Dyslexia and Sheet Music

[IamGroot]

Does dyslexia affect sheet music reading ability?

 

[JRA]

depends. (i have known a couple of dyslexics who were excellent music sight readers, but who could not read a paragraph of words without stumbling/mistakes.) there are many different forms of dyslexia.

 

[IamGroot]

I wanted to recommend a great musician for work that requires light reading, but he doesnt read at all. I would normally encourage him to learn music read but i know he is severe dyslexic.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I'd agree that it probably varies. Personally, I don't seem to have any trouble parsing music if it's not hen-scratched in light pencil (xeroxing that 12 times with a coffee stain every couple of generations just adds to the agony.) Nor for that matter writing music (which I often resort to upon meeting the parts mentioned above) - most of my presumed dyslexia comes in typing rather than reading, but music notation is a different way of doing both (unless you try and read the whacky abcNotation some of the trad tunes site offer up), i.e. this stuff:

T: Carolan's Welcome
R: waltz
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Amin
cB |: A2 cd e2 | A2 cd e2 | dedcBA | B2 G2 E2 |
c3 B A2 | d3 c B2 | ce E2 G2 | A4 cB |
A2 cd e2 | A2 cd e2 | dedcBA | B2 G2 E2 |
g3 f e2 | a3 g ed | cedcBc | [1 A4 cB :| [2 A4 A2 |
|: e2 ab c'2 | e2 ab c'2 | c'bagab | c'2 e2 e2 |
f2 afed | e2 gedc | d2 e2 g2 | a6 |
ageg a2 | gede g2 | edcdec | d2 B2 G2 |
c3 B A2 | d3 c B2 | ce E2 G2 | [1 A4 A2 :| [2 A6 |]

 

[IamGroot]

I'd agree that it probably varies. Personally, I don't seem to have any trouble parsing music if it's not hen-scratched in light pencil (xeroxing that 12 times with a coffee stain every couple of generations just adds to the agony.) Nor for that matter writing music (which I often resort to upon meeting the parts mentioned above) - most of my presumed dyslexia comes in typing rather than reading, but music notation is a different way of doing both (unless you try and read the whacky abcNotation some of the trad tunes site offer up), i.e. this stuff:

You lost me at cB. A2 = A above the open A string? Etc

 

[loopee]

I tried learning to read music multiple times.......suffice it to say that "I play by hear"

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

I think, for me, reading music causes dyslexia.
But, seriously ...
I work with kids with various learning/reading disabilities, and I would guess that dyslexia, being a visual/spatial processing disorder, would have an effect on reading anything that requires a linear path of eye tracking, regardless of whether it was scanning letters or anything else. I'm not an expert, just offering what knowledge I do have on the subject.

Edit: Okay, this thread got me interested, and I learned that there is a difference between dyslexia and visual processing disorder -- the difference being that dyslexia specifically affects the processing of language. So, music, not being a language used to communicate a thought or idea, may not be affected in the same way as reading words.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

You lost me at cB. A2 = A above the open A string? Etc

I don't claim to read it; AFAIK it's treble clef biased and the upper/lower case break is the C in the middle of that staff (not middle C below that staff) though I suppose you could transpose it to wherever. The numbers are associated with the "L" parameter - so A2 is a quarter note A below the midline in this, since L is an 8th note (anything without a number is an eighth.)

It's an artifact of early internet kludging to pass tunes around when graphic was difficult and has now largely been replaced by MusicXML, but there's a ton of trad transcriptions in it out there. If it's done right it can be mechanically (i.e. computer) translated to more normal notation now. But some of your old trad folks learned to parse it as written...

 

[MTMB]

I used to read music before I could read. As a dyslectic person I still suck at reading both music and text.....