Music Backwards

Today, I’d like to share the story of a special student I will call Josie. She came to me as a piano student after having a meltdown at her voice recital. Her parents wanted to “expose her to music” but not necessarily make progress in it. Josie was a sweet 8 year old with a cute little lisp. Little did I know, she was also dyslexic.

By her second and third lessons I recognized something different was happening with the way she processed information though. By pointing to notes on the page, I came to realize that, not only was she skipping lines, she was also randomly starting at the end of measures instead of going forwards. After this, I also discovered she was also processing things I would say with the opposite meaning –for example “yes,” was understood as, “no.” Suspecting all of these difficulties were connected to dyslexia, I did some research. Amazingly, the Mayo Clinic lists symptoms of dyslexia as having difficulty memorizing, spelling, thinking and understanding, as well as speech impairment (her lisp)! Imagine trying learning note order---or anything---this way! I wondered if it was even possible. At the same time, I realized Einstein was also dyslexic, so it must be possible. Because of this, my goals for the term involved not just helping her learn to read and remember notes, but also to track notes on the page.

Some weeks were better than others. During her lessons, I helped her with tracking by having her follow my pencil to the next note of each song. Nobody would help her practice at home though---despite knowing she was dyslexic---so progress was slow and at times she got outright frustrated in her lessons.

One of the amazing things about music is that a person also ends up learning self-regulation and self- discipline as well as expression. Josie was one of those students who put all of my experience in self-regulation and self-discipline to the test. At times, I found myself silently breathing deeply to keep my cool or clenching my fist behind my back to retain a calm demeanor. After all, she tried so hard! Amazingly, I found myself teaching Josie how to calm down as well. Those times of deep breathing were so helpful for her and it was refreshing to see her progress.

At the end of the school year, her parents said she would be taking a break for the summer. In her last lesson, she was able to track notes on the page by herself and passed all her songs. She had also learned to stay calm which enabled her to express the emotion called for in her music. When she said, “Thank you Miss. Wachel,” at the end of her lesson, I told her, “Your welcome” with all my heart. Then, I went back into my studio room and let tears of joy and sadness fall knowing she had come so far but probably would not be back after summer break.