In the past, as a deaf musician, I have felt a bit like the weird one. Not really fitting in. My mannerisms were a little different from my friends and colleagues, because I lipread, have to look at people’s faces and lips. It makes people sometimes think I was odd, looking so intently at them.
Now I feel empowered by my deafness. It makes me stronger. Like some sort of Marvel superpower. I lipread, I read body language. I can cut through the oddness.
Playing music and being deaf is sometimes hard when you have to rely on your instinct to know how loud or quiet something is. Sometimes I can’t actually hear very well on stage at all and have no reference to fall back on. Its like performing in a void.
Its good when I have a good sound engineer doing the sound, they can sort out the monitor so that I can get the right frequencies directed towards me.
My favourite sound is when then music is like a cushion underneath me and I am cloaked by the other instruments around me.
When I practise at home I will often practise with headphones on really loud so can just feel the music and completely immersed.
Hi Mel, as another musician who is deaf, I read your blog with interest. People often ask me how I can be deaf and play music – I have to admit it can sometimes be very hard, especially when the bass isn’t loud enough. I often don’t know how loud/quietly I’m playing and that’s caused some problems with others in the past! For me, if the bass is loud enough and I have the correct amount of hearing myself and others in the monitor then I’m sorted. It’s all in the vibrations!
Hey fellow deaf musician. Definitely vibrations. !!And love bass. Quite happily sit next to the bass amp, feel it.