I have been teaching three sisters for the past two years. The eldest is quite gifted and has grade 3 in both classical and jazz.
I started the two younger sisters from scratch.
One of them has progressed and is now studying jazz grade 1.
The other one seems to have difficulty in reading. If I use flash cards or point at a notes on the score, she gets 9 out of 10 correct. If I ask her to play a G on the keyboard she goes straight to it.

So all the knowledge is there, until she plays with two hands. Then it seems as if she never learned to read music. Her timing deteriorates and she plays wrong notes all over the place.
All other students progress, but she hasn't (Her mum and older sister say she practises a lot).

I thought she might have a type of dyslexia and tried a few short tests. She had no problems there. When I asked her to read a passage of words, she was fantastic.
I put a new piece in front of her on yellow paper (after a suggestion from someone who has worked with dyslexia)...she sounded like a beginner.

I have run out of ideas.

Any thoughts?

Sorry, i'm not a teacher. But if it only happens when she is playing with two hands can't it be more of a coordination problem than a reading problem? I think that if she has a hard time controlling her hands it will be very hard for her to concentrate on notation also. Good luck!

Can she manage 2 hands where only one is actually moving at a time?
Does she have some good strategies for dealing with hands together?

Yes. Some people find the hands together part a nightmare.

My sister did, after she took up piano shortly after me. After a while the teacher suggested trying an instrument where she would only have to read one line of music.

I don't think there neccessarily has to be a "problem" as such. Just that some people aren't as suited to a particular instrument as others? Obviously that's not to say give up, but if it's still a major problem after a while, and you've used your best efforts, it might be something to think about.

chris

she sounds like me. I'm not dyslexic except when it comes to sightreading two hands....and then it's
all a jumble. Ghastly to listen to and *very* frustrating. Worked through the first 4 paul harris and right@sight
books several times each and now am on the second Kember book. Worked through paul harris improve
your scales books, sightreading them, to be able to recognise arpeggios etc, So, no lack of effort, but still
all very painful, given I play Bach preludes, Tango in D, first movements of easiest mozart and beethoven
sonatas etc by memory having worked them out from the score, so reading is OK but not sightreading.

What unlocked my problem was the children's books Playing by Colour. This somehow "set my eyes":
I could tell at a glance that the G there was the same G as in the next bar, the lines stopped jumbling,
the notes stood still....if I did one of those then the sightreading exercise I did immediately after it
was hugely improved. Quite amazing. The effect seems to have lasted as I no longer need to do a
coloured one any more.

I assume there is a logical (as in cognitive/neurological) explanation, would love to know what it was.

loops

I do!

Give me either hand to read at one time, I'm fine - can generally even manage chords, often up to speed, and with few if any mistakes.

Set me sight-reading hand together, you'd wonder if I'd ever seen a piano before...

Tell me more about Playing By Colour please

What unlocked my problem was the children's books Playing by Colour. This somehow "set my eyes":
I could tell at a glance that the G there was the same G as in the next bar, the lines stopped jumbling,
the notes stood still....if I did one of those then the sightreading exercise I did immediately after it
was hugely improved. Quite amazing. The effect seems to have lasted as I no longer need to do a
coloured one any more.




Tell me more about Playing by colour please

well it's playing with colour as I just found out by doing a search,

There is a recent thread on this in the Teacher's forum with some comments, descriptions, links etc
The thread is here

and the homepage is playing with colour

enjoy!!

My son struggles with reading music... but he is not dyslexic. In fact, he found reading normal words easy.... and is a very able reader. However, he is dyspraxic.... and finds maths difficult. Many dyslexics find maths difficult and i think that my son is obviously using his maths side of his brain not his reading side.

He gets the same allowances as a dyslexic in AB exams for sight reading etc.