Estimated reading time 5 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Tired of seeing your child or student struggle in music lessons? Have you started to wonder if effective music learning can actually happen? Read more to learn about how to achieve special needs music success.
For students who act out see:
This article uses technical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
Defining Special Needs Music Success
At a meeting of LD music teachers, I brought up the idea of having successful students. The discussion that followed centered on the idea that we had to redefine special needs music success for students. In other words, we had to adjust (i.e., lower) the bar to consider a student to be successful.
I do understand that with LD, ADD, ASD, and special needs students this will often be needed. Nevertheless, it bothered me. It made me really think a lot about what the word success means.
One of the teachers summed up the main issue. He expressed his discomfort with the word success, because failure lurks on the opposite side of success. I can understand his uneasiness with the idea of labeling students as failures. Without a doubt, we shouldn’t compare students or brand one good and the other not. As I said before, some adjusting of the bar will be suitable in LD music lessons.
However, students will often compare themselves to other students, which creates a problem for music teachers.
Special Needs Music Success vs. Failure
Despite what some people may think, these kids are sensitive to their surroundings. They can see when they don’t measure up to their friends. I’ve seen it many times before in my students. Thus, the word failure becomes relevant because the students perceive themselves as failures. If this happens, you’ve got trouble coming down the road.
If students see themselves as failing, they can acquire learned helplessness. “Persistence is a byproduct of success, and if success is repeatedly out of reach of the student, he or she learns not to try…
“Students exhibit learned helplessness when there is not a good match between learning objectives and student attributes…” (qtd. in McCord Teaching the Postsecondary Music Student with Disabilities 66-67 – italics in the original).
In other words, if the students don’t see themselves as successful, they will give up and not try anymore. If that happens, you truly do have a learning disability on your hands.
To combat this, you need to generate real success, because kids see right through false praise. We’ll talk more about creating real success later.
In addition, students must accept that they can make mistakes. Namely, that making mistakes shouldn’t be seen as bad.
Permission to Make Mistakes Leads to Special Needs Music Success
Take a Mulligan
The Inner Game of Music has this advice. “Permission to fail leads to success… There is a custom in golf called ‘taking a Mulligan’… If you miss your first drive at the first hole, you can take a ‘Mulligan’ and do the shot over again…
“Since you know you are going to have a second chance at that first drive, you are likely to be pretty relaxed about it… Golfers who are playing the ‘Mulligan’ convention often let go, and drive their first ball better than they might have done otherwise” (Green and Gallwey 33).
This works for more than just golf. When students accept that they can make mistakes, they relax. That in turn will lead to special needs music success.
I used to think that making mistakes was part of the learning process. Nope. Not part of the learning process, it is the learning process.
Myelin
According to The Talent Code, truly effective learning happens when students get challenged. When students go right up to the edge of their ability level, then exceed it slightly, it turbo charges the learning process.
In other words, when a student makes some mistakes, slows down, breaks the piece down, thinks, corrects, then tries again, something wonderful happens within the student’s brain. The student’s neurons get coated in a substance called myelin. Myelin acts as an insulator for the neuron, making it fire faster and more efficiently. In other words, the brain builds skill with the myelin.
Daniel Coyle uses the metaphor of an internet connection. He compares an unmyelinated neuron with an old fashioned, slow, dial-up connection. Whereas he equates a myelinated neuron with a broadband connection such a cable or DSL.
In Coyle’s words, “The increased speed and decreased refractory time [the wait required between one neural signal and the next] combine to boost overall information-processing capability by 3,000 times – broadband indeed” (41).
Now it takes years to optimize the neurons as much as that, but years of practice will definitely do that for a musician. Nothing substitutes for practice, and it works for any skill – not just for music.
According to Coyle, a vital part of how our brains learn involves makings some mistakes, but not too many. Music teachers need to find the sweet spot where the songs become challenging, but not too challenging. This varies from student to student. Find that sweet spot, and you’ll be able to achieve special needs music success.
Avoiding Failure Doesn’t Lead to Special Needs Music Success
Since mistakes reside at the heart of special needs music success, we need to teach students how to push through mistakes. “Research shows that when students accept that failures are inevitable, it sets them up for future success” (Dalenberg 44).
However, too often teachers in the US focus on avoiding failure rather than teaching how to overcome failure.
Coyle states, “Sometimes the [Japanese] teacher will purposely give the wrong answer so the kids can grapple with theory. American teachers, though, worked like waiters. Whenever there was a struggle, they wanted to move past it, make sure the class kept gliding along. But you don’t learn by gliding.” (The Talent Code p. 93 – 94).
Avoiding both gliding and learned helplessness shows how important finding the sweet spot can be.
How Teachers Can Achieve Special Needs Music Success
You must find the right level of challenge for your student if you want to have steady progress – not too easy or too hard:
- Too easy means student boredom – not good.
- Too hard and the student becomes frustrated – even less good.
How then can music teachers adjust the level of challenge?
- Adjust the amount of material the student needs to practice each week.
- Select songs and lesson books with the right difficulty level for the student.
- Adjust the pacing of the lessons with music activities.
- Give an easier song after mastering a challenging one.
- Make sure LD students are not disoriented.
- Color code the score to make learning the music easier.
Color coding is a scientifically proven method for special needs student success.
The following posts explain how I do it. I suggest you start with the first six links. If you find those helpful, the last link goes to the rest of the color coding posts:
- How to Color Code Notes for Successful LD and Special Needs Distance Learning
- Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
- Playing Piano with Color Coded Left Hand Notes
- Color Coded Quarter Note Clapping
- Color Coded Eighth Note Clapping
- How to Color Code Rhythm to Empower LD and Special Needs Students
- Color Coding blog category
Conclusion
Yes, students can achieve special needs music success.
- First Goal: Help the students to be the best musicians they can be through multisensory strategies that help adjust for the correct balance of challenge.
- Second Goal: Always try for steady progress in the lessons. Embrace incremental change and be patient.
- Third Goal: Help the student to accept that mistakes don’t equate with failure.
- Fourth Goal: Try to make the lessons fun. This will ignite a passion for music and help the student to have the incentive to push through adversity.
Take heart and don’t give up on LD and special needs students. The students need you. When a student finds success in one area, it has a tendency to spread to other areas of the student’s life as well.
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
Join me for in-person or online lessons today!
Glossary
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How to Use Archetypes in Songwriting
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How Do I Switch from Singing Shaped Notes to Standard Notation – Part 1
“How do I switch from singing shaped notes to standard notation?” Because they’re easy to read, shape notes will always be a good choice for struggling readers, and it makes a great introduction to solfege too. However, the limited shape note repertoire means that shape note singers may want to learn to read standard notation as well. Click to learn how to transition from shaped notes to standard notation. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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Tips for People Who Can’t Sing in Tune
Do people tell you that you sing out of tune? Do you want to be able to sing like your favorite vocal artist? Some people just seem to naturally sing in tune. Don’t panic! The skill of harmonizing in tune can be learned. Read more to learn the tips for people who can't sing in tune. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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