8va's, Chords, and Too Many Notes

Any sight-reader knows that reading intervallically is the only way to go.  There are method books that teach by letter name, method books that teach by interval, and method books that teach by hand position.  Serious sight-readers swear by intervallic teaching methods, and they don't understand why the rest of us hang onto methods as archaic as letter name and hand position.  The problem is that some of us don't "get" the intervallic method.  We need to start by letter name. It's the way our brains connect written symbols with the keyboard.  I've always taught by letter name, and most students make the leap to intervallic reading as they get into middle to late-beginner literature.

So, how do you get students who are hanging onto the letter name method to make the leap to intervallic reading? 

Give them a four-part hymn, an arrangement of a pop song that they love, a classical song that is near and dear to their heart with the understanding that they will not play all of the notes.  The goal here is that they can't read by letter name simply because there are too many notes to read at once.  So help them leave notes out, cut chords down to a third, slash four-note chords to octaves only.  For students with reading issues, the increase in number of notes is a train-wreck waiting to happen.  So your goal is not to get them to read all of the notes.  Your goal is to get them to realize that they can slowly read the skeleton of the notes.

I have a dyslexic student who could not understand the 8va sign.  The notes were in the middle of the treble clef, and that is the register her hand unerringly played despite the number of times I explained how to take the line up an octave.  In the end, I marked through all the notes of the chord except the highest note, then drew an arrow upwards to indicate the she should play that note and the upper octave.  She understood then, because the register of the note was the same as what the 8va sign indicated, but now the written note matched the octave she needed to play.

Shifting to intervallic reading may seem like a no-brainer, just like understanding the 8va sign.  But nothing is a "no-brainer" to a student with dyslexia, and it is up to you as a the teacher to be willing to think outside the box.