Article written by Magesh for Roland Australia
In my 23-year career as a music teacher, I have taught many students with Autism, Asperger’s, and ADHD. My background is primarily in drums and percussion, so in this article, I will be focusing on these. Although I’m not a trained therapist, I believe my experiences could be beneficial to parents, students, and teachers. In this article, I will be sharing my experiences working with students with ADHD.
Music can, in effect, create more of the mental fuel kids with ADHD lack by increasing the amount of neurotransmitters present throughout the brain.
Here’s an article I found fascinating, as it relates to a lot of challenges I faced as a teacher.
As a quick overview, to help with the student’s enjoyment and engagement, I pay special attention to the following:
- Lesson timing
- Familiar material
- Reading music notation
- Mimicking
- Singing music notation
Teaching Drum Lessons Online
I recently started teaching an 8-year-old boy how to play the drums. Due to covid, all my lessons are currently online. There are slight differences between teaching online as opposed to teaching face to face. For me, the main difference is I must speak extra clearly and maintain a higher level of enthusiasm.
I started the lessons with some warm-up exercises. I played a few simple rhythms on the snare drum and then asked my student to copy what he had heard. After that, I wrote out some basic music notation which he had no problem understanding.
I have devised a system to write down these types of notes in a grid system. This works well for my students with ADHD because they can see how the musical notes connect like a jigsaw puzzle.
The next day, the boy’s mother called me. There was a lot of emotion in her voice to the point where I thought something was wrong. She said, ‘My son has ADHD, a lot of the time he has trouble focusing on new tasks, but he was engaged in the drum lesson with you’.
Although I had taught many students with ADHD, if this boy’s mother didn’t tell me this, I may not have known. Over the next few months of teaching the boy, I noticed several things that helped him to learn quickly and stay focused. Here they are:
Lesson Timing
When a parent tells me their child has ADHD, I always ask if there is an optimal time to schedule their lesson. From experience, if I teach them too early in the morning, they may be tired. This can also be the case if it’s too late in the afternoon. This may seem like a small detail, but it makes a massive difference in their level of concentration
Familiar Material
I have found it is a lot easier to keep the attention of a student with ADHD if they are learning music that they thoroughly enjoy. A way to do this is to ask the student what their 3 favourite songs are. Once I know this I can listen to the music and see which one has the best, funkiest beat and will be the most enjoyable for them to learn.
Reading Music Notation (Visual cues)
Drum music notation is basic maths. Quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes make up a considerable number of modern drumbeats. I have devised a system to write down these types of notes in a grid system. This works well for my students with ADHD because they can see how the musical notes connect like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s something very logical and visually appealing at the same time.
After a few lessons, I can quickly access the student’s level of understanding of music notation. I will then write a beat and purposely leave out notes. It becomes a game where the student must fill in the missing notes. I find this helps the student learn, simply because they are engaged, as opposed to just reading music that is put in front of them.
Mimicking
Having a student copy a beat I have just played is a great way to keep them interested. It is done in a ‘rapid fire’ way – I quickly play five rhythms and ask them to repeat them. This takes a great deal of focus because the student must mimic what they just heard. I have found this method excellent for maintaining concentration.
Singing Music Notation
This is essentially ‘beatboxing’ where I sing the rhythm with my mouth instead of playing it on the drums. It is a lot easier for a student to do this initially because there is no coordination of the limbs. It can also be a lot of fun because singing drumbeats can make even the most sophisticated-sounding person sound like a caveman. ‘Boom, boom, cha, chuga, chuga, boom!’
Bite-Sized Chunks
Another important way to help with attention span issues, is keeping lessons to around 30 minutes. I then break each lesson down into six five-minute segments. This means the student only needs to focus on one piece of information for a short amount of time. The different tasks also help to keep things interesting. This system has helped me over the years, I hope it can now help other people too.
This article supports a lot of the theories I have relevant to teaching students with ADHD.
According to Elizabeth Lombardo PhD, “Music therapy improves attention and focus, lowers hyperactivity, and improves social skills in children with attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD).”
Final Words
Through many years of trial and error, I have come up with ways that are beneficial for any tutor to teach a student with ADHD. Although I am a music teacher, these principles can easily be applied to other subjects.
For me, the most important factor in teaching someone with ADHD is engagement. Asking them questions, having them write things out, and copying things that I do helps students learn things quickly.
About the Author
Magesh has been a music teacher for 23 years. He has also worked as a session musician for some of the world’s biggest pop stars, including Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin, Rhianna, Nelly Furtado, Chris Brown, Kimbra and Vernon Reid (Living Colour). Magesh was ranked one of the ‘Top 20 Millennium players’ by ‘Drumscene magazine and appeared in ‘Modern Drummer’ (U.S.A), Rhythm (U.K), Percussion (Italy), and ‘Newsbeat (Canada) magazines.
Magesh currently teaches students all over the world.
https://www.mageshdrumteacher.co.uk/
