Steph Thompson is a jack errrr jill of all trades. Singer, photographer, artist and apart of the raddest blogger brother sister duo whom I’ve never met IRL but really, really want to. We’d probably be bffs. Nevertheless, even though you wouldn’t call Steph a music blogger her passion and love for music shines through her like the lens flare of a holga camera in the Southern California sun.
“music will save the world, even if you can’t hear it”
a few months ago i moved in with one of my best friends here in los angeles. it’s been a great match for many reasons, but one of the greatest of these reasons has been that of music. not only do we both like making it, but we both connect to it in a way that is truly life-giving. what i mean is, it keeps us alive. we need it. now, one thing that makes this story interesting is that my roommate is also a sign-language interpreter. she’s been interpreting for over ten years now and is more than fluent in the language. well, this got me thinking, in my recent plight to prove to the human race that music will save the world, about how music really has the ability to move and change us. even those who cannot actually hear it.
i’d never really thought about this reality before, and why would i have to really, being someone who can hear perfectly well? i knew that deaf musicians existed, i mean just look at beethoven. but why would a Deaf person want to be a musician if they could not actually hear what they were playing? so i started asking some questions and delving into the world i thought i knew pretty well, only to find that there exists a whole new side of it that i was not fully aware of. i started with my roommate (who i will deem RM).
ME: what is the draw in your mind in wanting to sign a song for a Deaf person?
RM: as a sign-language Interpreter you communicate all day at work. the Deaf community varies in their tastes of/for music. because i have a musical background and i initially learned sign through music, i’ve always been driven to come up with a visual-music repertoire.
ME: what benefit do you feel music gives the Deaf community?
RM: the same as any music lover’s benefits. music has the power to speak to anyone through the composition itself [instruments] and/or, via the lyrics [the power of words]. like learning anything new, it’s an exploration into a world that they may have less access to — like learning/teaching a foreign language, music is also a language that can be expressed, learned and taught in creative ways.
she then showed me the video i have attached at the end of this piece of a girl interpreting beyonce’s song ‘halo’. and i understood a little bit more.
any music lover can tell you why they love music. it’s honest. we connect with it. it brings out emotions and feelings we either didn’t know we had or couldn’t get out any other way. it lifts us, it breaks us, it heals us. it moves us. it is no different for a Deaf person essentially. all of these things are just as true for them as for those of us who are able to hear fully. but a Deaf person is forced to experience music in ways that the hearing might not necessarily be aware of.
i was reading an article about a deaf man in the UK named paul whittaker. he’s done many great things in the world of music for the Deaf. he is also a piano player and said this about it, ‘‘it is one of the easiest things to play as a deaf person because you know that note on the stave is that note on the piano. it’s very, very physical. when you press a key down you feel a hammer hit a string. the vibration travels up your arm and every one of those notes feels different.”
this, to me is the difference. the actual physical feeling of a song that a Deaf person experiences will be forever different than my own as a person who can hear. the Deaf will see things i do not see- in the faces of the artist performing, he will feel things i will not feel- in his arms and legs and chest. but the common experience among us all is what music makes us feel somewhere deep down inside of our chests, inside of our hearts. that feeling like we’re alive. really truly alive. and that, my friends, is why music will save the world.
i think after doing this little piece, i just might never experience music the same way. i have a feeling it will be more full, and that my senses will be bursting in ways they never had before…
Watch the aforementioned video here
*sources: article
