"Testing the Waters"

One of the classic symptoms of a poor reader is what I call "testing the waters", softly trying a key to see if it sounds right.  These students are relying on their ears rather than their eyeballs to get through a piece, and the more advanced the literature gets, the faster this kind of "reading" breaks down.  As a teacher you won't know whether your student is learning pieces this way unless you work through a new piece with them during their lesson time.  Be prepared for a really bad day so far as your opinion of your teaching is concerned, when you realize that a student whom you thought was progressing well actually is playing by ear more than playing by eye.  These students have the music memorized by feel and by ear, even if they seem to be reading the score, and when you slow them down, start someplace other than the beginning, or ask them to pick up at a break-down point rather than starting the whole thing again, all of these will expose the poor reader and leave you wondering why in the world you didn't pick up on the problem sooner.  As a teacher, you cannot see what they are seeing (or more accurately, what they are seeing but not comprehending), but you can watch for symptoms: hands in the air, abnormally long pause before they realize what the note is, inability to read both clefs simultaneously and place their hands.  It's vital to help them in their lesson to work through the mind-block.  Whether they are dyslexic or just unable to "see" the music rapidly, the mind-block is time-consuming, so rather than wait for their brain to decipher what their eyeballs are seeing, they will "test" notes and let their ear tell them because its a faster way to get through the piece.

And it's a horrible habit that, once ingrained, is equally horrible to break.

If you have a student who is demonstrating reading issues, work with them in the lesson.  Have them put their hands in their lap and verbally name the notes before finding them on the keyboard.  Notice, too, whether they have issues with register accuracy. Instruct them to read bass, then treble (or vice versa),  top of a chord, then downward, or bottom of a chord then upward.  Ask them what they see first on the page.  Their mind-block is because their brain, for whatever reason, is not instantly decoding the symbols on the page. Instruct them to "freeze" their hands (stay on the notes) until they know exactly where they are going, then move one hand at a time.

As a teacher, you must understand that the decoding might not get any faster with these students.  You may be able to help them unblock and read slowly, but the key word here is SLOWLY.  Your goal is to get them to use their brains, not their ears.  Okay, yes, they'll use their ears and muscle memory, but your goal is to get them to be patient and get their brains to working, too.

Please don't send them home and tell them to "work on it".  These students will revert to "testing the waters" and rely on their ear.  Devote lesson time to keep these students on track with making their eyeballs and brains do the work.

And be prepared to accept progress not in leaps but in small, seemingly insignificant little details. Like the student who, in the lesson with you, finally whispers to himself "bass clef" (finds left hand notes), then "treble clef" (finds right hand notes).