How do people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing experience music?

Music can connect us, bring us joy, depress us, and even fire up an entire football stadium. But how does that work if you are deaf or hard-of-hearing? How significant is music to you then? Jonathan Vonkeman has been researching just that during his MediaMusic studies at ArtEZ Academy of Music in Enschede. 

Originally, Jonathan wanted to become a music teacher. That, he says, was the path he had envisioned himself taking before coming to study at the ArtEZ Academy of Music in Enschede. But one day his brother suggested that MediaMusic might actually something better for him. Jonathan says, “I started looking more into what the MediaMusic programme was all about, and it looked even more interesting to me than a path in education.” It ended up being a bit of a close call to apply, due to the fact that at the time, Jonathan only had 2 months until the admission deadline, and he had yet to put a single note on paper. "But once I knew that MediaMusic was what I wanted to pursue, I started working hard on my music production and songwriting. And in the end, thankfully, I was accepted.” 

Anything is possible 

In the few years that followed, his focus would end up changing several times again. “Every year, my goal would change. There is also space for that deliberately built into the programme. You learn a little bit from many different topics, taking in knowledge from every direction and styling your personal path accordingly. That way you find out through trial and error what resonates most with you. Anything is possible; your research focus is never fully set in stone.” Ultimately, Jonathan chose the Producer for Bands, Artists & Media specialisation option. “At first glance, it seems like under this specialisation option, you will mostly go on to produce songs for artists. And that could be the case, that you regularly write songs for bands and resell them. But the skills from this study extend more broadly than that. You could also become a singer-songwriter or mixing engineer. Or you could go in a completely different direction.” When it came time to choose a research topic, Jonathan found that he was not keen on learning how to build a studio, apply for subsidies, or other, more niche topics. Rather, he was more interested in something farther-reaching, something with a broader connection to society.

More than just feeling the bass

That ended up being research into how the deaf and hard-of-hearing experience music, and how Sign Language can play a role in that experience. Jonathan has always been interested in languages: "I lived in the US and Germany for a while as a kid. In both countries, you encounter a diverse range of cultures. I became interested in learning Swedish and Japanese, and also Dutch Sign Language. Then, the thought occurred to me: how do people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing experience music? And how can you make music more accessible for them?" He interviewed eight members of the Deaf community. He discovered that for this group of people, a musical experience goes much farther than just physically feeling a strong bass. "The visual aspect informs a lot of one’s perception of music, especially when it comes to assistance from musical interpreters. They must convey a complete visual picture of the music, beyond simply the words themselves.” 

Poetry in signing 

And that can be a complicated process, Jonathan has noticed. "For my research, I translated a song of mine into Dutch Sign Language. I took all of the little bits and pieces of the music into account: the lyrics, dynamics, structure, rhythm - and also the emotions behind the song. With the help of a music interpreter, I translated every sentence into Dutch Sign Language. It was interesting to deconstruct it like this. I always had to ask myself, what do I as the artist want to convey most here? What emotion motivated this sentence? Aside from that, there is also a certain poetry in Sign Language to keep in mind, in its metaphors and symbolism." 

Eagle eye

He also had to spend some time considering the execution of the performance. “Members of the Deaf community have an eagle eye. They pick up on even the slightest changes in facial expression, and they can immediately tell if you’re not signing something correctly.” He also had to pick his clothing carefully, so that his signing would show up clearly against the contrast with his outfit and the background and not distract from the gestures. He also had to wear short sleeves. “The lighting had to be just right, and the picture on the screen had to come out very sharp. It was quite a challenge to get all the little details right.” 

A universal love for music 

The result is a video where Jonathan puts his own research into practice and performs his own song in Dutch Sign Language, with the lyrics shown in real time. It is a piece of music that you are actually able to “listen” to with the sound off. For Jonathan, the biggest eye-opener was learning that people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing place just as much value on music as fully hearing members of society. Someone he interviewed put it best: “You often hear that music brings people together. It's the same for those of us with hearing loss. We also love music, and because of that, it brings us together too. Love for music is universal - it's not limited only to people with full hearing abilities, but for everyone.”