Dyslexia and band

Yes! My son never did learn to read the music but…he could play anything the other kids could. He made the highest band at a large highschool playing the sax. He was able to play by “ear”. No one, not even the instructor new he wasn’t reading the music for 3 years. Go ahead give it a try.

Absoutely, go for it!

My son’s band director wanted him to play the oboe (which looks like it has many complicated finger placements). We decided on the snare drum instead for its simplicity and working by rhythm. He seems to do just as well as everyone else for his age group.

They start taking band in fourth grade, so this was his first year and he loves it.

I am concerned about when the music gets more complicated, since with the drums you have to follow along and you usually don’t play throughout the entire song, but you need to know where you come in. I think if he really likes it though, he will find a compensation stategy to do it!

Best of luck and enjoy his progress and successes!

One of our very frequent posters here, Sue (wonderfully helpful) has a website that has an article I read and printed out for myself called “Music and Dyslexia” written by Violet Brand and it goes some of the roadblocks your daughter might come across. Lots of good info.

www.resourceroom.net/Sharestrats/DAmusic.asp
(that is the specific address) if it doesnt connect that way just go to the resourceroom.net and search for the title.

Hope this is helpful

For a while my 12-yr-old dyslexic son thought about
playing guitar in our school’s jazz band.
Our strategy, at the time, was to arrange for private
lessons to help him learn his music.
Unfortunately last year’s guitarist decided to come
back and the position wasn’t open anymore.

Anne

Just wanted to thank all who responded. We will give band a shot. She wants to play on the basketball team so we will see if she is able to keep the grades up, play ball and learn to play the flute. Thanks again. Barb

My 14 year old dyslexic son plays trumpet in the band. He can read music but slowly. He plays much better when he gets to hear a piece a few times first. This summer he started with the marching band and I was concerned about him playing and marching at the same time. This has not seemed to cause a problem. Since he has started playing we have noticed an increase in self-esteem, reading ability, math and science. He says he is able to pay attention better now and feels like he is “in this world” more often since playing. What he means by this is he finds himself daydreaming less. We have been fortunate to have very supportive band directors and I think this is the key. Good luck to you and your daughter.

As a flutist, this discussion fascinates me. My daughter started playing flute this year and she hated to practice — of course there may be some other issues here since I’m a flutist. She only wants to play by ear. In 4th grade she seemed to enjoy playing recorder, but she was playing everything by ear. She has begun trying to pick out one of the few songs she knows from recorder on piano, now.

I actually think she is mostly playing flute because she thinks I want her to do it. I wanted her to do it mainly because she struggles with school and I was hoping she might be more successful with music.

I’m not sure if she’s dyslexic. Testing from two years ago suggested that she is a dyslexic speller and that her reading showed the patterns of a “remediated dyslexic.” She certainly has had a lot of remediation and does pretty well considering the school uses a whole language approach.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading the feedback. Perhaps my daughter’s reading difficulties have also effected her desire to learn to read music. If it is as hard for her as learning to read was I can understand it.

Good luck to all of you!

Margo

I say go for it. I’m not dyslexic but spent 7 years in the band, I never did learn to play well, but I didn’t care, I was having fun! Looking back, I realize that being in the band was the most fun I had in high school. I’ve since forgotten everything I ever learned about reading music, but I’ve never forgotten the fun I had. So if she wants to do it and enjoys it, let her do it, rather she learns to read music or not. Me and my friend still joke about us being the last two seats in the trumpet section,but we didn’t care, we had good seats on the band bus to games and we had fun.

My dyslexic son has had a totally positive experience with band. He started out in the fourth grade on trumpet and progressed at a very respectable pace. This year, in the sixth grade, he changed to baritone and was able to move to the bass clef notation with no problem. He has more trouble with the timing than anything, and that may or may not be related to his dyslexia. Also, I think the music helps his reading and writing. Right away I noticed that he read more fluently after he had practiced. Good luck!

Dyslexia made reading music immpossible for me. I was not given a chance to participate in band. The band teacher was a real puke. Most music teachers are pretty nice and work very very hard.

I now play proffesionally and am self taught. I’m quite sought after by bands in my area for my talent, ability and work ethic. I busted my hump learning my craft and am still learning.

I hope I live to see the day when they have remedial music for LD kids. Band is lots of fun.

Your 12 year old should give it a try. There are ways to play without reading music. A lot of great musicians today either can’t or don’t read music.

Music theory will be helpful.

I am not dyslexic but I had a hard time learning to “sight read” the music, for instance during band contest when we had to play something cold.
My brother was also in band, since I could play by ear, he would play the part for me so I could hear the rythm and could then play the part. We never could find a flute/trumpet duet, it would have been great if we could have gone to contest playing together.

I agree that band was lots of fun, if your child wants to play then it would be worth taking the chance. Getting an instrument teacher outside of school is important even without an ld, I started playing in 10th grade so needed the extra help.

I am also a very shy person, band helped get me partially out of my shell because we all really got along for the most part. Loved the band trips!!

Just one more thing, my brother is a smart guy but didn’t enjoy school (except the social parts), I think if it weren’t for band he wouldn’t have had the motivation to finish high school. He subsequently went into the service and played for a year with the air force’s Tops in Blue show band. He was with them when they played in the Superbowl halftime show. Around ‘84 I think.

There’s a lot of good to be said about band, I would encourage it.

na

I think if your daughter is interested in trying band, she should not be discouraged. I think it’s worth trying and there’s always a chance it may even prove to be a strength or talent. Regardless, she may have fun, meet some nice friends, or just learn that she really doesn’t like music at all! ;-)

My son (who just turned 8) has not been diagnosed with it, but he appears be dyslexic. Interestingly, I had him take piano when he was younger and he had a remarkably easy time learning how to read music. In fact, his music teacher was very excited to have him as a student.

So….I think our kids should always be encouraged to try anything they might be interested in! One more experience… I once knew a woman whose son had mild CP. Her son had a difficult time holding his head steady. She enrolled him in tennis classes when he was around 3 or 4 years old. I remember driving up to her house one day and seeing him hitting the tennis ball aganist the garage door. He must of been about 5 or 6 at the time and I was completely blown away by the fact that this little kid with CP could hit a tennis ball, and play a game of tennis, a hundred times better than my daughter (who was the same age) and had no handicaps whatsoever! That was really inspiring!!!