MUSICIANS WANTED!

[MrsGizlo]

Hiyyyaaa!

My names Holly, I'm nearly 21 from North Wales and a student studying music. Like everyone on here, I too have dyspraxia and BOY! What a pain in the back side it is. It all made sense though, after years of tripping over tiny stones and dropping lots of plates and mugs, I now have an excuse of sorts.

The reason I joined here is to ask for your help. I'm looking for dyspraxic people on this forum who can play an instrument, it doesn't matter how long you've been playing or how good/bad you think you are, I would just like your views on playing. Whether you find it difficult or easy, enjoyable or frustrating, please let me know, as I'm planning a 10,000 word dissertation on musicians with dyspraxia. The people who reply more the better so please get in touch.

THANK YOU!

[screengreen]

I used to play the guitar and the tenor recorder I found both relaxing but never got to the stage of being able to perform publicly. However, I am replying because in my view if started early enough then piano although difficult for people with dyspraxia, could be seen as therapy. My reasons for this are that it requires the the person to maintain trunk control while using both sides of their body. If this proves difficult to start then ensuring that the players feet reach the ground will help as will moving about on their tummy [ gym balls or scooter boards are good for this]. hope this ramble is of some help .... for more info on why all the above works look for articles on Sensory integration/ sensory processing.

[JayHender]

Hiya!
I play the saxophone, piano (Well sorta), recorder, tenor saxophone and I sing quite well
Oh and yes I have dyspraxia and Dylexia!
The saxophone
I will start with. I can play this instrument by warehouse is weird as I can't do that with other instruments? Anyway apart from me being clumsy and dropping my saxophone I find it rather easy. I think the reason for this is as saxophone can only play one rythum at a time I will explain why this is so crustal later on. I do find it hard remembering all the Reid and remembering when to turn up to lessons. I have played it for 4 years and now could most likely teach people now.
The Piano
I have played the piano for 10years now! All those years I never quite could get the hang of it. Sure I would practise but I could never manage two rythems at the one time unless I spent weeks working on a song. I believe this was down to my dyspraxia as if I ever did manage 2 rythems I would have to sit down and practise for weeks! Then my brain would finally process it and I could play the the song easy! I also found it are to find the keys. I think this is due to my cawardanasion as I would always be one key off even though I knew the note I would end up putting my hand somewhere else.
Other Insterments
Well I did try drums. I had the same problem two rythems at the same time! I just could not manage it. I couldn't do one thing with my right hand and another with my left. I also tried to play guitar, but I knocked the teachers guitar as I bumped into it so I never tried again!

I really hope this helps you out and I hope your disartation turns out okay so know how much of a pain they can be :p

[emma94]

I've always played the clarinet, and managed to get to grade 6 after maybe 8 years! I always enjoyed playing it, and I've taken advantage of the social aspect of music playing (orchestras, music camps & trips), but I wouldn't say I'm naturally good at it at all! I can play a piece as well as anyone else with a LOT of practice and no one would know I was dyspraxic but the major problems occur when I have to sight read/accurately play dynamics/play fast! My fingers can't really move fast enough unless I've practised considerably.
I also used to play the drums, which I loved but simply didn't have the co-ordination, and I play the guitar fairly well when its just chords and strumming.
So I love playing instruments, and can play well with practice. But I certainly don't have the natural skills for them!
Emma

[MrsGizlo]

Did you guys play before you were diagnosed? In my case, I started to play the drums when I was 11 but found out i had dyspraxia when i was 20

[PhilB]

Hi!

I didn't see this thread the first time round...

I play a variety of instruments, I started out on the violin aged 4/5, piano a couple of years later, and at 12/13ish I started playing the guitar. These days I can knock out a tune on most instruments given a few minutes to get a feel for it (excluding those with abstract blowing techniques!).

For the record I got my diagnosis a couple of years back - so a long time after learning the instruments.

Anyway, I sort of think dyspraxia has affected my learning. I am accurate with my finger position when playing an instrument. However, my top end speed is low. I can cope with very high complexity, but even something simple at high speed - my fingers just won't move fast enough. I'm similar with writing, I can write clearly and legibly but always really struggled to take notes fast enough in lectures and would often just right down key words to trigger my memory/so I knew what to look up later.

[randlepatrick]

Hi,

I started to play guitar when I was 8, got diagnosed just this year at 19. I never really thought of myself as struggling too much but looking back at it now I can tell my teacher used to get extremely frustrated at me. I did classical lessons from the age of 8 until about 15, and didn't really enjoy them too much. The thing is, I've always loved playing guitar so much that I don't think the dyspraxia's really been too much of an issue, I could never sight read or even read music very well, instead I would play a piece over and over and over until I'd memorised it, and then just used certain markings on the music such as dynamics instructions or whatever as cues as to what to do next. If I practiced a piece enough times I could play it without thinking about it, even now I can pick up a guitar and my fingers will just play a song that I've played loads before without me having to tell them to, to the frustration of everyone around me .

In the last 3/4 years I've gotten into blues a lot more which I feel like is the perfect genre for me. Improvising on guitar is the most liberating, therapeutic thing I can possibly imagine and while a lot of my improv isn't at all precise, I've realised that it really doesn't matter. IMO if a musician puts his soul into a performance, it will sound infinitely better than if they've practised a song loads and can mechanically churn out note by note what's written on a page. That being said, I am grateful for having done lessons for so many years as I feel like all that repetitive, uninspired practise gave me the technical capability to make a guitar sound nice.

EDIT: Didn't realise how old this thread was haha, hope this helps anyway