Hearing-impaired children take on the impossible task of learning how to play music with perseverance, a little ingenuity and guidance from caring teachers
For children with a hearing impairment, the concept of "music" does not exist.
"Children with a hearing disability and music lessons are worlds apart. These children have no idea what music is as they have never heard a thing since they were born," commented Nu Vudthivichai, a renowned pianist, deputy dean of student affairs and head of the Department of Jazz Studies at Silpakorn University's Faculty of Music.
"But now things are turning out differently. Music is indeed a universal language. It has the power to connect people regardless of their physical condition," said the pianist after dedicating his time and energy to each students with hearing loss at Setsatian School for the Deaf how to play music.
For two weeks, the school's recreational room was filled with the high-pitched sounds of glockenspiels. During the first few days of the students' practice sessions, the songs they played were more like random hits on an instrument. They could not keep up with the rhythm and had absolutely no idea when and how long they were to pause between notes. Studying music, to these students, was an uphill task only because they could not hear the sounds they were creating.
Teaching these hearing-impaired children to play music was no piece of cake, Nu recalled. But after long, hard practice, finally the students and their glockenspiels became one, and they could play in harmony. They also performed the Royal Anthem onstage at the recent Thailand Jazz Competition, and received big, sincere applause from the audience as recognition of their self-determination.
The Thailand Jazz Competition has been held for five years now. The objectives of this musical contest are to honour His Majesty the King's musical prowess as well as to support the development of jazz music and improve the standard of musicians throughout Thailand.
Organised by the Faculty of Music, Silpakorn University, in collaboration with Prudential Life Assurance (Thailand), this year the competition was more special as it featured a musical performance by the students with hearing disabilities, together with the famous Mansri Jazz Band.
And the goal was to show that people with a disability are indeed capable of doing the same things able-bodied folk can.
"In learning music, the sense of hearing is vital. So for people with a hearing impairment, it is impossible for them to know the melody, beat, pace and so on. But the students were very determined to learn music. And their perseverance made impossible things possible," said Nu, who is also a member of the Mansri Jazz Band.
The technique Nu used during the training was to transcribe all of the notes into numbers and then attach those numbers on to the glockenspiels' keys. Students then looked at the note sheet and then hit their instruments accordingly.
During the lessons, Nu acted as a conductor. He signalled to the students while they were playing to help guide them when to pause between notes, and when to resume playing.
In all training sessions, Jinda Unsorn, a teacher at Setsatian School, also helped facilitate communication between Nu and the students by functioning as a sign language translator. Jinda, at first, considered learning how to play musical instruments as an impossible mission for students with a hearing disability.
"The truth is, there are two types of hearing loss: completeand partial. Students with complete hearing impairment could, of course, hear nothing at all while partial deafness would allow them to detect some frequencies of sounds. But in any case, their ears would never be able to perceive high-pitched sounds such as those of a glockenspiel," Jinda explained on why she first believed that learning music was an unrealistic attempt for the students.
Later on, however, the teacher's perspective quickly changed. She was impressed to see that the students were so keen on achieving what they wanted to do.
"Living in a world of silence, these students never know what musical aesthetics truly are. Neither do they know the beauty of the language in lyrics. Even when they sing, they sing in sign language. But I think learning music considerably benefits people, even though the learners cannot hear it. Music acts on our mind. It creates inner peace and also improves one's concentration," the teacher remarked.
"Music can heal anything. It uplifts the soul," she added.
Despite such difficulty in teaching hearing-impaired students how to play music, Nu does not want the project to end here. In terms of the future plan, he said he would like to teach visually impaired students as well as the hearing-impaired to play music so that perhaps one day they could perform together and declare to the world that the disabled are of greater value than most people realise.
"In learning music, besides good musical instruments, what's really important is the heart, the soul and the imagination - and physical disability is certainly not a barricade against learning music. With determination, people with a disability can achieve whatever they want to," Nu concluded.
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