Thoughts

I spent most of today wondering whether I am a legitimate teacher and musician.  A professional colleage mentioned her efforts to learn piano (her primary instrument is cello) and said that trying to read two clefs was presenting problems, but that with practice she would be able to eventually learn how to read piano and orchestra scores.  I voiced admiration and mentioned my issues with reading due to my dyslexia.  She looked at me, then shook her head and said, "All you need is practice."

After almost forty years of playing piano, including playing for church, teaching, and performing, all I need to do to learn to read is to practice?

So tonight I sat through a lesson with an adult student who is severely dyslexic, allowing my colleage's attitude to infiltrate my thoughts, and wondering whether I was wasting the student's money because after almost six months her reading remains excruciatingly slow.  And then I recalled that when she started, this adult student could not read a single note in either clef.  This, after years and years of different piano teachers.  And tonight she very slowly read through an advanced arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer".  Yes, it took her forever to read, and yes, the piece is too advanced for her ability and reading skills, but there were places where the melody was there with parts of the accompaniment.  This piece is very close to her heart.  And I thought, who am I to discourage her when in reality she has made tremendous progress when I base her playing tonight to where she was six months ago?