Girl With Amazing Musical Abilities

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I figured here might be the best.

Right, my stepdad has a friend called Kay with whom he founded a swimming club for disabled people. They have known each other for years, but I have only met her a couple of times. Now, to the story. My family (Mum, stepdad, brother and myself) went round to Kay's house for Chinese with her family, which is where I met her daughter Anna. I don't think I have ever met such an amzing person.

Kay, my mum and I were talking about a lot, just general things, when conversation turned to Anna going to University. She got into this certain Uni on her musical ability. They only take 6 students a year for singing ability, and she was one of them. She played the piano and sung, but refuses to tell her mum what song she performed.

Now this doesn't sound like it should be here yet. But hang on!!

Kay was telling us that she got a piano once, when Anna was 3. Anna came home from nursery, where they had been singing Christmas songs, and was playing about on it. Kay was in the kitchen when her husband Gary came in, and said 'If you're out here, who's playing that?'. Their 3-year-old daughter, who had never touched a piano in her life, was playing Little Donkey two handed.

Kay said Anna used to get really frustrated as a youngster because when she played an instrument, she could hear the whole set-up in her head, but obviously could only play one instrument at a time.

When she was at Primary school, they kicked her out of music lessons because she couldn't read sheet music. This upset her a lot. So her mum tried to enrol her at a nearby Catholic school, who said they couldn't take her as there were no places in her year, unless she wanted to join the year above. She did this. She played the piano in assemblies while everyone else sang hymns.

One day, another student brought a keyboard into school, and they were playing around on it. The teacher walked in whistling a tune, which Anna proceeded to play. The teacher asked 'what are you playing?', to which Anna replied 'What you were whilstling'. The teacher called in the headteacher and this 'game' continued with whistles and hums.

When her friend was learning how to play the French Horn, Anna had a go. She was a natural. When she went to see a performance, a woman asked her if she had ever played a harp. She hadn't, so the woman showed her by playing Amazing Grace. Anna finished it off. It seems that whatever Anna puts her hand to, she can do. She is an amazing musician, and is extremely modest. Her reply to her mother telling us all of this, and our astonishment at it, was just 'Shh mum, what is this, the Anna appreciation club?'

She still can't read music. She has never been able to. She plays by ear, and can play something after hearing it just once.

Now, the only reason I've put it here, apart from being odd, is this....

Anna is partially blind. In fact, a lot blind. She can't read music because her eyes can't scan fast enough.

My question is this, does anyone know if there is any proven link between loss of a sense and the heightened abilities of another? And where does the ability to play an instrument and sing brilliantly fit into it all? If this link does exist, surely it would only improve her hearing, not improved musical skills? I'd be interested to know what other ATS members think of this.

Thanks for your time.

Sam.x

Usually when people go blind, they have way better hearing than most normal people, but I don't think that there is any link between the loss of a sense and the increased music abilities of a person.

This girl you are talking about sounds a lot like Mozart. He had an amazing year and an amazing musical mind and could listen to a whole piece of music once and have it memorized. Mozart didn't have any disabilities and was still one of the most incredible musicians ever, so that leads me to believe that the loss of sense leads to advanced natural music ability.

Its been known for a long time that if you lose your sight, your other sneses get heightened to somewhat compensate.

A friend of mine can also play by ear, he'll hear something once or twice, and then wack out the same piece on a keyboard. He's amazing. It's an ability i wish i had, but theres nothing paranormal about it.

It sounds like this anna is just incredibly talented at playing by ear, no more, no less...

Sounds like there is much more going on here than just heightened senses....she's a musical genius. Does level of ability include other subjects, say math?

How old is she now?

wow amazing musical talent indeed. Is she composing stuff of her own as well?

child genuises are being born once every 30 years now so maby you jsut met one these are natural are playing any instrument and are very talented with everything try doing somethign with her and if shes blind umm ask her hard math problems like the root of 500 that sort of stuff

There are two main possibilities, one Paranormal, and one that it not.

Child Prodigy is of course the more normal one. While rare there are plenty of examples of people who have such stong natural talents they manifest very young. They do seem almost magical in their abilities. As has been suggested one way to test for this is to look for other areas where she shows special abilities. It seems fairly common that a Prodigy in one area has other talents.

The paranormal explaination would be Reincarnation. The person she would have to have been before would have to have had the same abilities although they could have been learned in a more normal way. This possibility is not easy to test, and I do not claim to be an expert on how one would do that. One way would be to see who, if anyone, in the past she has a particular affinity for.

If for example she said 'well yes I have always had this intense interest in Mr. X' then that could be researched. If Mr. X had the same sorts of skills, and died before she was born, then maybe, and really it is a maybe at this point, there is something to it.

The most typical technique to investigate possible cases of Reincarnation is hypnotic regression. While a useful tool it has to be done with the utmost care to avoid leading the subject to where the interviewer thinks the answers lie. I always advise anyone interested in regression for any purpose to really check out the person they are considering before doing any work.

This is not an easy task, you need at least one, and better yet, a couple of transcripts of previous sessions they have conducted. Then you need someone with the skills to see if the questions are leading or not. This is not something the average person can do, you pretty much need a law enforcement officer, a lawyer, or someone with similar skills. This is made tougher because the person you ask to evaluate the transcripts has to be able to put aside any disbelief they may have and just check out the technique.

I know that is a lot, but it is the only way to be even slightly sure you are going to get worthwile information from regression.

Personally I would guess that Prodigy is probably the answer. Her limited vision does enhance her hearing which makes music that much more important to her.


A.T
(-)

I can play for you...... give me A song ...dont know why ...I could just always do it ...I feeel it s a gift ...Karma maybe ...but sing it say it and i can play it

[edit on 29-8-2005 by xxKrisxx]

This gave me goosebumps as it reminded me of a story in the local news here not too long ago.

It was about a girl with the same ailment, basically, except that her gift was swimming. Her eyes could not focus fast, or something along that line, and it was difficult for her to swim straight while racing in the pool

I wonder if its not the same eye problem.

She was in the Canada summer games though.

Anyways back to the music. Its a great gift and I really dont doubt it at all. This person most likely just has the ear. Alot of famous musicians cannot read music.

As for a connection between hightened senses, its very debatable. Alot of good musicians are blind.

I love music, im basically blind. Without glasses I would be hopeless. I believe it has greatly hightened my hearing, but thats just me. I have always been able to play music by ear fairly well, but I dont show it.

Being able to play all those instruments flawlessly is another thing. Quite amazing. I wouldnt mind seeing it myself.

This story touches me closer than I ever thought.

I always had an amazing ability to hear music and could very quicky repeat what I had heard on nearly any instrument available.

I started on sax, picked up bass guitar when I was 13, later added keyboards and synth and 6 string guitar all without really ever being able to effectively sight read.
I got very good at arranging string and horn ensembles on my synth with no idea of what notes they were actually playing.

In high school, the band teacher hated me for being able to play the most difficult selections with the sheet music closed. I also used to ad lib solos every once in a while just because it steamed him so much.
I would usually find a recording somewhere and learn the part by ear.

It's funny how life can throw you a curve.

I'm nearly deaf now and I'm losing pitch recogition after more than 30 years performing.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I hope it wasn't too much of a read, just wanted to make sure you got all the info!

Anna is either 18 or 19 now, and she's moving away to University at the end of this week. No one mentioned anything about her skills in other subjects, but as far as I gathered, her eyesight is pretty bad. She failed her English exam due to it.

In her A-Levels (UK exams needed to get into Uni) She got 5 distinctions, which is the highest grade. One of these was in Composition.

Thank you all for giving me information, from child progidies to past life abilities!

FallenFromTheTree, I personally don't have any abilities at all lol, but I'd love to be able to show up teachers They think they know everything!!

I was first chair Alto Sax in the high school band and ended up having a permanent falling out with the band teacher in 10th grade.

I had spent the better part of a month convincing all 70 band members that we needed to play something both challenging and cool for our spring concert with the hope that students might actually show up to hear it instead of just our loyal families.

I located a source for the sheet music and all the band members were actually excited about performing The Who's Rock Opera "Tommy"

I proposed OUR selection in front of the entire band and the teacher blew me off saying that
he would never permit us to play that garbage.

I then thought for a moment went back to my chair, grabbed
my sax and told the teacher that if he did not understand the importance
of inspiring his students to learn, then there was nothing more he could teach me

and I walked out.


I ended up working in a band playing bass by the time I was 16.