The annual Alexander Graham Bell Speech Fair is coming up and Chance's class is singing the song,"God Bless America."
He learned the song as a poem to pass off in class a few weeks ago. At the time, he just recited the words. For the past 2 weeks, Chance and his class have been learning to sing the song for the Speech Fair.
Chance really likes the song. He wanted to sing the song when he passed it off in class.
It has been interesting to hear Chance practice each night. He is getting the gist of the tune of the song, but he does not have it just yet.
We don't know exactly what tune sounds like through the implants so it is hard to know how to help him.
We sat down with him at the piano and showed Chance how the notes went up and down. Today when he sang the song for me, Chance's hand was doing something off to the side as he sang. At first I only saw it out of the corner of my eye and I wondered if he was signing the song while he sang. When I really looked I saw that he was using his hand to dictate when the notes went up and down. They must have been using that as an aid in class to help the kids realize when the notes went up and down.
Chance is excited to perform this song and he has practiced diligently every night.
We don't expect perfection. Truthfully, we just don't know what we should expect. Each person with an implant is different with what they hear. There is a teacher at the School for the Deaf who got an implant within the last 5 years. She is a lot like Chance in the fact that she had hearing at birth and lost it when she was a toddler. She teaches piano lessons and is quite good at playing the piano. Obviously she is hearing the different notes and picking up when things are off key.
Maybe this is something that Chance just needs to practice and we'll see what his potential is as far as singing, and discerning the subtle difference in notes.
Chance wants to learn to play the guitar. Maybe we should sign him up and see if he likes it after 2 months of lessons. Will he still like to learn a few months out, or will he be like thousands of other kids across the nation who start a musical instrument only to be bribed and coerced by their parents to keep practicing?
1 comment:
I don't understsand it myself and I wear the implants. I do know that while I feel like music sounds like it should to me, such is the adjustment of my brain to it, I don't seem to be able to feel like I can match the tunes as well as I used to before implants. That's not to say I was great, as I'd be known to go off tune. However, I've also been known to sing quite beautifully prior to implantation. For some reason, I don't feel I can quite do as well now, try as I might.
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