HurleyPiano.com

Turning Special Needs Piano on its Head

Piano Genius

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There is a young blind man who can play the piano like Mozart but cannot count to five or do up his own shoelaces. Can anyone explain the mystery of savant musician Derek Paraviccini? Derek, aged 25 at the time of this documentary, is autistic and totally blind with an IQ of a 4 year old, he sucks his thumb and lives in a home for the blind. But when he sits at a piano he is transformed into a musician that few could equal. His memory contains many thousands of tunes which he can play faultlessly and in any key, a skill which defies even the finest professional musicians. Nothing is beyond Derek’s musical range. Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, obscure Russian composers, modern Jazz, Pop and the Blues — they all seem to come naturally to Derek. Uncannily he can play something as he hears it for the very first time —with only a split second delay, so it appears he is playing along with a tune he knows well. Derek Paravicini was one of twins born at 25 weeks, in 1979. Back then, there was little that could be done for such early premature babies. The oxygen treatment given to Derek in the incubator unit was life-saving, but there was a major side-effect of the treatment – blindness. Derek’s blindness, called rentrolental fibroplasia, was caused when oxygen pushed on the blood vessels and caused them to grow too quickly and resulted in brain damage. So could Derek’s extraordinary musical talent be the result of brain damage caused during his resuscitation at birth or has he inherited his genius. This film explores his musical ability and that of other savant musicians to try and discover where their musical genius comes from.

Autism Musical

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We are writing a musical with our students right now. The musical, Havoc Marvel, is written from the viewpoint of the protagonist with autism. Most musicals are written from the viewpoint of the doctor, the parent. This point of view will surprise you. The lyrics and the music are intense, challenging and provocative.

We have seven songs written so far. We write the songs on keyboard, record in Audacity, voice is recorded on smartphone and then we convert the sound files from .m4a to .wav. You get good at something when you have to. Learning all these new recording and mixing skills has been a lot of fun.

We are now thinking about rehearsals and auditioning for the different roles. It is important to move forward even when all the songs are not finished. We will learn how to rehearse and addition. How many kids with autism will we find to include in the show? As many as we can. Follow this story as it develops and give us your feedback. Remember, in this new hyper online world, you can audition by Skype, FaceTime, Hangouts, Zoom, Webex or any other platform you can think of. Or just make a video of yourself performing and post it on Instagram or YouTube or Vimeo.

We look forward to seeing what you can do.

In The Key of Genius

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Alyssa Murphy
Holy shit…I’m beyond impressed with Derek’s talent! Wow, it’s super interesting to think that he’s clinically and medically incapacitated/slow and has the IQ of a 4-5 year old child, yet he’s been given such an amazing gift. I couldn’t imagine having to live my life everyday blind. Not being able to see at all would be heartbreaking. And just to think, that’s Derek’s normal. He’s never known anything other than living his life everyday without his sight. So being blind is completely normal for him. It’s awesome to see how happy of a person he is, and the amount of talent that young man has is incredible. Being able to play the piano that flawlessly without being able to see, and being able to play any song in the world after he’s heard it at least once on the piano is such a cool thing to be able to do. That man is not “mentally retarded.” Explain the musical talent then if he’s retarded? He’s amazing!

What do Pedals on the Piano Do?

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Pianos, keyboards and digital pianos can have one to three foot pedals that perform various musical functions. The most important pedal is the Damper or Sustain pedal, usually found on the furthest right on acoustic instruments, and the only one for single pedal keyboards. The Damper/Sustain pedal controls how long the notes can be heard after playing them. The second most important pedal is the Soft pedal, otherwise known as the Una Corda. This controls how soft the piano sounds, and is usually the pedal furthest to the left on acoustic pianos. The third pedal – usually the middle one – varies in function, depending on the type of piano. On grand pianos, the middle pedal is known as a Sostenuto pedal. This pedal only holds notes that have been “locked” with the fingers, keeping the other notes free to be controlled by the other pedals or with the fingers alone. On upright pianos, the middle pedal is usually the practice pedal, moving a piece of felt between the hammers and strings to produce a muted sound, perfect for keeping the piano quiet and not disturbing others. For more information on pianos, visit Cunningham Piano Company’s website at http://cunninghampiano.com