Reply To: "Tone deaf" child playing trombone

[nafmeadmin]

Your response is incredibly helpful. I have agonized over the child for some time, struggling to figure out how to teach and help her achieve success. I do think that percussion might be a good option. I’m not worried about losing a low brass player, because it seems quite clear that she will have a very difficult time catching up to the level of the other players and I expect that, long-term, I wouldn’t be able to keep her.

The complication of hearing the note, repeating the note, reading the note, remembering the position, reading the rhythm, producing the rhythm…. all of this is too much for the child. She also has a LD and has low performance in math and reading.

I’ll talk with her and her parents about options. Thank you, again, for your amazingly helpful response.