Great and Famous Musicians Who Have Disabilities

Great and Famous Musicians Who Have Hearing Disabilities. Amazing isn't it, because in order for one to be a good musician, you need to hear, because how can you hear the melodies when you are hearing impaired. Sweet are the words and the sounds we hear, but how does a person with hearing disabilities or impairment can even respond to the world when he cant hear any noise. For some, they have been born with the impairment but for majority, it has been a result of serious illness, medicine taken or trauma. In this hub, I will make use of the stories of musicians who succeed in the world of music even though they have hearing disabilities. Some of the famous and great musicians how have hearing disabilities are Ludwig Van Beethoven, Ray Charles and Stevie wonder to name a few.

Helen Keller herself who was deaf blind overcome her disabilities and earned a Bachelor Arts degree has this to say :

• "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart".
  
• "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do".

Hearing Disability

• Hearing impairment or Deafness refers to a conditions by which individuals are 100 percent or partially unable to hear/detect or perceive at least some frequencies of sound which are normally heard by same specie as them, specifically in this hub -- human beings.
• Severity of a hearing disability is "usually ranked according to the loudness which is measured in decibels -- a sound must be before being detected by an individual".
• Hearing disability is ranked as either mild, moderate, severe or profound.

Two Kinds of Hearing Disability

• Prelingual deafness is hearing disability that is acquired prior to the acquisition of language which can be a result of any congenital conditions or acquired though infancy
• Post-lingual deafness is hearing disability that is sustained after the acquisition of language which is maybe due to a disease, trauma or medicine taken

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was an American musician and was a pioneer in the genre of soul music in the 1950s -- rhythm and blues, gospel ad blues and in 1960s -- country and pop music. According to wikipedia "during his tenure with ABC, Charles became one of the first African- American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company". The Rolling Stones ranked ray Charles number ten on their list of the 100 greatest artist of all time. In 2004, and voted him number two on their November 2008 list of "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five and went completely blind by the age of seven due to glaucoma while other say that it is due to an infection because of a soap in his eye.

Born on Sept. 23, 1930 at Albany, Georgia, USA

Died : June 10, 2004

Ludwig van Beethoven, was baptised on 17 December 1770 – and died on 26 March 1827. Beethoven is very famous. He was a was a German composer and a pianist and was a figure in the period between the classical and Romantic period in the Western music -- classical. Beethoven remains one of most known and greatest composers plus influential of all time.

The main cause of his hearing impairment was unknown and it was known that he lost his hearing around 1796.

Around 1796, Beethoven lost his hearing and according to the autopsy, he had a distended inner ear.

Foxy Brown- Inga Marchand who was born on and was known as Foxy Brown is an American rapper, and is into hip hop music. She lost her hearing due to a rare conditions. She said she is suffering from a severe and sudden sensorineural hearing loss in both ears and she is positive God can help her so that she can hear again. The good thing about this is that she is positive that one day she can overcome her disability through GOD.

Born on September 6, 1978, in Brooklyn, New York City,

Johnnie Ray - John Alvin Ray who was born on January 10, 1927 -- and died on February 24, 1990 was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Johnnie Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become Rock and Roll, jazz and blues music and his vibrant performances.

According to resources he was partially deaf because of an injury sustained at the age of 13 because of an accident and he later performed using hearing aids.

Stevie Wonder was born on May 13, 1950 is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Stevie Wonder is blind from birth. Wonder signed with Tamla records when he was eleven and continues to perform and record for the label. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy awards -- the most ever won by a male solo artist. On December 1, 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

1. Brian Wilson, American musician and songwriter with The Beach Boys
2. Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese popular singer and songwriter
3. Rudi Carrell, Dutch popular singer
4. Ryan Adams, American alternative country artist
5. Mandy Harvey -- American Jazz singer
6. William Boyce, British composer
7. Pete Townshend, British lead guitarist and songwriter with The Who
8. Evelyn Glennie, Scottish percussionist
9. George Martin, English bandleader and producer of The Beatles
10. Gabriel Fauré, French composer
11. Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer
12. Danny Elfman, film score composer and former member of Oingo Boingo Lars Ulrich,
13. Danish drummer in Metallica