifically for reading music and looking at a computer monitor; the lenses are a single prescription, optimized for a distance of about 2.5 feet. They work great.

I'm a big fan of specialized glasses. I have magnifying lenses that allow me to position the bifocal element wherever it's the handiest. When I have to see up close while looking up (as when wiring a ceiling fan), I just move 'em up where they're needed.

 

[Jeff Bonny]

I just got my third pair of bifocals. I was having the same problem reading music on a stand and seeing a computer screen and thought for sure I needed trifocals. With a detailed description of the issues my optometrist was able to adjust my bifocal prescription (lessened the close up part slightly) to accommodate my specific needs. All optometrists are not created equal and this last one understood what would work for me a lot better than the last one did.

Peripheral vision is important to me in my day gig and the type of bifocal reading lens that's just a patch in the lower inside quarter has worked enormously well to preserve that. Progressives make me feel like I have inner ear problems.

 

[bejoyous]

I was talking to my old stand partner when I last had a gig about getting new glasses.

He has two pair, one of which is just for playing in orchestra. He told the optical guy it only had to see clearly at 5 feet. (hmm, maybe that would now be a tax deduction) He has bifocals for other stuff.

I'm getting new glasses soon and I am going to do the same.

 

[skipper]

As I've grown older, my eye prescription has become stronger. However, I find that some of my old glasses are perfect for reading music on the stand. It might be worth giving your old prescription a try.

 

[fdeck]

Thanks for all of the tips. I've got a +1 diopter lens sitting around somewhere, which I will try in front of my existing glasses.

The other thing I realize is that my gigs tend to occur at the end of the day when my eyes are crapped out.

 

[Damon Rondeau]

From time to time I get a new pair from the optician for 'computer range' that equates roughly to to the distance from the stand - you can specify any focal length at the time of your test. Plus a non-reflective coating and you're away.

That's your answer right there. The problem with bifocals and progressives for things like working with a computer monitor or reading music from a stand is that the "sweet spot" of the lens for that distance is a very small portion of the lens. So you adapt by doing the head-tilt thing: moving the head instead of the eyeballs, thereby keeping your eye locked in that focal-length sweet spot.

Six or seven months ago, when I got my second set of progressives (really damn expensive, paid for by my health plan benefit) I swore I'd fix this. Most days I work all day long on a computer monitor. I'd heard about "office glasses" or "computer glasses" and learned that they all they are is a single focus lens that's optimized for a certain viewing distance. They give you *the whole lens* at that distance instead of a tiny little sweet spot. I bought a cheap pair of "computer glasses" from the online Chinese firm Zenni Optical. They give you all the instructions you need to order a pair of computer glasses (it's a simple modification to the prescription your optician gives you.) Mine cost 35 bucks, including shipping, and they arrived from China in less than a week. I've been using them everyday at work ever since and I would never want to do computer work without them now. All that head-tilting and squinting is absolutely and completely a thing of the past.

Get some fixed-focal length glasses made up for your music stand distance. They are inexpensive and they work.

 

[Don Higdon]

From time to time I get a new pair from the optician for 'computer range' that equates roughly to to the distance from the stand - you can specify any focal length at the time of your test. Plus a non-reflective coating and you're away.

+1
I've been doing it for years. Just tell the optician the distance between your eyes and the music stand.
I get "granny glasses" so I can look over the top of the frame and see the conductor without cranking my head up and down.

 

[bass81800]

I went to the optometrist several years ago and mentioned that I was a musician. So, he asked me if I wanted an RX for music reading glasses. Oh, yes, of course. They are neither distance nor close glasses, just right in the middle and perfect for reading from a music stand.

I have never had any problem communicating to an optometrist what I am looking for. Right now, I wear contact lenses that are set for music reading distance, and use cheap readers at 1.25 for more close up. No need to bifocals or progressives here.

 

[19bassman70]

Have been having a hard time getting my prescription correct after cataract surgery on both eyes! What worked two months ago doesn't work today. By second eye was done on 8/6/13. Hope my eyes settle down soon!

Mom always said getting old was hell! Glad she spared me the details!

 

[Eric Swanson]

I got a pair of fixed focal length glasses, other than my regular, old-man "progressives," for computer work and music reading.

I used them for awhile; I have ended up not using them, and find my progressives are working, now that I have gotten used to them. Getting the stand height and my head angle are important.

Definitely not getting younger...