ADHD • Insights for Pianists
Andrew Eales with Louise Eales RMN, NMP
Since publishing the article ADHD • A Pianist’s Guide it has become clear that this is a topic of special interest to a lot of players and teachers.
That article was cowritten with my wife Louise, who has three decades clinical experience working with children and latterly adults who have ADHD. Louise is currently an advanced practitioner at ADHD 360, a leading private ADHD diagnosis and treatment clinic.
For my part, I have lived with this condition for a lifetime, only belatedly recognised and formally diagnosed in my fifties. ADHD has had a huge impact on my piano journey.
We are now sharing more advice and education strategies to support pianists, teachers and learners with ADHD. You’ll find the links below. But first, please read our original article in full here:
ADHD • A Pianist’s Guide
Discover how ADHD can impact piano practice, lessons, and performance events. This authoritative article offers expert clinical advice and effective educational strategies that can help.
The article is also available as a free printable PDF file here:
Exploring the issues
Pianodao offers a growing range of free articles specifically written and shared to support piano players and teachers with ADHD, and covering a range of issues which impact practice, education, and performance.
ADHD and piano competitions
In this article we explore the unique challenges ADHD pianists face in competitions, and consider ways in which we might foster a healthier, more inclusive performance culture.
Adaptive Teaching and Metacognition
In this Guest Post, Karen Marshall demystifies the important principles of adaptive teaching and metacognition, and shows how we can all better support neurodivergent learners at the piano…
ADHD and ‘micro-breaks’
Molly Gebrian’s best-selling book ‘Learn Faster, Perform Better’ is a great read, based on valuable research. But players with ADHD will need to recalibrate some of her advice to leverage the benefits. Here’s how we can adapt her ‘micro-breaks’ idea, and why we need to.
Who really needs mnemonics?
Are note-naming rhymes useful, and if so for whom? Many piano teachers suggest they aren’t, but multiple studies say otherwise. Perhaps a balanced reassessment of the topic, grounded in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and academic research, is overdue…
In Praise of Cream Paper
Beyond aesthetics, there are scientifically understood benefits and practical reasons for asserting that printing music on cream paper supports accessibility, promotes inclusion, and fosters the wellbeing of all musicians…
Further Information and Links
The following publications and links are those we most highly recommend as sources of helpful information, and will prove helpful for all who wish to research beyond the scope of the articles on Pianodao:
Music & Neurodiversity
Karen Marshall’s Music & Neurodiversity delivers an extraordinary wealth of material, including many road-tested teaching approaches that readers can immediately put into practice, and an abundance of personal insight and human interest.
Music Teaching for Special Educational Needs
This is an excellent and much needed book, which goes a considerable way towards addressing an obvious and significant gap in the training and understanding of many instrumental teachers.
Dr. Christopher Green & Dr. Kit Chase: Understanding ADHD: A parents guide to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children, available here.
Edward M. Hallowell, MD, and John J. Ratey, MD: ADHD 2.0, available here.
Peter Hill: The Parents’ Guide to ADHD Medicines, available here.
Harvey C. Parker PhD has written several titles, aimed at schools, teachers, parents and those with ADHD, available here.
ADHD 360 publish a wide and informative range of free articles here.
For more information about ‘right-to-choose’ referrals, private diagnosis and treatment from ADHD 360, visit their website here.
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