In view of what is now known about the distinctive balance of skills in dyslexics one might expect to find very gifted musicians among their number who nevertheless have problems with musical notation. Written music has to be decoded: spatially adjacent marks on paper have to be converted into sounds which form a temporal sequence, and in addition it is necessary to learn the function of many different symbols, assign the correct names (minim, clef, acciaccatura, largo, etc.), and associate them with the complex motor behaviour which is involved in playing a musical instrument. There are perhaps similar problems in mathematics. Here, too, dyslexics can be extremely successful but may take longer than non-dyslexics in learning the notation. This area has not yet been systematically researched; but below are two accounts, written by dyslexics, of how their musical performance is affected by their dyslexia. These have been sent to us by Paula Wiltshire, a teacher, who then adds some brief comments. The first account was written by Paul Harris (not his real name), who is in his twenties and is a professional trumpet player, the second by Jacob Wiltshire, Paula's son, who at the time was aged 11. Paul's contribution has been slightly edited and some misspellings have been corrected, but we felt that in the case of Jacob's contribution it would be more significant to leave it in its original form.