Odd question re asd and piano

[AgnesDiPesto]

DS has an old toy piano / xylophone think bright colours and clunky noise. It comes with some cards where tunes are set out with different coloured notes so if you follow the card you can play the tune except it sounds terrible as it is out of tune being an old cheap toy. Somehow DS has taught himself to play twinkle twinkle on it. I don't think he read the card he either rote learnt it from a website - I suspect poissonrouge ( great site btw) or figured it out. It's very exciting as while he rote learns easily he doesn't learn
much that is useful. So I either want to capitalise on it by finding similar toy that sounds less out of tune or devise a similar coding system for him to play the real piano inherited and sitting untouched. Does anyone know of a toy or a piano book which is at very basic level or think of way I could devise a system on piano to teach some other tunes bear in mind I do not play the piano! DS has limited language and learns best by rote so perhaps he could rote learn by watching someone else play and learning the sequence, or is there a website that might work I am sure he must have learnt it from a website by watching which notes were played he does seem to have a bit of a musical ear as I could see jim working out the first note by how it sounded. I realise trying to teach piano to a nearly 4 year old with severe asd sounds peculiar but it's just so unusual for anything without a screen to catch his interest.

could you find a piano teacher who might be willing to work with him?

I'm on the spectrum and can play by ear. I'm fairly sure that it was "twinkle twinkle" which had my Mum sending me for lessons at three. So it isn't unheard of.

You-tube has clips of people playing the piano, not sure how basic they are, I expect there might be some.

Lovely that he has a new interest

My friend's son (ASD) is having piano lessons with a teacher who sounds really experienced with SN. If you live in London maybe I could pass on contact details and you could have a chat about what to do next.

Never too late to learn yourself--I am about to start lessons, for the first time in my life, and I am well over 40. I think i will be good at it as i can type, which is kind of doing two different things at once with both your hands.

A lot of electronic keyboards have pre-programmed tunes in them. It may be worth going to a music shop that sells them and take a look at what they do and how they do that, to see if there is an option that might help him to learn? I agree with Mists though, lots of people NT and otherwise will pick out tunes by ear and can teach themselves without reading music. I believe these sorts of talents can be more advanced for some people with ASD and perhaps this is your son? Good luck with him, sounds like a fab idea

what about a childs keyboard (we have one from toystus that is on a stand it was about £20)and colour/number the keys your self you can get really sticky clear plastic that is waterproof as well to cover any stickers you put on.

My friends ds has asd & can play tunes from ear & he also creates his own tunes, so if its raining for example he will say this is rain & play a tune that sounds a bit stormy IYKWIM if its sunny he will play a jolly tune... entirely made up by him but they sound like proper tunes rather than just random keys.

He has never had a lesson & actually I don't know if he could cope with a lesson as at the moment it is all very much his relaxation but he is truly amazing to watch.

Aside from his muscial ear he is pretty severly autistic.

If you ahve room for a piano, could you maybe get hold of a cheap second hand one.

We have a little xylophone with coloured keys and a little sheet of music on which the notes are coloured to match the keys. I have no idea where it came from because it was a gift but it seems to do exactly what you're suggesting.

I've had a look at Amazon but they don't say which has the music so you might have to look in a shop instead.

DS is having individual lessons at the moment, had about 3 lessons and starting to pick up tunes. His tutor has given us this book "tunes for T.E.N F.I.N.G.E.RS" by Pauline Hall. it is supposed to be the best as a first piano book. His ABA therapist has colour coded the book, so he is reading the colours rather than reading the music.

Thanks for all the ideas it's the xylophone thing he has. I think the coloured stickers might work well. The music teacher at school has an autistic DD I might collar her and ask for some tips. I would love to learn the piano it was on my to do list before DS regressed -perhaps we can learn together although I have a feeling DS might be better at it!

oh, interesting thread.

I have posted a few times asking how to teach music to dd1. she can pick up tunes by ear, but has not really made the conection to piano.

she can pick the odd tune out, and her school is helping her with this (by way of labelling the keys, and making her a score with just the letters on, rather than music notes)

we have had this book (and the Christmas one) for a while now. It doe shave a bit of a tinny sound, but if you keep the batteries charged, then it si ok.

the book part has: the music score (properly, notes on a stave), also each note is assigned a colour, so can play by following the colours.

the keyboard bit also lights up, so itis easy to follow where to go next.

I have tried and tried to find a reasonably priced keyboard with light up notes, but the only ones I have come up with are ££££

saintlydamemrsturnip had a post a couple of years ago about teaching music, I know she was looking into it for her ds (might have posted under a previous name though) - will try to search it out a bit later. it was a method used in the states, i think, specifically designed for children with learning disabilities

something like this might do until you can find something better.

ELC sell music sheets with colour coding. The set comes with stickers to put on the keys. My ds can now play all of the tunes so we recently bought a set of rainbow bells from amazon, the colour coding is the same as ELC. You can also buy the bells at hawkins for £15.