Learning Disabilities in the Music Classroom: Helping students with dyslexia to learn to read
and write music
Dyslexia in the Music Classroom
 Students with reading difficulties have always been in the music classroom. Many tend
to “fly below radar”—their deficits are not recognized, particularly if they have good
ears. They quietly learn their part by listening to their neighbors and they are
embarrassed to admit that they can’t read music or don’t read it very well.
 Yet if we take what is known about reading difficulties and apply them to music, we can
help students learn to read and write music. They won’t have to keep a painful and
shameful secret. The purpose of this slide show is to share ways to help students who
have reading difficulties learn how to read music well.
Semiotics
 The task of reading and writing music, as you know, is one of translation between two
semiotic (meaning-making) systems—the visual and the aural. One problem with
translation is that aspects of that translation seem to be arbitrary and therefore difficult to
remember. For example, the concepts of “up” and “down” representing pitch in printed
music may appear arbitrary, if not downright backwards, to someone whose instrument
has the higher notes nearer the floor and the lower notes nearer the ceiling—the cello, for
example.
Digression
 Semiotics is the study of how things make meaning. Those things include music,
language, the visual arts, dance, maps, American Sign Language, Braille, and any other
human-made system of communication.
 Semiotics was originally a term of pathology—the study of disease. Semiotics was the
study of the signs of disease (e.g., spots = chicken pox). It then became the study of any
kind of meaning-making signs.
 While meaning-making systems differ vastly, they have some characteristics in common.
For example, meaning is created through contrast, whether it is the contrast between
linguistic concepts such as “hot” and “cold” (something that is not hot is cold) or the
contrast in a sonata-allegro form between the I and the V.
 Meaning-making is a communal construct—as we grow up, we learn the sign systems
that are parts of our community. We begin with no knowledge of it and gradually
become conventional users of the sign systems of our culture.
 Sign systems give us the ability to communicate in a variety of ways, but they also limit
us. If our language lacks the word for a concept, then we are not able to express that
concept in that language. This is why we have multiple semiotic systems. There are
things that can be expressed in music that cannot be expressed in language.
More on Semiotics
 Furthermore, there may simply be some brain processing issues for people who have
been identified as having dyslexia. According to Dyslexia: Theory and Practice of
Remedial Instruction by D. B. Clark and J. K. Uhry (Baltimore: York Press, 1995, 2nd
Ed.), people with dyslexia are often slow at what they call “Rapid Automized Naming,”
where people name what they see, such as naming the colors on successive cards. An
analogous task in music would be to quickly name notes from music flashcards.
Although Clark and Uhry don’t mention that this is a semiotic translation task, it, indeed,
is.
Levels
 Like linguistic literacy, music literacy is a process that takes place at a minimum of two
significant levels. At the lowest level, a person makes a connection between a printed
note and a given pitch (or rhythm). This would be analogous in linguistic literacy with
knowing the sounds of the alphabet letters.
 At a higher level are the patterns we hope music students will recognize: notes sounded
simultaneously in chords as well as melodic patterns—scales and arpeggios. Higher level
understanding allows students to gain musical meaning and therefore to “chunk”
information.
 Musical meaning is a memory aid. It is very difficult to write down a series of random
notes. Musical patterns, from which musical meaning is derived, allows musicians to
think about clusters or chunks of notes rather than individual notes.
 Chunking information means less information must be remembered. Rather than
memorizing the dictation of three separate notes such as E, G#, and B, the person who
recognizes the pattern thinks of only one thing: an E major chord. By remembering the
E chord, he or she can derive the three notes.
Dyslexia
 “Dyslexia” means “difficult or painful” reading (Greek prefix “dys” = difficult/painful,
Greek root “lexia” means reading). People who have this type of learning disability
suffer because they do not learn in the same ways that those without dyslexia learn.
Learning disabilities are diagnosed when there is a significant discrepancy between a
person’s IQ and their actual reading ability. It is not uncommon for people with dyslexia
and related learning disabilities to be very bright and therefore doubly frustrated at
struggling with reading. There are several possible deficits a person with dyslexia and/or
other related reading difficulties might have.
Short Term Memory
 According to Dyslexia, some people have poor short-term memories. They are not able
to remember, for example, a string of digits. This might mean that a student would have
difficulty remembering a sequence of musical notes or a sequence of instructions for
playing an instrument.
Rapid Naming
 According to Dyslexia: “The length of time it takes to look at a visual stimulus and say
its name is a good predictor of reading ability.” (p. 28) As mentioned, this is a
translation exercise across semiotic systems. The child looks at a red card and says
“red,” translating a visual stimulus into a linguistic label and then verbalizing that label.
Some people are naturally good at this and do it without thinking about it while other
struggle with it.
Attention Deficit Disorder
 People with Attention Deficit Disorder have difficulty focusing and may not be able to
repeat a long sequence of notes for that reason or do some other musical task that requires
concentration over time. They may become overwhelmed with the task and not even try.
Acoustic Processing Difficulties
 Dyslexia states:
In a recent analysis of the spelling errors of children who are dyslexic but have received
intensive remediation, Mary Kibel and T.R. Miles found persistent difficulty with a type of
errors not found in spelling-age matched controls. The errors involved both cluster reduction
(e.g., spelling blend as “bend”) and substitution of phonologically confusable pairs (e.g., e/a, b/d,
r/l). These errors are consistent with Tallal’s theory that individuals with dyslexia experience
difficulty processing rapid acoustic information. (p. 40)
The student may not hear (that is, process through the hearing centers of the
brain) all of the notes of a given sequence.
Listening Comprehension
 Here’s another interesting quote: “…historically, children described as dyslexic were
found to have deficits in a range of oral language skills including listening
comprehension.” (p. 41) They go on to qualify this statement (ADD vs. dyslexia and
that distinction’s effect on research), yet comprehension is important to consider.
Musical comprehension is what music theory is all about. Music is far more than a
collection of notes correctly played. Musical meaning lies in musical patterns such as
chord sequences, in the use of key and key changes, in phrasing, in ornamentation, in
melody, in rhythm, and in contrast between all musical elements. Students need to be
good at comprehending music because it is only through comprehension that we can
recognize patterns.
Principles for Addressing Dyslexia
 There are several general principles for teaching students with dyslexia: Direct
Instruction, Time, Pacing, Learning to Mastery, Feedback, Assessment, Multisensory
Techniques, Phonological Awareness, and Developing Strategic Learners.
Direct Instruction
 Students with dyslexia “do not learn by osmosis, as other children seem to do. Rather,
they need direct, intensive, and systematic input from, and interaction with, the teacher.”
(p. 64). This means that students may need to have what is “obvious” to other students
actually explained to them.
 When you are watching and listening to kids, be sure you think about what concepts they
might be lacking as they attempt to carry out a task. Don’t assume they know something
just because you have taught it or because most of the other kids seemed to pick it up.
Time
 The book suggests that students with this kind of trouble need more time for tasks. They
also need more instructional time and more time for practice.
Pacing
 These students become overwhelmed with informational overload, so instruction needs to
be given at a pace students can handle. This means breaking down information into
smaller “bundles.”
Learning to Mastery
 Students need to become automatic at what they do. Students with dyslexia would need
to have lots of extra practice on such a concept so they can reach a level of mastery with
it. Only when they have mastery can they then apply the concept appropriately. Many
students can master a concept with a few examples and a short collection of homework
problems but students with reading struggles will need more practice. Finally, the
progress toward mastery will be inconsistent—up and down.
Feedback
 While feedback helps all learners, it is critical for struggling learners. Your feedback
needs to be honest, encouraging, and swift. You need to directly let the student know
what was done right and what can be improved (along with your confidence in the
student’s ability to improve over time). You also need to give the feedback as quickly as
possible so the student can use the information you are providing.
 Over time, as you build the relationship, you can ask students to begin to assess
themselves.
Assessment
 Assessment is part of the teaching cycle. We plan for the next lesson based on our
assessment of the most recent lesson. With struggling students, assessment is critical
because it lets you know if the intervention is working and it can give students a sense of
hope when they see their own progress.
Multisensory Techniques
 Whenever possible, students need to be working with the visual, aural, and kinesthetic
simultaneously.
 Can you see why it is important to use multiple semiotic systems in your teaching as
much as possible? Write a little note on that and some possible techniques you can do in
a music classroom.
Phonological Awareness
 Linguistic readers have to make a connection between letters and their sounds. The
equivalent in music would be to make a connection between the note on the page and its
sound (and duration of sound) on an instrument or as it is sung.
 Music readers need to be able to predict the sound of a melody as they see its contour on
the page (e.g., the next note is higher on the page and should be higher in pitch).
Developing Strategic Learners
 Linguistic readers are encouraged to use multiple cueing systems in order to read words.
They should look not only at the sounds of the letters but also think about what would
make sense in the context. Music students who struggle need to be aware consciously of
the possible strategies for figuring out what they are reading or writing. They need to
engage what they know about reading pitch but also what they know about musical
patterns through music theory.
Possibilities for Working with Music Students
 Here are a number of possibilities for helping students become more proficient at reading
and writing music. I have organized these by “problem” that a student might be having,
as these strategies might well address that problem. Not every student will have every
problem, but each student should be assessed for these areas to see how he or she is
doing.
Directionality
 Students who do not play keyboard instruments may need to reorganize their ideas about
pitch. Because of their need for direct instruction, they will need to have someone point
this out. Perhaps they need to practice playing their instrument from lowest to highest
note and vice versa, consciously thinking about low and high. Advanced students can
play a chromatic scale and less advanced students can play an easy-for-them scale for as
many octaves as possible. They might need information about acoustics in order to help
them remember that higher notes vibrate at higher frequencies. They may also need to
trace the melody in the air or, better yet, on a piece of paper as they hear it, moving up
when the melody goes up and then down when the melody goes down. The paper tracing
can help them remember the contour of the melody as they begin to write it down.
Short Term Memory
 Get students to play the electronic game, Simon. It begins with a single note and adds
gradually. It would be a fun game to play and would help students immensely with the
development of short term memory.
 Music theory helps students chunk what they hear. Help them learn how to use their
music theory knowledge (even very young students have some general knowledge they
can use).
A Note on Music Theory Teaching
 Music theory is not just a class that people take in high school or college. It is critical
information that helps students to learn musical patterns. It is also another “modality” for
teaching music—it is a way of using language (for your linguistically talented folk) to
talk about music. In other words, when you teach music theory concepts, you are
teaching to more than one learning style: you have the music, you have the words (music
theory concepts), and you can use visuals to round this out.
 In my experience, music theory teaching can be embedded in music instruction. When I
teach a new fiddle tune to my fiddle group, we talk about the key the piece is in and I
model “chunking” by mentioning patterns (e.g., “this next part is a scale” or “the next
part is an arpeggiated C major chord—what is in a C chord?”) There is a time and a place
for systematic theory instruction, but music theory can also be an everyday part of regular
music instruction.
 When your Praxis III assessor comes to visit your classroom, be sure you explain this
kind of thing to him/her. Probably you will not be evaluated by someone who is a
musician, so you will need to be able to “translate” what you are doing into terms a nonmusician will understand (that’s what I’m trying to help you with here—is to point out
that music theory info is really using multiple learning styles).
Rapid Naming
 There are two possible tasks here: one is naming notes, as on flash cards, and the other is
playing the notes that are on flash cards. Students who struggle with reading music need
instruction on how to use flash cards and to be told to use them regularly in their practice
(no matter how old they are). They need to practice both naming and playing.
 Younger students might get some good out of playing “Bop It” in which they have to
listen to instructions and then do them on an electronic toy. I wouldn’t do this in a
classroom, but I used to have a Bop It for students in my private studio to play with while
waiting for lessons.
ADD/Feeling Overwhelmed
 Break the task down. Help student to develop practice routine that allows them to change
tasks fairly often. Encourage students to work with a timer and to build up time from a
small, extremely do-able time to something more concentrated. This build up is like that
which a weightlifter does over time. Be specific about what the student is to do for each
given amount of time.
Acoustic Processing Difficulties and Music Dictation
 Students who tend to skip notes in dictation may need to count the number of notes being
dictated, even before they start to write them out. They could place a dot on the top of
the staff for each note they hear. The dot technique could be combined eventually with
drawing the contour of the melody, which then becomes a scaffold for dealing with notes
on the staff. While many students pick up this type of skill with no instruction, students
who struggle need skills taught explicitly and they often need the skills broken down into
steps they can master on the way to being able to do the whole skill.
 Help students become aware of how the missed notes can be chunked. Students should
listen for scalar and arpeggiated patterns. Again, this can be broken down in steps: ask
students to identify when they hear those patterns. Then they can try for the first note of
the pattern and learn how to extrapolate from that first note.
Listening Comprehension
 Students who have difficulty with reading and writing music need to become strategic
users of music theory knowledge. They need to have lots of practice identifying music
patterns both visually and aurally. They need to be reminded of the importance of
looking for chord and melodic patterns. The patterns that they work with need to move
from the simple to the more complex, with lots of practice at each level. Students who
struggle may need several times the amount of practice at any given level as students who
learn more easily.
Multisensory Techniques
 One of the issues the book brings up is of memory. Poor readers use visual memory and
they don’t use multiple types of memory. Musicians use several types of memory:
muscle memory, visual memory (visualizing the music or fingering patterns), and aural
memory. Poor music readers and writers need to be taught how to activate all these types
of memory when they are working with music—they need to practice visualizing music,
remembering the sounds, and pretending to play or sing the music (kinesthetic memory).
Again, this is a matter of direct instruction.
Phonological Awareness
 Music students need to have practice in predicting what notes will sound like and then
trying out the sound to see if they are right or wrong. They don’t need to have perfect
pitch, but given a G pitch (and written note) and then a written C, they need to be able to
derive the pitch of the C from having heard the G. This needs to be directly taught to
students, starting with simple intervals (e.g., a major second) and moving to other
intervals. Students need to have quick access to something that will confirm their
predictions, such as a keyboard.
 By the way, you can buy really cheap keyboards these days…
Your Turn
 How might you incorporate some of these ideas in a diverse classroom (some advanced
students, some average students, and some students who need significant help)?