Sto Cazzo

Good tip. Perhaps I'll give it another shot with this in mind.

Vulgano Brother

I double checked, 'cuz I'm old and gullible (check out my mouthpiece drawer!) and found this: FAQ about visual dyslexia glasses.

Who knows, it might help!

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Tootler

Good day All;

This was a very interesting post, for me, for a variety of reason.

My son-in-law is dyslexic; my mother is a special ed teacher with 30 years experience ( as well as a musician). And I'd always considered myself a poor music reader. Coincidentally I'd asked my son-in-law a while ago about his problem with regards to music. He's not a musician but could easily identify and reproduce the shapes of a note and their position on a staff, whereas he can't keep letters straight. My mother's point of view is that problems reading in a literary sense should not affect one's ability to "read" music.

I've overcome my problems of reading music by thinking of it as a mathematical issue instead of a reading issue. The logic behind the sequence and structure of music was more easily understood from a counting point of view...how many notes fit in a bar and so on.

This is definately a simplification of a problem that has many diverse forms and I suppose your manner of dealing with it really depends on your particular variation. But thinking of it as counting and not reading made a difference for me.

The irony of it all...I'm now considered a good sight reader (not my opinion) LOL

Markie

Hi Sto,
Try this:
Sight read a couple of songs and finger it with the left hand. Then, during the same sitting, sight read a couple of different songs but use the right hand. I'll bet you'll experience a noticable improvement.
Use this little trick as a little way to "kick start" your brain when you play and it should help significantly. Good Luck

Sto Cazzo

Vulgano Brother - it looks as though someone has made up something called 'visual dyslexia' in order to sell some glasses. 'Dyslexia' has nothing to do with eye sight.

alexbegins24

The problem of dyslexia reminds me of something interesting I read a while back. I read an interview with Richard Ford the novelist in which he stated he had dyslexia and thus throughout his life had to take things slow when it came to reading and writing. This is coming from a critically acclaimed author.
I am also mainly a drummer who has taught himself to play by ear with hardly any lessons. As for the trumpet which I picked up at age 24 (I am now 26), I began with Essential Elements and it began from as basic a place as you could start. I worked my way through that book note by note and eventually onto more challenging materials. I can read somewhat proficiently for treble clef. I can honestly say that reading and understanding music in this fashion was something I had a lot of apprehension about. So all I can really say is, realize that it is a foreign language and takes time to learn. The youngest may pick up language the fastest but even old dogs can learn new tricks. By the way you are not old at 29. Hope this helps.

chetlives

Reading music is easy, transposition is hard. But if you have a good ear the sky is the limit.

Sto Cazzo

So i'll give it another bash, this time i'll come to it with the attitude that dyslexia has absolutely no effect on my ability to learn music, and work through slowly. Essential Elements is winding its way to me as we speak. Inspiring post alexbegins24. Nice to know there are other drummers turned trumpeters.

'By the way you are not old at 29'

I didn't say I felt old!! I'm putting off that feeling for next year.