It’s all clear for the clarinets
Simeon Yates, is a presbyopic Clarinetist who plays for the Yorkshire Regiment TA band. Simion was struggling to focus on his music on the music stand when playing both Clarinet and Bass Clarinet when in concert formation.
Simeon is a myopic established varifocal wearer but he was experiencing difficulty with the narrow corridor and peripheral distortion provided by his multifocal lenses.
Like many musicians, when playing in concert formation Simeon often has to share a music stand. This means he had to read the piece being played from one side. Although Simeon’s current lenses were a free-form design this was still very problematic. Due to the narrower field of the intermediate area provided by the lens corridor.
To provide the widest possible area for music (about 1.2 meters) it was decided to dispense an additional pair of spectacles. On this occasion, we used a compensated occupational progressive lenses, adapted to take into account Simeon’s extended working distance and seating position.
A dual purpose solution
As occupational lenses were used Simeon was also able to use them for work. When not playing with the Yorkshire Regiment TA band Simeon runs a specialist training company. Community Education Skills 4 Life, is a registered training centre teaching people how to deal with real-life emergencies.
Having collected and used the new spectacles Simeon said “New glasses are fab-u-lous and more right notes too.”
Why Allegro?
Focusing at many different distances can pose real problems to musicians. Many struggle with the varying focal distances they have to work with. In fact, many musicians also suffer from postural problems as a result. With an understanding of the playing and seating positions of professional musicians, this can be overcome. The musicians working and playing life can easily be extended due to the improvement that this solution provides. Many Musicians who experience focusing problems at different distances are unaware that there is a solution to the problem. Many optometrists and opticians either prescribe and dispense single vision lenses for the music stand or varifocals which often exacerbate the problems due to the narrow corridor.
Conclusion
This case study has illustrated the variety of dispensing challenges that musicians present. But with the right approach and a working knowledge of ensemble setups, these issues can all be resolved.
