I teach a boy age 13 who is dyspraxic. He scraped passes at Grade 1 Classical, and Grade 2 Jazz, and is now working towards Grade 3 Jazz. The trouble is he learns almost all by ear, (he has a very good one,) and the G3 pieces are just a bit too complex to learn by rote, also he finds co-ordinating both hands a real challenge, especially when RH is improvising. He's been working on just 2 pieces for the last 6 weeks and they're not really improving. Maybe G3 is a bit beyond him at present - it seems a big jump up from G2 in the jazz syllabus. Any suggestions?

I'm not a teacher, but I'd say if the boy is enjoying what he's learning and practising then there's no harm in letting him keep working for the grade 3....

Or maybe if he's not too attacted to the idea of doing the grade 3 right now, then maybe take a bit of time out of exam practise to work on the things that he's not so confident on - like working on some simpler songs to help him become more confident in co-ordinating both hands.

As you say he learns mostly by ear, perhaps you could try out improvising around a certain theme (which may be written down) that he is having particular trouble with. If he hears you playing it right, and can see the notes at the same time, perhaps he might begin to develop a link between what he hears and what he can see written, and then try it out for himself.

But as I say, I'm not a teacher nor do I know about dyspraxia and so I may just be talking a load of rubbish!!

Good luck

Laura

My suggestion is a simple one. If he has been working on just two pieces for the past six weeks with little to show for it then give him something else to play instead! He could be working at some simpler pieces that he could learn more easily and quickly, working at his sight reading and theory, improvising, revising past pieces, playing simple duets and bringing some fresh material into his lessons and practice rather than just two exam pieces. Is there any need for him to take exams if he is only just managing to scrape passes? It seems to me that he is just being lined up for a failure sooner if not later. Why not just let him learn for the fun of it? Christmas is just around the corner. Perhaps he would enjoy sight reading some easy carols or playing some of the lighter Christmas songs?

I would agree with Petrat and steer him away from exams for the foreseeable future. Have fun with duets, Christmas stuff and generally improving his confidence and musicianship before thinking about another exam.

I don't know if this is any help at all but my daughter used a book by James Rae called Jazz Zone. You may already be aware of it. It helped her with improvising skills.

I have a Keyboard pupil who is Dyspraxic, I have the same problem, in that everyone else is zooming ahead and he is left behind, it really makes him feel terrible. I am trying to conquer this by doing two things, firstly I'm asking him to go home and make up a jazz improvisation at home on a tune he likes (at the moment it's This Old Man), and learn the chords by sound and feel on the Keyboard rather than reading the notes. Secondly, because his ear is really good, he likes to learn things by ear first then read the notes later, so I'm adapting to this. He is in a class situation though and not individual lessons, so progress I suspect is a lot slower for my pupil. But there is always a way, you just have to find it!


Good Luck!