Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do visual spatial thinkers (and other neurodivergent) musicians need to have sheet music tailored to how they learn? Neurodivergent musicians learn in fundamentally different ways from typical leaners. This means that students with learning differences (LD) can greatly benefit from adapted scores. Read more to find out how it works.
This post uses some technical and musical terms. See the Glossary below for definitions.
Answering the Question, “Do Visual Spatial Thinkers and Other Neurodivergent Musicians Need to Have Sheet Music Tailored to How They Learn?”
Mobile users: tilt your phones 90o to the right to better read the music.
Visual spatial thinkers and other neurodivergent musicians do need to have sheet music tailored to how they learn. This is because the notation itself can be an issue. Siu-Lan Tan studied how non-musicians perceived the score and discovered that they found it to be counter intuitive.
In other words, almost everyone found standard notation to be confusing. If you factor in learning issues, things get even more confusing.
What’s the solution? Answer: we adapt the score. For instrumentalists, I suggest you color code the music. For vocalists, I recommend your use shape notes.
Adapted scores have been proven to be effective for helping students with LD read music. George L. Rogers found that musicians overwhelmingly preferred reading a color coded score. This was especially true for LD and special needs students. With color they read as well as typical learners. Without it, they couldn’t read at all.
Likewise, George H. Kyme found vocalists sight sang more effectively with shape notes than with standard notation.
These two studies show that visual spatial thinkers and other neurodivergent musicians need to have sheet music tailored to how they learn. For more information on the studies read:
How exactly does the adapted score work? I’ll give you the resource links for that in the next section.
How Do Visual Spatial Thinkers and Other Neurodivergent Musicians Need to Have Sheet Music Tailored to How They Learn?
Teaching how to adapt the score is beyond the scope of this post. So, for examples of color coding for instrumentalists, click on the following links:
- Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
- How to Color Code Guitar Tab for LD Achievement
- Color Coded Quarter Note Clapping
- How to Color Code Music Notes for LD & Special Needs Distance Learning
For examples of shape notes and Kodaly rhythm syllables for vocalists read:
Video: How Effective is the Color Coding
Concluding Thoughts to “Do Visual Spatial Thinkers and Other Neurodivergent Musicians Need to Have Sheet Music Tailored to How They Learn?”
Why do visual spatial thinkers and other neurodivergent musicians need to have sheet music tailored to how they learn? Visual spatial learners need information to be presented visually and concretely. Both the color coding and shape note multisensory strategies play into this strength that LD students have.
Even for students who don’t possess strong visual spatial abilities, both color coding and shape notes have been scientifically proven to be effective. Really, the approach will help any beginning musician, but especially LD, ADD, ASD, and other special needs students.
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
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