Dr. Elizabeth Morrow: Multi-sensory Music Reading & Supporting Students with Learning Differences

This week on the Time to Practice podcast I’m joined by Dr. Elizabeth Morrow – a cellist, music educator, certified dyslexia therapist, and creator of NoteSense® (a multisensory approach to teaching note reading). I first met Elizabeth at the American String Teachers Association conference earlier this year, after hearing her give a fantastic talk on this topic, and I’m excited to have her join us to talk about her approach to music reading this week.

Dr. Morrow shares how she developed her method of music reading by combining her knowledge and experience with research on dyslexia and what she observed students struggling with in music education settings. She shares how she came up with her initial ideas, as well as a number of success stories and ideas for listeners to keep in mind for supporting students in their lives. I appreciated Dr. Morrow’s reminder to us that not all brains are wired the same, or learn the same, and that a different approach for learning to read music may be necessary for some students.

If you have a child or student with a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia or for whom traditional note-reading instruction is not effective, Dr. Morrow has such helpful insights to share! She shares some of the ideas and principles with us in this episode that I think you’ll find as interesting and helpful as I did!

*Note – Dr. Morrow’s curriculum is still available for purchase through the end of November 2025. You can visit her website and then email her with your order if you would like to purchase a set while it is still available.