All his life my artist friend Kevin wanted to sing, write songs, and play guitar; but he couldn't because he was dyslexic, and he couldn't perceive pitches correctly. After recovering from those so-called deficits through the Tomatis Listening Method, which included "Earobics," daily exercises to improve his listening skills, Kevin began voice coaching and songwriting sessions with me.
I was fascinated by Kevin's story. He cried with joy the day he could finally hear music and speech the way they really sounded. All his life, he had been unaware that he was not hearing the full spectrum of sound from music. He knew he couldn't sing in tune because people told him so. Only his left inner ear and brain were coordinated in listening, instead of both ears and hemispheres.
Such mismatching results in communication and memory problems; a myriad of "learning disabilities" like auditory processing syndrome, ADD, ADHD, autism, depression, and more. Children with these problems are put into "special" classes in school with the stigma of "classified." They suffer academically and socially. And there has been no effective treatment; that is, until people discovered the ground-breaking work of Alfred A. Tomatis, a French Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist, who designed a listening program to overcome difficulties with speech, singing, memory, attention and more. To find out about The Tomatis Method and how it can change one's life, Google it. Hundreds of search results will greet you.
My friend Kevin loaned me a book about Tomatis' work, When Listening Comes Alive, by Paul Madaule, a Tomatis client. As I read, it became clear that my 12-year old voice student was unaware she could not sing in tune. In a song, she would skip in and out of many keys—with an air of total confidence. I suspected a brain problem early on when I would play a major scale leaving out the last "do," myself feeling the tension…the desire to resolve to that last "do." On the edge of my seat, I asked Casey, what she wanted to hear. She looked at me mystified. Like I was crazy--"What do you mean?" I would resolve to the home note, then, retry the test. And there was no "teaching" how to hear the "do."
Casey had a listening problem. An organic brain/ear problem.
Otherwise...Casey has a lovely voice and seems "born for the stage." She can act, dance, has no performance anxiety, and is full of confidence about her singing—because, she has been unaware of her deficit. In 40 years of training singers, this was my first experience of a talented person with great aspirations to whom it was a mystery why she was not auditioning well and winning roles.
I told Casey and her mom that the causes of her vocal problems were her inner ear, bone conduction, and a problem in her brain. Only then, did her mom tell me Casey was in special classes in school with special accommodations; diagnosed with auditory processing problems, communication problems, and generally, doing poorly. Her mother hadn't made the connection between the auditory processing problem and poor singing. Years of special accommodations in school, and standard psychotherapy had not helped Casey's academic and social problems.
It was only a month earlier that Kevin came to me with new enthusiasm for singing. He sang well, was a good guitar player and was writing terrific songs. Kevin appeared with the Tomatis information at just the right time for me to help Casey and her mom. I put his mother in touch with Kevin. I told her about how Sting used the method to help with his singing after experiencing hearing loss from loud music. Casey and his mother are hopeful and motivated to work the program. There are Tomatis practitioners all over NJ.
Funny how some things, and some people on their own, just come together at the right time.
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