Want to find a dyslexia-aware music teacher?

B.D.A. Music does have a small database of teachers who are aware of neuro-diverse conditions including dyslexia and dyspraxia. The B.D.A. cannot endorse any particular teacher but can pass on such contacts as it has. Please email bdamusicdyslexia@gmail.com giving your name, the age and standard of the pupil and instrument/voice and the area of the UK in which you live.

Alternatively, you can try to find some suitably (musically) qualified local teachers and then ring them up one by one and ask them what they know about dyslexia and dyslexia-aware teaching methods. If they are completely ignorant but willing to learn, then you could pass on our information booklet and 'Top Ten Tips' which can be accessed from the BDA website’s ‘Music and Dyslexia’ page

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/educator/music-and-dyslexia

Various organisations publish databases of teachers recommended by them. None of these have list of specifically dyslexia aware teachers but you can use these to find some reputable teachers. The Incorporated Society of Musicians' database is very reliable in terms of qualifications (see below).

Ask the teacher if he or she is aware of dyslexia. If so, what do they know about it? Are they aware that it affects music and music learning? If so, what do they know about this? What do they understand by ‘multi-sensory teaching’? Have they read anything (and if so, does it include information from B.D.A. Music and any of the books listed at the end of B.D.A. Music’s information booklet)? Ask them, perhaps at a meeting, for suggestions of ways in which they might teach the student involved. 

Organisations that have databases of teachers

ISM: The Incorporated Society of Musicians. 

Directory gives qualifications, instrument and biography. All members of the ISM have to have been recommended by someone of standing in the music profession.

http://musicdirectory.ism.org/cdirectoryadvancedsearch.aspx 

AOTOS: The Association of Teachers’ of Singing

Directory of Members/Find a singing teacher. The directory gives qualifications and teaching categories.

http://aotos.org.uk/directory/    

EPTA: The European Piano Teachers’ Association

Directory includes basic data: in some cases only contact details.

http://www.epta-uk.org/FindaTeacher   

MusicTeachers.co.uk (working in association with the Musicians Union). 

Directory gives qualifications, instruments, ability levels taught and notes including membership of relevant organisations such as those above.

http://www.musicteachers.co.uk/   

Note

1.    Beware of general ‘Find a music teacher’ type websites which do not endorse teachers with any membership of a professional organisation.

2.    Look carefully at qualifications and check what they mean. Contact B.D.A. Music further about this, if necessary.

Also

Do you know other dyslexic musicians in your area or at your local Higher Education Institution? If so, do any of those people work with someone ‘good’ – someone that understands dyslexia and teaches them in a way that they can get on with?

Can any other dyslexic music students help you?