Hello, Can anyone enlighten me.

I am a music teacher myself but rather bemused by my daughter who has been learning Violin for 3 years and now at Grade 5 at age 9. Her sight -reading is not good but not really bad either but I would have expected it to be better after three years of playing. The problem seems to be that she doesn't always totally understand the relationships between the length of the notes - although we have gone over these many times and she knows what lengths they are.
I'm more bemused by the fact that she mis reads A and C on the treble clef stave and B and D also which I thought after such time she would have no problem reading by now. Notes either end of the stave and the extremities don't seem to be much of a problem.
I've mentioned this to a few people recently and they've mentioned Dyslexia! - but she has never shown any signs of Dyslexia elsewhere in her learning ( her reading age at school was a year ahead after only 6 months of reading).
It may/may not be useful to know that Maths is her weakest subject at school but even then she's in the top group in her year.
Can anyone help with ideas or understanding if you've taught such a child and how you've helped tham out.

Many thanks
Kjpt99

Hello!

How is her eye-sight? Mine has always been terrible and without my glasses, the notes on the spaces like A and C, or B/D on the lines in the treble, look very similar!

She must do a lot of practise to be a such a good standard by 9, so it might be worth a trip to the optician, incase she's straining her eyes.

They're quite easy to get confused, they look quite similar...

Violinists often prefer "odd number" positions - I think this is because of the way lines and odd number fingers go together. It's particularly easy to mix up when quavers and it looks like there's a line underneath that looks like another line on the stave.

I wouldn't think it anything to worry about. Does your daughter play in orchestras or ensembles? they give lots of good opportunities for sight reading.

I've been playing for 6 years now (clarinet) and I still mix C and A up from time to time!! And my soon-to-be-18 friend whose been playing for 6 years as well still hasn't learnt to count... Don't worry!

Your daughter seems to have learnt very fast, to have reached grade 5 after only 3 years at 9. I find with my piano pupils, if they go a long way very fast when they're still very young, the reading skills don't always keep up, especially from grade 4 onwards. It's an awful lot to expect of a young child, really. I generally find the reading skills do catch up again a bit later - they just need a bit more time to develop.

I remember as a child, not really understanding about note values - I knew them in theory, but not in practice. It did eventually click, of course, but it's not always obvious to teachers & parents that a child doesn't really understand it in practice.

I agree. Children who progress quickly early on are probably reading relatively fewer pieces per grade. Furthermore, they are probably more willing to take time in reading and working out everything slowly and patiently. When it comes to sight reading a brand new piece with very little preparation, they encounter difficulties.

I think my son's music-reading generally (including sightreading) started to pick up speed from about your daughter's age - never been sure whether taking Grade 5 provided the necessary kick in the obtuse angle, or whether it was just the right age/stage!

He found (finds) note values probably the hardest thing in sightreading. Others seem to find it hard too, and I wonder if it's just something that takes a while to master on violin, where the speed of bowing/length of bow used isn't always directly related to the length of the note.

I can't play violin, but I think that easy, little, and often has been more useful than plowing through really demanding sightreading.

You can buy sight-reading collections, and Christmas carols, movie music and game music are all good stuff too.

There are lots of 3-line tunes in Ireland's Best Slow Airs collection from Walton's (really for whistle or flute, but lots of short, simple, and lyrical pieces), easy to fit in at the end of a practice session.