![]() He emphatically stated in his autobiography, “I was born with music inside me. ![]() While still sighted, Charles received informal piano lessons from a friend, but nonetheless thought that music was a part of his genes. It was after a performance and he came out of his dressing room and someone led him over to me.” Speaking to Uncut magazine in 2005, Wonder said, “It was only when I was 11 and I recorded Tribute To Uncle Ray that I found out he was blind. Yet, amazingly, Wonder claimed he initially had no idea that Charles shared a common disability. Born Steveland Judkins on May 13, 1950, some 20 years Charles’ junior, he repeatedly claimed that Charles, dubbed ‘the blind genius’, was his musical idol, and was later decorated with that title as well. Observing his innate ability to catch on to musical sounds, she bought him a piano and a harmonica, and he quickly learnt both instruments. Wonder’s early beginnings also saw him receiving worthwhile assistance of another sort from his mother. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. Writing in his autobiography, Charles, who would have celebrated his 89th birthday last Monday, said: “When the doctors told her (his mother) that I was gradually losing my sight and that I wasn’t going to be any better, she started helping me deal with it by showing me how to get around, how to find things, and that made it a little bit easier to deal with.” This perhaps explains the rapid acquisition of musical competence by Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, arguably the most outstanding blind performers in the history of popular music, both excelling as vocalists and multi-instrumentalists.Ĭharles became fully blinded by age seven, after suffering from glaucoma, while Wonder reportedly lost his sight shortly after birth. This greater focus on auditory input makes the brain develop in a different way,” the professor explained. ![]() “In blind children, the area of the brain involved in sight is not being used, but others, including those used for hearing, become much more alert and important. Professor Adam Ackelford, a musical research fellow at the Institute of Education in London, believes that the childhood experience presents a better opportunity for success. However, the incidence of outstanding entertainers like Charles and Wonder losing their sight in childhood years or at birth is more common, compared to those who suffer the disability at adulthood. ![]() Whether or not this was the compelling force behind the extraordinary success of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles is still open to debate. Many music aficionados subscribe to the theory that when one sense is impaired, the others develop at a faster rate, and this may be a contributing factor. Blindness has oftentimes been linked to the success of recording artistes in popular music. ![]()
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