As a preface to this entry, I should mention that I am not an expert on dyslexia and music. My experience with dyslexia and the teaching of music has been limited.
For slightly over 2 years, I have been teaching a dyslexic boy, aged 11, classical guitar. To protect his identity and that of his parents, I shall affectionately refer to him as ‘Short Stuff’ (SS).
I hope this entry helps parents and music teachers trying to teach children with dyslexia. I also welcome comments and suggestion from others who have experience teaching music to dyslexic children.
Can dyslexic children learn music?
Yes. I asked this question before I took on SS. After teaching him for over 2 years, I can safely say that his learning disability does not preclude him from reading music.
I asked a violinist friend of mine, Yuan Liang, if he knew of any dyslexic musicians. He directed me to one, and I spoke to her at length about how her disability affected her ability to learn music.
She too confirmed that she was able to read music.
The challenges
Low attention span
SS suffers from an incredibly low attention span. I have taught children before, but his attention span is noticeably shorter than other children his age.
He constantly daydreams and is unable to concentrate.
Over the years, I have tried several things. The most effective solution? Keeping him on his toes.
How bad is this attention span? He can forget instructions within 5 seconds.
Example:
SS was having trouble keeping a 4/4 timing while counting quarter notes and playing simple chord accompaniment in a classical guitar duet.
“I want you to count out loud and play.” I told him. We started. I counted, 1 -2 -3 -4.
We began playing but he did not count. I stopped him immediately.
“SS, what did I ask you to do?”
“Ummm…” he replied, desperately trying to remember what I told him not 5 seconds ago.
30 seconds later, he replies with an obvious guess, “Watch my timing?”
“No.”
“Ummm…” he replies thinking further.
“Count?” he replies with another guess.
“Yes!” I reply, nearly a full-minute after asking the question, “So why aren’t you counting?”
To counteract this problem, I make it a habit to drill instructions into him. Before playing, I would tell him to count out loud as he plays. Then I immediately ask him,
“What are you suppose to do?”
“Count out loud?”
“What are you suppose to do?”
“Count out loud?”
“What are you suppose to do?”
“Count out loud!”
This may seem redundant, but getting repeated verbal confirmation after giving him instructions helps.
Despite doing this, it doesn’t work all the times.
Sometimes SS can continually tell you that he needs to count out loud before playing, but the moment we start he forgets immediately.
Poor perception and awareness
Working with SS is like working on a computer that always has piece of software, secretly running in the background, tying up vital resources and preventing it from processing more crucial tasks.
He is unable to notice mistakes he makes on a technical or musical level.
This is very scary. Sometimes, he is unable to discern that the note is playing is wrong, and that he is playing an incorrect rhythm.
To music neophytes, the inability to tell the difference in pitch is akin to the inability to hear the difference between the word ‘dog’ and ‘cat’.
To help him with his timing, I typically tap my foot on top of his. I also get him to clap the rhythm or maintain a steady tapping of the foot when he plays.
Using a metronome doesn’t work. He needs to physically feel the tapping.His brain can barely process his own timing. It cannot afford to process the timing of the metronome.
The biggest challenge and the silver lining
SS is my most challenging student to date. Preparing students for exams or performances is nothing compared to this.
I had to experiment over the years to find the most appropriate approach for him. I rarely consider resigning from students, but with SS, I’ve considered resigning several times.
What keeps me going?
At his best, SS’s learning ability was comparable to another child his age, sans the learning disability.
The reason? Handwork and consistent practice.
Eventually, the most crucial factor in his progress is his ability to practice consistently and diligently. With this, he can easily overcome his learning disabilities.
Unfortunately, he is not disciplined enough to do so. He tends to forget to practice if he is not constantly reminded by his parents. Once, he entered a 2 month slump, which incurred my wraith.
“What’s going on SS?” I yelled after he failed to play a painfully easy piece, “We did this 2 years ago. Why are you having so much difficulty playing this?”
“I don’t know.” He replied bluntly and unashamed.
“How much practice did you get last week?”
“Ummm..none?” he replied.
“What?! You are on holiday now. What have you been doing?”I asked.
“Watching TV.”
“So, you have time to watch TV, but you don’t have time to practice?” I asked, incredibly annoyed.
This happened for 2 months, in which SS suffered a massive decline in ability.
Constant set-backs like these have slowed his progress greatly. Despite 2 years of training, he can only manage material that typically takes other students 6 months of training to play.
I have never taught another student with so much difficulties before.
In short,SS’s learning disability is greatly compounded by his inability to practice consistently and diligently. I am confident that if he would make an effort to practice, his pace of learning could be greatly increased
It is unfortunate to see him holding himself back for all the wrong reasons.
Learning points
- Ask repeated questions to the student so that he understands. Ask repeated questions to the student so that he understands. Ask repeated questions to the student so that he understands.
- Be firm if necessary. Sometimes a softer, gentler tone relaxes the student. You don’t want a dyslexic child to get too relaxed because it encourages day dreaming. Keep them on their toes!
- Don’t coddle them. Sometimes dyslexic children are mis-labelled ‘lazy’. But sometimes they are genuinely lazy! If they haven’t been practising, call them on it.
- Get them to physically feel the tempo. This can done by getting them to clap the tempo, or to maintain a steady tapping of their foot as a ‘built-in’ metronome as they play.
- Demonstrating may not work. You may need to physically readjust their hands if they are making a technical mistakes.
Your points are very interesting. As an adult who is on the autistic and dislexic spectrum I commend your patience. I have been playing for 15 years on the guitar and still find music theory a nightmare. I have a son who is going through the exact same experience as SS. I find one string riffs slowed down to walking pace helps. Then adding one bar at at time and repeating from the start over and over again. As for chord shapes….we try to find shapes to remember instead of finger positions…. D is a triangle….A is a straight line…….E is like A but has a squiggle etc etc….. It is hard when the student does not seem to want to learn….autistic and dislexic children have excellent ways of hiding their poor skills and use avoidance. It is hard to show them that it is ok to make mistakes and that no one gets things perfect first time. Good luck with your students in the future.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for sharing your experience, it is most helpful. Teaching children or music is already a very difficult task. Trying to teach a person with a learning disability is even more challenging!
Teachers and students can use all the information they can get.
While I get the point about lazy being well lazy it is also important to know how distressing to find that after working at something it goes back to zero regardless of practice.
Personally and being dyslexic when I learned music while I could understand it either my reading of music was faster than the pace of the music or vice versa.
I am fortunate that I now speed read and touch type so it helps with the way my brain works however take these away and it shows massively hence my issue with music and I would love to find a way around it as I love music but always hit a block when it came to reading music so never progressed which has always disappointed me.
Hi Adyn,
I agree. Music is a perishable skill, if it is neglected long enough, it will go back to zero for anyone and everyone, regardless of their skill or experience.
It’s definitely distressing, especially when it perishes a lot faster for some than for others, but everyone needs to learn how to cope and if they want to succeed.
Dedrick,
Thank you so much. I’m a life long player of guitar. But when I started classical guitar and the reading of music, I became unable to get any flow. If I sing and play by ear, all is well (depending on who else is around). But Bach and lesser mortals, however straight forward, remain in a halting, disjointed state. I practice six days a week, and have taken lessons for decades. Love my guitar. Remains my lifelong friend. But when I read I use the Kindle OpenDyslexic font. No such font for written music. Tab is no better for me. Have tried memorization, but at 74, this does not work as well as before.
Keep working with SS. Does he sing? Strumming and singing ‘On Top of Old Smokey’ May not be Segovia’s path, but any music with guitar accompaniment is better than none.
All the best,
Old Larry