So one of my students (who I have mentioned before having note reading issues) is definitely dyslexic. She's getting lots of extra help at school and I'd noticed that she was starting to become unhappy in our piano lessons because I keep going on about note names and reading.

She tries her best but quite often it's guesswork.

So I thought I'd take the pressure off. Whilst waiting for my Oglethorpe book to arrive I thought I'd give her a holiday on note reading and try doing more work by ear.

So any tips? We're halfway through First Piano Adventures Book C.

Do I ignore the score and just teach by rote?
Do I do the same as usual but answer my own questions about note names, like a commentary rather than questioning her?
Do I play bits of the piece and then encourage her to figure the notes out herself aurally?

Hope you can help!!

I do quite a lot of playing by ear so that young pupils can learn to play things without learning it from the tutor book. I use a number of traditional songs which hopefully they will know although sometimes they don't - it depends a bit on what they might have done at school.

Examples: London's Burning (two hands with the LH thumb playing the first G and the RH playing the rest which fits in 5 finger position on CDEFG). I will tell them the first bit GG-CC because it's usually quite tricky for them to get that first interval. If they can work out the rest fine, if not I sing a phrase and see if they get it, if not, I give them more hints. This is also easily transposed to G as it's still on white notes.

Row, row, row your boat - starting on middle C with the LH crossing over to play the top C in the second line. Otherwise the melody fits in 5 finger position. This is in compound time 6/8 or 3/4 but I don't focus on that too much - it's more about learning how it sounds and getting the melody.

Frere Jacques or London Bridge is falling down - these has A in it so just outside 5 finger position but usually ones they know; Pease Pudding Hot - on CDEF so quite easy to do but probably less familiar; Yankee Doodle - again outside 5 finger position but if they've learned a C major scale up/down then they will be used to putting a 3rd finger over the thumb so not too tricky - otherwise they could learn it across two hands. I'm sure I've got some others which have been less frequently used - Alouette and Sur le pont d'Avignon spring to mind because I had a pupil who knew them a while ago.

The other song from my Kodaly training which I've used a lot with piano pupils is a song called "Once a man fell in a well" which I've introduced as a silly song - even with 9-10 year olds and they love it! It's based on a 5 finger hand position on CDEFG and it's very good for adding a simple left hand with C and G and also easily transposed. Let me know if you want details.

Thanks Louise, I hadn't thought of doing songs by ear that she already knows. I was thinking how to teach the pieces from her book! I will definitely try out those suggestions. In fact I could sing some of Cyrilla's Jolly Music songs with her and then get her to try and play those. They are just on 2 or 3 notes so should be good. Plus she has a lot of trouble discerning skips from steps.

I am very interested in One man fell in a well. I can see that going down very well indeed! Could you please give me the details.

I've had a couple of students who were or weren't dyslexic but definitely were weak at school and very weak note-readers.

Luckily, though, both had good ears for music.

As soon as we'd got onto note-reading and I'd seen the problem, I'd do about half the lesson as 'ear' work (I always do some 'ear' work for the others anyway).

The other half I kept as classic note-based method book learning (i.e. not an either/or lesson but both in the same lesson).

The 'ear' work would often be learning by rote but because they had a good natural ear for music it was quickly done i.e. we wouldn't be going over the same 2 bars countless times. And the more you work the memory, the better it becomes.
I often used to intersperse it with the note music i.e. teach them 4 bars, play it a couple of times, do 5 mins on the method book, see if they'd remembered the 4 bars, do a bit of aural, 4 bars, something else, the 4 bars etc. Each time only took 10 seconds but it kept it interesting and helped the 4 bars to stick.
The good thing about this (and why I also do it with other kids) is that you can cover a lot of things that theory-wise you're not ready for yet i.e. if kids are playing by copying then they can play quavers, dotted notes, move around the piano more, whatever - it's all good, musical stuff.

PS just crossed with the other posts - I would stick to traditional note-reading for the method book. That way, it's clear that there are notes that should be read for that music.
For other tunes, not written down, it's another method.
Tunes they know is a good idea but I've had a lot of success with harder ones either from other books or made up or half way between i.e. my 6 year-old played a great 'snake dance' sort of Egyptian piece which we'd sort of invented together, all sorts of tricky stuff (for a 6 year-old) going on but it sounded great. No way he could have 'read' it. And he liked it far better than Frere Jacques.
It doesn't matter if they don;t know the notes - the whole point is that it's not tied down by their note-reading level.

Great stuff, thanks dolce

I'm quite looking forward to this now!

I just looked in my Jolly Music books but it's not there; It's in the NyCos middle years book.
I'm sure you could use lots of Jolly Music songs to teach and play by ear.

Once a man fell in a well
splish splash splosh he soun-ded
if he had not fal-len in
he would not have drown-ded

First three lines - CDEFG
Last line - GFEDC

Time sig is 4/4;
Lines 1 & 3: rhythm is 4 quavers followed by two quavers-crotchet
Lines 2 & 4: rhythm is 4 quavers followed by two crotchets
Rhythm fits the syllables of the words.

LH is minims C to G for first three lines and G to C for the last line.

I use Christmas carols for ear work, as they are quite easy to remember and have small intervals on the whole. Then I get pupils to add chords to the melody, trying out triads I - VII in turn until they have found the best ones for each bit.

Thanks - I should add that she's 6

I use mainly highly patterned pieces to teach by rote. ( Piano Adventures is a good source for these especially the Performance books). Once they have started to get the piece going I ask them " now see if you can play it and follow it on the music score". It's less intimidating because they already know "how it goes". I have only ever taught one pupil who I would consider truly dyslexic ( unable to recognise middle C after many attempts ) All the others have been capable of learning to read music but very reluctant to try as they assume they will fail before they start, therefore panic and get totally confused, but progress is possible if you take it very very gently.

Hi - Do you get Piano Professional? There was a little cut down version of a presentation Lucinda Mackworth Young gave at Chappells of Bond St on teaching improvising and playing by ear in the last issue which might spark some ideas. And if you can get there she is repeating the session on June 26th.

Just one word of warning - my dyslexic daughter has trouble processing information orally. In musical terms this means she finds it very hard to play back a rhythm, particularly what I call "mirror image" ones (two quavers crotchet, followed by crotchet two quavers, for example). It doesn't help putting words to the music because she gets syllables muddled up. Although as all dyslexics are different, your pupil may be fine.

One characteristic of many dyslexic children is that they take an awful long time to learn something but when they have learnt it, they never forget. I therefore would carry on with note reading games etc. just reassure her that it doesn't matter if she gets everything wrong.

I taught my daughter to read music using a Suzuki method for learning to read music. This was on the cello and I don't know if it exists for piano but it separates pitch and rhythm; all the pitch exercises are in crotchets and all the rhythm exercises are on one note. It is also very slow (introducing just one new note or rhythmic element per page).