Printer-friendly version

How does dyslexia effect music reading?

From bob leebman
Posted May 9, 2006 at 04:07 AM

I'm sure there are more ideas that I have forgotten. Some people suggest having one colour at the top line of the staff and another consistently at the bottom to help the eye distinguish between notes going up and those going down. There are a number of articles and even a few books written about the subject which you could look up on the net.

I have suffered from Dyslexia most of my life, but it really only has affected me when I read printed text in large quantities (e.g., when reading a novel). As a result, I have to read every word, deliberately, which naturally slows me down considerably (particularly frustrating when reading a thriller like "The DaVinci Code!")

On the other hand, my music reading abilities are quite strong and have NOT been affected by the Dyslexia. In fact, sight-reading is probably my strongest ability as a player. When I auditioned for the White House Marine Orchestra, after the Concerto round, the remainder of the audition was entirely sight-reading (due to the nature of our job). This included orchestral and string quartet literature. Again, this is an area in which I seem to excel, in spite of the Dyslexia.

My theory (and it is only a theory--I am NOT an expert in this area) is that reading words is more of a left-brain activity while music is inherently right-brained (although notation has mathematical qualities for sure). Perhaps there are simply different areas of the brain that are stimulated during these activities and Dyslexia only occurs in under specific conditions.

Anyone else have a theory? Any doctors or scientists out there?

Best,
Peter

First of all, this is not an intelligence problem. It is a problem of how information gets into the brain, is interpreted by the brain, and is expressed (if there is a motoric component). It is not a problem of a person's basic ability to reason. It's like a link broken in a chain, rather than something wrong with what's at the end of the chain. If the information gets to your brain in the proper orientation, your brain can process it.

Ultimately, dyslexia and learning disability and similar problems are general terms. The specifics of an individual's dyslexia can be very different from the specifics of other individuals. These problems can affect incredibly subtle and specific perceptual-motor skills that are unique in each individual. One person can have an easy time reading words but not numbers, or music but not words, or certain letters but not others. The variations are endless. I once testing a kid whose brain simply did not recognize the number 4, but could read any other single digit number. It gets that specific.

Therefore, what you have to do, as much as is humanly possible, is to figure out (or get help figuring out) what the specific deficits are. Trial and error is sometimes the only way. Sometimes a good neuropsych exam is in order; sometimes a good evaluation by an LD specialist. But once you get a line on the specifics, you can design a way of reading or learning or reading music (or whatever) that fits your particular pattern of strengths and weaknesses.

Hope that helps.
Cordially, Sandy

Their "cello chat" forum

http://p078.ezboard.com/fcellofuncellochat

looks like a good place to ask about this...

When improvising, I just look at the chords and play something approporate to each chord or set of chords. Ths problem is that I sometimes lose my place in the progression. The music we use shows just the basic melody with chord names above, and no orchestration whatever. When I play along with Band-In-A-Box I never get lost because the curson on the screen moves along with the music, so I always know exactly which chord I'm playing over. When I play just form a chart, however, without the helpful cursor, I seem to get distracted and lose my place. Has anyone had this problem. Comments, solutions, etc., gratefully accepted. It may come down to seeing my physician and going through the full medical route to a specialist, and possibly getting a prescription.

: I'm actually a guitarist, but this issue is exactly the same for all musicians, so I hope no-one on this discussion is offended. I came to this like by Googling "dyslexia", and I appreciate the work you all are doing to help people with this problem.

Many thanks, Frank

Karen.... where are you?

I did it!

It IS possible. It's highly confusing though.
It surprisingly took me years to accurately play rhythms.
At first I learned suzuki by ear.
That was how I played. I couldn't read the notes,
but gradually I learned that the third line on the staff was a 3rd finger on the d string. Then the last line of the staff was a first finger on the e string....
*I learned visually, and then connected it to my other senses- my hearing the note. I also gained good relative pitch through this process.
I connected over a few years to understanding the correlation to note names, and then half-steps, and whole-steps.
But- nevertheless, it took me a long long long time to fully understand music. BUT- dyslexia did make music in one way easier for me than other people.
Dyslexics think in much more abstract ways than the majority of the population.
We have to use all the parts of our brain- all of our senses, it has to be very 'hard-core' I guess.
We think of things differently, and this provides very interesting ideas, and musical interpretations.

Musically, music has been very easy for me, and very natural to interpret, and make music beautiful. All my scales are musical- I can't;really physically I cannot play something 'straight,' it just comes out with some sort of phrasing- half the time I don't realize I'm doing it at all. It comes
remarkably natural.

Dyslexics are given a beautiful and highly unique gift than few others have, but with this unique gift(s) come many curses. Few people can understand us, or relate to us, and this genetic disease is often misunderstood as only a reading disorder.
That's not true at all. Yes it makes reading harder, but it makes other things easier too though. The right brain is much stronger, and artistic.

I hated being dyslexic, but now I am glad, and even proud to be one of those who never gave up, but pushed through the hard times, to gain from the never-ending challenge a new sense of passion, persistance, patience, and pride.

:)

Dyslexia sucks though! I still have so much trouble reading music .... it may sound stupid, but i get very confused for example, if you have a long repetition of 1/16 notes of the same pitch... it is so frustrating.

i find the best way to read music is to print the score big ( no, i don't have any eyes issue). helps a lot.

 Charles Cook posted this link regarding recent research:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dyslexia+myth+video&docid=994441560563&mid=C43BCE9A372E9F4905C2C43BCE9A372E9F4905C2&FORM=VIVR

It will take you to a documentary about British researchers who feel that there is a "dyslexia myth."

 Thank you for the link. Dyslexia means different things to different people and sometimes various communication disorders, sensory integration issues, visual convergence issues and visual spatial issues are lumped under the broader use of the term dyslexia. I read a recent study that said dyslexia in reading manifests quite differently in different countries and the severity is based more upon the demands of the language than with a particular persons "dyslexia". So we could both have “dyslexia” but our basic language maps could make mine seem more severe than yours. Add to that the learned helplessness associated with many disabilities and you have a very debilitating situation for some people.

 This is an excellent document on Dyslexia and the pseudo science that constantly bombards this learning disability. The more I read about dyslexia ,the more confuse I get.I finally found an unbias article  that makes a lot of sense.

http://thedyslexiacenter.com/Documents/