Student can't read

[urbanspice]

Hi, sorry but I'm back again. I have an eleven student who's been taking lessons for a few years (with another teacher) but he is a terrible reader. I have been giving him note quizzes and timing him and also making him sight read. I've also given him a tip on memorizing and locating the C's in each staff and using that as a guide for finding other notes. I was wondering if anyone else had any other tips or ideas. We've been at it for a month but he hasn't gotten any better and he desperately wants to Fur Elise, which is in his ability except for the fact that he can barely read. Anything, would be greatly appreciated. Also, tips or ways to see if maybe he has a learning disability would also be helpful. Thanks.

[glBelgedin]

Have you tried any "sentence" mnemonics? Like "Every Good Boy Does Fine," for EGBDF. Stuff like that.

[Spatula]

All Cows Eat Grass

ACEG for bass cleff spaces

[ChristmasCarol]

Try enlarging the music on a copy machine.  That's one thing they do for special needs students.  Awww go ahead and teach him Fur Elise by wrote.  I've done that many times with great success.  Just give him a couple of measures a week.  What happens is that by the time they can play it, they will then be reading better. 

Also I encourge students to write music... just have him copy each measure over again and that will help.  Be ever so careful to have this be a few minute exercise so he doesn't get discouraged. 

I teach little kids to make whole notes on the staff any ole place and then I "play" what they wrote.  They "get it" and love it. 

And I prefer "empy garbage before dad flips".   

[faulty_damper]

Try simple pieces for kinders.  Expecially those pieces that do not have more than 8th notes.   Then show him how to play it.  Notation is bloody confusing to the eye and if he doesn't know how the rhythm goes, and you do not show him how it goes, then he'll never know how it goes.


For rhythem, do not let him figure it out by himself.  If you do, you are wasting his time and yours because he doesn't know what these things mean.  You must show him how.

Example in 2/4 time
1/4  1/4 | 1/4  1/8 1/8

You should just show him the rhythm so he will begin to know how the rhythm goes.  Repeat the first bar until he knows the rhythm.  Then give him actual pieces that use the crotchet crotchet rhythm and ask him to demonstrate or identify what the rhythm is.  Then go on the bar 2, crotchet, quaver, quaver rhythm.  Then have him demonstrate it on the piece.  These are the simplist sy rhythms music uses.


As for locating specific notes on the keyboard, when you use "note quizzes" (I have no idea what this means but am assuming it means flashcards) do you have him play the corresponding notes on the keyboard?

Use flashcards so that he will have practice physically locating the notes.  Even better, flash those cards in a manner that sounds like music, say for example on the Oh Christmas Tree theme.  So you would flash G C C C D E E E.
 
Then as he gets better, flash new cards with more than one note on them.  Even better, use a metrenome and have him play it to the beat.
Then use flashcards that include a bass and treble clef, just one note on each staff.  If should also be done in a musica manner.  Re-use the Christmas Tree theme but use the bass clef to complement the theme.


As for sentence mnemonics, I think they are a complete waste of time as it will not help them play the note any faster.  It actually complicates the matter as letters on white and black thingies mean nothing.  The only purpose of being able to identify notes by letters ( A - G) are for verbal identification so that when you say C, he knows which key to press.  Instead, when you flash those cards, after he plays it , YOU say what note it is.  But hold off on this until after he is proficient at locating those keys that correspond to the notes.

[Antnee]

Use flashcards so that he will have practice physically locating the notes.  Even better, flash those cards in a manner that sounds like music, say for example on the Oh Christmas Tree theme.  So you would flash G C C C D E E E.
 
Then as he gets better, flash new cards with more than one note on them.  Even better, use a metrenome and have him play it to the beat.
Then use flashcards that include a bass and treble clef, just one note on each staff.  If should also be done in a musica manner.  Re-use the Christmas Tree theme but use the bass clef to complement the theme.


As for sentence mnemonics, I think they are a complete waste of time as it will not help them play the note any faster.  It actually complicates the matter as letters on white and black thingies mean nothing.  The only purpose of being able to identify notes by letters ( A - G) are for verbal identification so that when you say C, he knows which key to press.  Instead, when you flash those cards, after he plays it , YOU say what note it is.  But hold off on this until after he is proficient at locating those keys that correspond to the notes.

I completely agree with Faulty. Sight reading is complex eye to brain to hand reaction. To become proficient, he must start building a relfex. When he sees that note on the page he instinctivley knows where to put his hand. Faulty's suggestions would be the best way to go.

[bernhard]

Follow the order in Howard Richmann’s book “Super Sight reading Secrets”.

Read the threads below (some of them discuss Richmann’s book).

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1871.msg14384.html#msg14384
(Reading notation – Richmann’s book – Cambridge word scramble example)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1976.msg15962.html#msg15962
(Sight reading – Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2406.msg20820.html#msg20820
(the grand staff)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2577.msg22247.html#msg22247
(Keyboard topography – how to find notes by touch)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2713.msg23282.html#msg23282
(Teaching bass clef – the grand staff)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2751.msg23710.html#msg23710
(detailed explanation of the sight-reading process)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2757.msg23890.html#msg23890
(Sight reading techniques – Good post by faulty on the folly of pedagogues)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2763.msg25148.html#msg25148
(music to develop sight reading from scratch)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3205.msg28255.html#msg28255
(how not to look at the keys –  Richmann’s reviews)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3334.msg29381.html#msg29381
(Reading both staffs as a single grand staff - Reasons for working on scales - Detailed discussion of Richmann’s book)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4461.msg41580.html#msg41580
(Looking at the keys: Good or bad? exercises to help finding notes by touch. Good contributions by Chang).

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4506.msg42967.html#msg42967
(accompanying to teach sightreading)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5090.msg48850.html#msg48850
(the score is tabs for piano)


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Daniel_piano]

The "grand staff" is a visual rapresentation of the keyboard
In fact the lower the position of the notes on the grand staff, the lower the position of the notes in the keayboard and the higher
the position of the notes on the grand staff, the higher the position of the notes in the keayboard

I've created this image to illustrate what I mean:
(you have to scroll or to save it on your computer to see the image in its whole length)



Your student will learn then how the grand staff mimics the piano keyboard and the position of every notes both on treble or bass cleff
By using this method the problem with the bass cleff and the dangerous tricks to memorize it are all useless as the student doesn't think of the score as something unrelated to the keyboard but as the specular rapresentation of the keyboard
When he realizes that he will soon find that looking at the score is just the same as
looking at a mirror reflecting the image of the keyboard

Daniel

[pianodude]

This is the way I teach my students to read.

1. Make them memorize location of each note, for example G is on the second line, etc.
2. Make them learn to recognize how many beat each note notation represents, for example a quarter note is one count, half note is two counts, etc. After they know whole note, quarter note, etc, you need to start drawing a number of notes, and ask your student to clap.
3. Memorize the position of each note on a keyboard.
4. Write simple melody and ask your student to clap, then read the notes. Lastly, ask him or her to play on a keyboard.

If they still cannot get this, your student just does not have the ability to read and most likely, he or she has learning disability. Because this method works with even hundres of my 4 year old students.