Blind Musicians and Music

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at various blind musicians and the contributions they have made to the music world. The paper discusses the life and work of Blind Tom, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Outline:
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Contributions of Blind Musicians
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"By the time he reached his majority, Blind Tom possessed a repertoire of hundreds of pieces, all contained in his memory alone. In would appear, that in this individual's case, the inability to see also accentuated his other auditory abilities: "Tom's memory extended to other auditory information besides music: he could repeat without error conversations of up to fifteen minutes that he had overheard. He could also sing back songs in French or German (which, of course, he could not understand) after only one hearing" (Winner, 1996, p. 134). While musical savants may be the rule rather than the exception when it comes to musical genius, there are some well-known examples of blind musical prodigies as well but these musicians have not received as much attention. According to Haroutounian (2000), musical prodigies in general typically reach an advanced stage of development quickly and are capable of pursuing professional careers at an early age; however, some musical prodigies tend to experience a sort of "mid-life crisis" when they reached adolescence: "What happens to the bird who sings and doesn't know how it sings? That's what happens to child prodigies. They wake up and ask themselves dangerous questions about how they do it -- and they have no answers" (Haroutounian, 2000, p. 3). Furthermore, Goldstein (1998) reports that most traditional colleges and universities are ill-prepared to address the special needs of musical prodigies in general and blind students in particular, so it is a wonder that there are any professional blind musicians at all, but some persevere and these individuals are discussed further below."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cooper, B. L. (1991). Popular music perspectives: Ideas, themes, and patterns in contemporary lyrics. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
• Dagbovie, P. G. (2005). Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. Black history's relevance to the hip hop generation. The Journal of African American History, 90(3), 299.
• Goldstein, D. (1998). Music institute for blind college-bound musicians. RE:view, 29(4), 163.
• Haroutounian, J. (2000). The delights and dilemmas of the musically talented teenager. Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 12(1), 3.
• Monge, L. (2000). The language of Blind Lemon Jefferson: The covert theme of blindness. Black Music Research Journal, 20(1), 35.

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