I got to the conference at 1pm after traveling all night/morning from JFK, just in time to talk about Business Planning with three groups in the Collegiate/Young Professional Track! I'll be posting a summary of that talk a little bit later today!
Right now, I've stopped in (a bit late) on a session called, "Dyslexia and the Keyboard: When Students Can't Read," presented by Lynn Godfriaux Maloy, RN, BMA, MM, NCTM.
She is discussing out-of-the-box approaches while working with dyslexic students. Give pieces at a variety of difficulty. A more traditional approach might be to keep weak readers in the level they are able to read, but this won't work with dyslexic students. She also recommends using ensemble music with dyslexic students. This is a good way for them to read a "part of the whole." As you get into advanced music, they will still run into decoding issues with the increasing complexity of the music. Consider using ragtime and waltzes that have a very delineated two-part bass and have them use two hands to play just the bass part. You could also assign them just the melody, split between two hands.
"Hands-in-the-air" is a typical symptom of a poor reader. The dyslexic students can use the keyboard to get them back in place in the piece. Once a dyslexic student loses sight of the score, they cannot find where they are
Dyslexia is an inability to decode. It's not a tracking problem. Make sure vision and eye movement have been checked in the student if you have a student with vision issues.
Dyslexic students get tired of being corrected because they misread the materials.
Pianists often learn to leave out notes, but for dyslexics, it's hard to leave out notes.
Reminding students to look ahead doesn't work, since the problem is decoding what is on the page.
It doesn't always get better with practice.
With dyslexia, nothing looks easy.
Suggestions: have the student play the treble while you play the bass.
Have the student stand at the piano and follow along while you play the piece for him/her.
Don't correct mistakes. Show them the area and see if they can find it themselves.
Allow freedom to memorize, especially as they reach performance tempo.
Simplify bass and melody lines, then add detail.
Advanced repertoire: we often wonder... "Why is this student having problems reading this?" Advanced pre college and college students are good at hiding their weakness. They are often the students struggling to accompany in a voice studio, e.g.
The presenter showed a page of Moonlight and a page of Pathetique as an example of the difficulty in reading patterns for a dyslexic student.
More teaching suggestions: don't just teach traditional theory! Teach beginning chord structure and analysis. Don't use Roman Numerals. Ue letter names; C F G make more sense. If you use letter names, they can learn basic improv, which will also improve technique. She recommends having students play from lead sheets (fake books). Make sure you switch hands sometimes. E.g. Have the LH play the melody and RH play the accompaniment. You can also have the student play just a single bass note in LH plus melody in the RH. You can also have them transpose.
3-staff music is even more confusing for dyslexic students. Think of piano/vocal music that has one voice line and two piano lines. This is difficult!
Piano score editions: avoid small print, crowded staves, heavy ink, sloppy printing techniques.
iPads are a great idea, but the music is SMALL.
Large-print editions require you to read faster across the page.
Editions with different editing can be confusing. E.g. Gray markings can be confusing.
She recommends copying sections and using highlighters.
There are apparently highlighters that disappear when you put a blow dryer on it. This is cool!
Traditional views often say that a weak reader is often a weak musician. Many musicians think that a pianist should be able to sight-read anything. Many people believe that playing by memory is not as important as being able to sight read.
She is encouraging teachers to rethink the teaching of reading:
Adopt multiple levels of sight-reading:
1. Basic sight reading: basic note and rhythms on a single staff
2. Beginning sight reading: ability to slowly read grand staff notes and rhythms
3. Intermediate sight reading: ability to read notes, rhythms, dynamics, balance, phrasing at a slow tempo.
4. Advanced sight reading: ability to read rhythms w/fair pitch accuracy at faster tempi.
5. Speed reading: ability to read notes, rhythms, dynamics, phrasing at tempo.
Common questions:
How do I approach a parent of a student I suspect is dyslexic? You can approach a parent to say what you noticed. Parent answers will vary from the parents who say he/she is also having trouble in school, has no issues at all, or simply isn't practicing.
If I suspect my child is dyslexic, should I have him/her diagnosed? It really depends on the willingness of the parents to deal with the problem.
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