“Derek Paravicini is completely blind and is severely learning impaired. He is 26, doesn’t know his left from right, and can barely count to ten.” Yet Derek is a complete musical genius. this is his story:
part 1 – part 2 – part 3 – part 4 – part 5
This documentary really got me hooked – do check it out.
Incredible, awe inspiring and humbling.
Another great example of the fact that each and every one of us are here on earth to achieve something great regardless of who we are and what challenges we face…
Thanks for posting the links. Better than anything I’ve watched in a while.
I thought it was interesting where they’re measuring brainwaves and it’s like the music is happening at a subconscious level – Derek can’t tell the examiner whether a piece has an error or not, but his brain waves show that his mind knows exactly what’s going on and identifies the problem immediately as it occurs.
@Shane: well that part didn’t impress me the most. The few errors they showed were very apparent – any musically trained brain would’ve picked those up – but maybe the test contained other very subtle errors.
The part I liked a lot, and that I found a tad dramatic even, is when they talk about how much feeling is injected into the music, and how some autistic savants are simply considered like musical robots.
yes – that’s what I was meaning to say – it’s that the errors were very apparent but he was ineffective in communicating whether the error existed – even though his mind immediately heard them. He’s not consciously aware of the show going on underneath.
Agree – his improv was amazing – especially liked the part of him improving with the orchestra playing over chord structures by ear.