TEACHING of the PIANO/KEYBOARD to the HEARING-IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Turkey there has lately been an increased number of instrument players and singers newly-entrancing to the musical world and this quantitative rise would indisputably make its qualitative aspect even further significant in the upcoming process. Irrespective of playing any instrument or singing a song the performances of musicians are, in all cases, restricted with a certain audible level. In assigning talent-based appointees to departments specialized in music too, one of the foremost desired qualities among candidates is relevant of their hearing levels and such levels stand as the selective criteria for the candidates. The ability to hear mono sounds as well as identifying the polyphonic sounds (accords) or the rhythms establish the basic criteria in selection process. As issued in the March-2015 report of the World Health Organization (WHO) 5% of global population has a hearing disorder and this ratio is the equivalent of 360 million people. Likewise in Turkey this figure exceeds 3 million citizens in sum. With “Teaching of Instrument Playing via Colors and Images Method” developed by me in the mids of the 1990s it became viable to let Hearing Impaired Individuals play an instrument in 2004. The said method will be transferred to piano/keyboard teaching process and studies that focused on hearing disabled individuals will be presented in this paper.