HOW DEAFNESS FORMED BEETHOVEN’S BIGGEST HITS

Going deaf is fine, just don’t go blind cause eyes are needed to read this...

Who is Beethoven?

That is a very valid question, but one we both know you’re lying about. You know who he is.

But allow me to tell you a bit about his accomplishments anyway. Beeth (that’s what we used to call him back in school) composed 722 works, including 9 symphonies, 35 piano sonatas and 16 string quartets.

That is literally 722 more works than most people create in their lives. But here is the craziest plot twist of all, which you may have heard about. But Beeth didn’t. That may have been too soon.

What Was That?

Beeth started to struggle with hearing at around 20 years old. By this point, he had already been composing for some time.

It started with an annoying ring in the ear, which moved to a gradual loss of hearing over the next few decades. There are still a mix of ideas as to what caused this.

Was it lead poisoning? Was it autoimmune disease? Was it genetics? Was it his Air Pods being on a ridicuolously high volume?

Who knows. But that is besides the point. This is bad news for anyone, especially to a musical composer. This got to him, and he was scared, frustrated, and even thought about attempting suicide at one point, but lucky for him and the entire world, he didn’t.

Instead of giving up and feeling hopeless, he worked to find ways to fix the issue before his hearing was gone forever.

The Mind’s Ear

Beeth’s mind had an ear of its own. Maybe even 2. So does yours. Allow me to explain. Everything we do generates from our mind. Our mind knows how things happen before they even happen sometimes. We can anticipate, fill in gaps, or use patterns.

Maybe someone lags out on a phone call, and we still figured out what they said. Maybe we have an outcome before it even occurs.

Or maybe we have a dream or a vision that we can see so clearly, and that goal happens. The key thing is here, it all happens in the mind. A lot more is going on there then we think.

Beeth had many little tricks up his sleeve. Cutting legs off of pianos to hear the vibrations. Putting a metal rod on his teeth to feel the vibrations.

But also after playing so long and knowing what he knew, he was often able to compose and hear the music in his own mind. He went beyond the realm of just physical senses. He was using the power of his mind to lay down his sick beats.

Quiet Time

The realm of physical is a lame one. Sometimes you have to go beyond it. And Beeth was forced to. He was able to compose some of his best, all while being not able to hear. Let me repeat that.

Even though his hearing loss was gradual, the pieces that you head bang to at the club, were made while he was unable to hear. A bit tricky to comprehend, so let me give you an analogy or two.

Imagine a painter that is blind. He wasn’t always. But now he is because someone poked his eyes aggressively, and he was never able to see again. The painter still has his tools.

He knows the layout of what he is painting. He doesn’t need his vision. Sure it does help, but he can see what he is doing in his mind. The strides of paint. The shapes he is making. He knows what he is doing and can see it, even though in reality, he can’t see it.

Here is one more for you that you may understand since most of our target audience are oddly not blind painters.

If you have been typing for most of your life, (don’t lie, you type all day) then you are probably pretty damn good. You eventually get to a point where you can close your eyes, or look away from the keyboard and type. You are not seeing the keys. But you know what you’re hitting. You may even catch when you mess up and know how many times to backspace.

The first one demonstrates going beyond the physical realm, since we are able to see things in our mind before we see them in front of us.

The second demonstrates how once we get the hang of things, we can do them without totally depending on our senses.

Your Hearing Loss

Now, you may not be going through hearing loss, but there is still something to learn here.

Take Beethoven’s life as example that even in the most ironic scenario, where someone who needs his hearing most loses it, doesn’t stop him.

What this leads us to, is an idea of pure mastery. One where Beeth was upset he could not hear the songs, but was so familiar with the piano that he could do it anyway.

Do you have a similar sense of mastery in your work?

Do you know your craft well enough that you could compose a master work while at a huge disadvantage?

Look I'm not saying if you're a writer you have to blind, or any other one you could conjure up. I'm saying that you need to have that level of time invested.

Just like you can type with your eyes closed (maybe), does "insert your craft here" feel that effortless?

Because, let me tell you, if Beeth can make his biggest bangers while deaf, then we can surely do our best work when we have all of our senses up and running.

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