Cultivating a Musical Bionic Ear

We proceed to her etude, which is currently in the Whistler "Introducing the Positions" Volume One for viola. She plays with fluency and flair, clearly the result of her home labors, and I compliment her. Although she still has problems with pitch, I quickly put in the little arrows, she gives her usual squeals of frustration, and I assign her a new etude. "I want to hear the old one again, but it's nearly there." How much nit-picking about pitch can a person stand? Wendy has had encouraging and supportive teachers all her life, for which she is extremely thankful, and I mean to keep the tradition going. I play the new etude for her, as I play any new material. She has told me that watching a performance gives her a better idea of where the notes are, particularly with unfamiliar music. It feels eerie to play for someone who can't discriminate pitch well, but her response is enthusiastic.

The cochlear implant researchers have put most of their efforts into making speech as natural as possible, and have largely neglected the area of pitch perception. According to Wendy, someone in Australia actually designed a program dealing with pitch perception, and it's being tested in only a few locations. At any rate, she can't use the device: it's made by another company, and it's questionable whether or not it would work. Insurance companies are guaranteed to nix another $50,000 re-implant just to try it out. Wendy says, "The problem is that the hearing health care profession tends to think that speech is essential to survival and music is not." She believes that attitudes can be changed, especially since there are more deaf musicians than one would imagine. Wendy runs a group called "Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss, with almost eighty people on the mailing list. Only four are string players, and the rest are pianists or woodwind players. There are a couple of audiologists as well. Wendy does all she can to promote her cause, and she frequently performs her latest polished piece at audiology conferences. We are both hoping for technological breakthroughs. At present, she is looking at getting a second implant in her left ear.

The Telemann Concerto in G has been a big challenge for both of us, and we have spent many months on both the first and the second movements. There was learning the notes, the pitches, the shifts, the intonation, the rhythm. Then came dynamics, phrasing, tone production, tricky bowings---it was a case of the child's toy with the pegs and the hammer: when we pounded at one problem, another one popped up. And then another. It's not just that Wendy can't discriminate pitch. She also doesn't discriminate tone or dynamics very well. Before I describe how we deal with these problems, I have to say that Wendy is a fabulously musical person. Her sense of rhythm is sturdy, her stance and presentation are excellent and compelling, and she has great ability to shape phrases. She clearly feels music at a deep level.

But for dynamics, she must depend on bow pressure and length ---concentrating especially on the visual aspects. "Paul [her husband] says I play loud all the time. He's probably right." It's really not true, because the visual does help, and we get in some dynamic contrasts.

However, tone production is harder. Even for those of us who hear normally, making a beautiful tone on our string instruments is work of a lifetime. In my two years of study with Shinichi Suzuki in Japan, we worked almost exclusively on tone at every lesson. An original work of calligraphy by Suzuki hanging above where I practice reminds me in Japanese, "A tone has a living soul." When my bow touches a string, it's the first thing I consider. So with Wendy, there is a truly musical existential problem to deal with: if she can't hear the living soul of music, then why bother? Why, indeed? We bother because Wendy wants to play, and the existential problem is mine alone.

So, in the Telemann, I face tone production in the same way I do everything else: try anything that seems to work. Visually, there is the contact point and keeping the bow parallel to the bridge. The feel of bow weight, speed and articulation are used constantly. Then there is feedback, feedback, feedback. I ask her to play the entire movement, and then we work phrase by phrase. Wendy is scheduled to perform at an Academy recital in May, followed by juries, and finally for the ASTA Certificate Performance Exam on June 11th. The first practice performance I arrange is an impromptu play-through done during her lesson time. I go out into the hallway, and convince a delightful mother from India to come in to "make my student nervous." She sits through Wendy's performance, claps, gives compliments, and leaves. I escort her out, and can't help myself: "I have to tell you that Wendy is deaf. She can't hear the exact pitches of what she is playing." The mother is flabbergasted. "Unbelievable," she says repeatedly. It's become one of my surreptitious goals with Wendy: to keep any audience completely unaware of her hearing loss. Wendy brushes it off: it's not her goal. She considers herself an ordinary person, and refuses any special treatment. However, she is famous at the Academy for her determination. At the recital, she is applauded enthusiastically and her jury comments are also extremely favorable. We go on to this year's ASTA exam, and she flies with her many "V's." Now we've got to get to Level 5 for next year!

I asked Wendy what her ultimate goals are. "I still want to get a music degree one day. I don't know why, but I think it's because I'm very big on music education." Music education for adults with and without disabilities would be her primary focus.

"The experience of playing a string instrument---I cherish every moment I can play. It's heavenly. Every time I can come close to a semblance of creating heavenly music, I'm very happy. It's a form of self-expression I'm completely at home with."

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For further reading, check out the following web sites:

Wendy's journal of getting an implant: http://www.geocities.com/pstauffer/wendy/silence.htm

How cochlear implants work: http://www.bionicear.com/tour/how_implants_work.asp