by Hawkeye Harris
(Eastern Maine)
What to do about a Dyslexic person who is also ADD?
For years I have tried to teach myself to read music but the lines and dots just jump around so much and when they don't I have a stare-down with the line/dot trying to make sense of what I'm looking at. FWIW, what little schooling I had, I was labeled retarded and kicked out. I'm now an adult and play by ear. I came to this website looking for music I could give out to friends who only play by sight. Thanks for the great resources.
Dana:
Hi, Hawkeye, To play by ear is also an important skill! Many people who only play by sight feel handicapped - and they are! ;)
If you are still interested in learning to read notes, there are a few pages on my site that MIGHT help... if you have a keyboard, you could try this page: https://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/note-naming-worksheets.html
Or in the guitar pages, this page shows how the frets accord with standard notation (note-reading as most of the musical world knows it):
https://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/piano-tablature.html
On my staff paper page, there are some BIG staffs on which to write notes... to some people, this is helpful.
I recall that a student I had years ago, very intelligent but extremely HYPER active (she liked to climb up onto a chair to sing her songs, and for some reason I allowed her to - yikes!) was similarly unable to focus on a page of words, until a transparent pink sheet was laid over the written page. I'd never heard of such a thing, but her mother said her eyes could "settle down" and she could read.
Best of luck to you, Hawkeye!