Exploring the Phenomenon of Dysmusia in Young Piano Students
Creators: name: Woronchak, Meganne
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2022
Subjects: Music
Dysmusia
Dyslexia
Reading
Piano
Children

description: Music reading is an essential yet difficult skill, one with which many students and professionals alike struggle (Sloboda, 1974; Gromko, 2004; Pike &amp; Carter, 2010). It is a complex task requiring the processing of many skills including cognitive as well as perceptual and motor processes through reacting to stimuli (Jensen, 2016). Unsuccessful attainment of music reading proficiency leads to frustration and often results in lesson abandonment in the early years of instruction (Gordon, 2000; Brand, 2001). In the pedagogical community, it has been said that students vary widely in their progress towards fluent reading (Mills and McPherson, 2006). Meanwhile, those at the professional level with music reading difficulties feel like it is an obstacle they regularly face in their careers. While many causes have been suggested for music reading difficulties, over the past few decades, it has been suggested that dysmusia (also known as musical dyslexia) might be a cause of these music reading difficulties (Cuddy &amp; Hébert, 2006; Gordon, 2000). The current dissertation explored dysmusia in musicians, particularly young piano students, in the form of four articles. The first article reviewed accounts of dysmusia in musicians to organize manifestations (clusters of difficulties) and indicators (specific difficulties). Four manifestations found comprised music reading, music writing, sequencing, and skills. Musician accounts suggested dysmusia shares auditory, processing speed, motor, visual, and memory deficits with dyslexia. For the most part, literature surrounded pianists. The second article reviewed tests to quantitatively measure dysmusia, and found a gap in testing for music reading and writing in particular. Writing tests were developed to match the existing music reading tests in our laboratory on 1-note, 2-note, and 3-note stimuli. Auditory skills may be sensitive to music reading expertise according to the literature. Article three sought to generate baseline data for music reading and music writing tests, as well as for audiation, in a population of young piano students with neither dyslexia nor suspected dysmusia. Furthermore, given the relationships between text reading and writing, and text reading and auditory skills, article three compared music reading to writing on paired conditions, and music sight-reading to audiation (for tonal, rhythm, and composite parameters). Results provided baseline data for music reading, writing, and audiation tests in both beginner and intermediate-advanced students. For music reading to writing, tasks are comparably difficult for 1-note conditions, but as the tasks increase, writing performance is superior to reading. While audiation performance is not affected by sight-reading proficiency in a statistically significant way, there are some visual differences that indicate within our participant sample, there was some affect of expertise on tonal performance and not for rhythm. Article four concerns the case of EA, a 10-year-old piano student with dyslexia. While EA demonstrated music reading difficulties early in her musical training, she currently demonstrates average to superior music reading ability according to her parent, piano teacher, and most recent Conservatory Canada exam. Interview findings reveal that EA has significant family involvement in her music learning, and she has a positive attitude towards learning, which may have impacted her test performance. While a test for processing speed confirmed EA’s deficit associated with her dyslexia diagnosis, she neither demonstrated a deficit in motor skills as measured by a pegboard test nor in her music test performance. EA scored slightly lower than matched controls in 1-note identification and 2-note pattern playing, which was less than 1 SD before the mean. Her superior performance in music writing tasks including copying and dictation with 1, 2, and 3 notes is in contrast to her dysgraphia for letter writing. Specific to music sight-reading, EA made more rhythm mistakes than matched controls, though she played most of the pitches correctly. Finally, her audiation percentile ranks were about average, and within the same ranges as matched controls, with a comparatively stronger performance on the rhythm parameter, and weaker performance on the tonal parameter. The four articles of the dissertation combine to explore what dysmusia could be, and how it could be measured, while considering that dysmusia could appear differently depending on the individual. Furthermore, the case study results from article four are evidence that not all individuals with dyslexia have dysmusia, and that dysmusia may be a domain specific condition as posited by Cuddy &amp; Hébert (2006).