LEARNING TO LEARN
Case study : a piano teacher
Challenge : Reading the notes and following the music can be an issue , following a steady beat and coordination between hands too . Some pupils used coloured paper , and I always make sure they have a clear edition , not too small .
Strategy : I do a lot of work away from the keys , note reading , writing the notes of the pieces , note singing , basing everything on intervals . For coordination , I do a lot of clapping exercises . We practise by very small sections so that the students are always in control . For the rhythm , I use a ball to develop a downwards movement , also counting missing numbers to internalise the counting . I use a lot of praise and make sure students never feel pressurised .
Case study : a woodwind teacher
Challenge : My student had difficultly correlating the fingering of a note with what was on the music : she knew the fingering for a note , and could recognise a pitch on the music , but the two just wouldn ’ t correlate . Another challenge was getting her to remember theoretical information , even just names of rhythmic lengths and how they relate , and concentrating was also a really big challenge for a full length lesson .
Strategy : I would colour coordinate similar pitches , so the visual association with a particular pitch had a direct relation to a combination of fingering and pitch . I had to be inventive in the ways I would encourage her to remember things – pictures , diagrams and amusing word games ! However , it is well known that musicians have high levels of executive function which in turn has an effect on helping the memory so maybe the music helped the memory skills and vice versa . To help compartmentalise the lesson , I would start by summarising what the lesson content would be ; during the lesson I would frequently recap key points , repeating important information and finish by summarising what we had done . I am sure this helped her think about how she could plan her practice sessions at home .
Case study : a brass teacher
Challenge : A particular student of mine just could not remember the fingering for scales . However , he had a very good ear and loved improvising . His difficulty in organisation initially had an impact on progress as he forgot music and found it difficult to practise .
Strategy : When reading the scales , I colour co-ordinated all the fingerings that were similar , for example all the first valve notes were green , first and second valve notes were yellow and so on . This helped enormously , but I concluded that it was more of a memory problem than a fine motor skill / coordination issue . He loved improvisation , so we used the scales as a basis for this and the patterns became more musical and natural : making a reverse connection I . e . knowing what he wanted to sound , and then playing it . In order to help his organisation , we assembled one folder with all of his music in an orderly fashion : pieces , scales and studies so everything was together . Weekly practice sheets also helped him focus on what to do between lessons , with short , simple instructions .
Two music students ’ perspectives and reflections
“ I learnt to read music from an early age , about the same time as my dyslexia was diagnosed : actually , this seemed to help with my normal reading - perhaps because it was at an age when the brain is most receptive to new ideas – like learning a second language has shown to boost problem-solving , listening skills , memory , and concentration . Instrumental performance gave me more confidence to read out loud , something which my friends with dyslexia never wanted to do . I realised that , as with music , if you read something wrong or play a wrong note – it actually doesn ’ t matter . My own methods included recognising musical patterns and knowing how they should sound , rather than reading note for note . Learning intervals for theory and aural tests was always hard , but I was given helpful tips such as well-known tunes ( e . g . Somewhere over the Rainbow begins with an octave ). Because I have always had to work at things just a little harder due to my dyslexia , it has given me a diligent work ethic which has benefitted me throughout my education ”.
“ Reading for me has never been the problem – it ’ s more that I struggle with multi-tasking , and losing concentration easily . Early on , strategies I devised to self-help just became habit , and I learnt to cope with the challenges : writing lists and being very disciplined in my organisation . I find it difficult to hold multiple pieces of information at once and find this quite stressful , so just drilling information over and over has just become habit and therefore repeating the information or the process has become second nature : this has helped with recalling information – and something which I learnt from regular practice . The technique became second nature , I was able to focus more on the music reading and didn ’ t have a problem with the multi-tasking involved with playing music .”
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