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From: blatt@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Miriam Blatt)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Tone deafness
Message-ID: <980@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Sat, 15-Nov-86 15:25:54 EST
Article-I.D.: Shasta.980
Posted: Sat Nov 15 15:25:54 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Nov-86 06:33:19 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 23

I am a violinist (amateur - actually I am studying computer science), and
since my mother teaches Suzuki violin I've had some exposure to teaching
young kids (to help her out). One particularly recalcitrant boy who is the
son of a family friend became my responsibility for a while, partly because
he had some respect and friendship for me so there was a little hope. 

He was a classic tone deaf person. I would play a note on the piano, then ask 
him to sing it and he'd miss by a few octaves - he wasn't even close to the
right degree of the scale. So I would tell him to sing a little higher, and
gradually get him to sing the note I was playing. He slowly grew to recognize
when he was right, and did get a lot better at doing this faster. 

I can't recall exactly how far we got, however, I think it would no longer be
accurate to label him tone deaf. Unfortunately, his mother gave the violin
lessons such low priority that eventually she just stopped bringing him.
Anyway, my experience is that tone deafness is simply a matter of lack of
exposure to music and hearing can be trained.

I wish you luck with your child. Don't give up so soon.

Miriam Blatt
blatt@amadeus.stanford.edu
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