Old Problems, New Perspective, Part 2

 And, four months later....

I didn't really mean to wait so long to finish this thread.  I'm not exactly sure what got in the way.  But four months later I can give some updated perspective on reading issues and the crippling effect on one's ego and sense of equality among music colleagues when a multi-talented pianist (yes, specifically those ivory ticklers) can't speed-read.

I love jazz, and have several of Dave Brubeck's CDs.  He passed away recently, and I decided to Google his history and music career.  He was a MAJOR contributor to jazz style, his reputation, talent, and influence spanning over multiple generations.  So I was dumbstruck when I read (admittedly on Wikipedia) that Stanton University almost didn't allow him to graduate at the end of his senior year in their music program because he could not pass a speed-reading test.  Here is a musician with incredible technical skills, compositional skills, as well as arrangement skills.  He literally had it all.  Except the speed-reading part.  And the powers-that-be almost denied him his right to graduate.  They finally agreed to award him his degree, with the following condition:  he could never teach piano.

How many talented students have fallen through the cracks, been told they cannot be musicians, to go into another field that will "pay the bills", because of sight-reading issues?  It's the equivalent of telling a blind person they cannot read because they can't visually see the words.  Or telling a paraplegic they can't be an athlete because they can't physically run.  Yes, dyslexia is a handicap.  It does NOT mean that person cannot be a brilliant musician.

Think of the loss to the jazz community if Dave Brubeck had listened to his professors and quit music because he couldn't pass a speed-reading test.

Every time I attend a presentation, sight-reading is mentioned as a necessary tool to build and cultivate among piano students.  Never is there any mention about students (and we're talking close to 20%) who have issues of some kind with reading and playing at the same time.   The unspoken rule is that only those who sight-read well are worth cultivating.  Those "problem" students who have persistent reading issues just won't make it in the music field.

Those "problem" students often have greater musical sensitivity, insight, and teaching ability because of their own reading struggles than those to whom reading comes easily.  The keyboard world needs to let go of old stereotypes and assumptions and realize that "speed-reading ability does not the talented musician make".