A brief word on vision...
For years I didn't include this section on my website, and I won't go too far into it, but my vision loss is such a significant part of the way my musicianship has developed over the years, and the way I work today, that it feels remiss not to explain a little.
Aged 10, I was diagnosed with a genetic retina condition, Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy. The disease is roughly the same in both eyes, and is degenerative meaning it gradually deteriorates over time. There currently is no medical way of correcting or treating it.
I go into some depth about how it affects my life on a number of platforms (see below) but the main point of relevance here is that, since my teenage years I have not been able to sight-read music. I use and produce scores all the time, but I need to be zoomed in to about 1 bar on an iPad, 2-3 bars on a 27" iMac, so I'm not able to sight-read and play in real time.
I learn all my music by ear and by memory. I use Zoom and Voice-Over functions to access computer software. I've learnt how to make handy adaptations in Sibelius, Logic and forScore to help make musical materials more accessible for myself.
Being forced into these adaptations has made me a much better all-round musician, and has massively enhanced my aural skills so in a lot of ways I feel indebted to the condition. You can listen further on this topic on my podcast Legally Blind, and you can read further in my article in Sound Without Sight - see below.
