Teaching Instrumental Music to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Students with impaired hearing have found success participating in school bands and orchestras for over 100 years. Many reports from the early 1900s and before tell of military bands organized for the training of deaf musicians (Edwards, 1974). Fred Fancher, a deaf bandmaster from Tennessee, led such an organization from 1923-1942 at the Illinois School for the Deaf located in Jacksonville. Taught to perform with a high degree of precision and expression, this ensemble presented concerts in many towns and cities throughout the United States. Boumehim Kryl, a professional bandmaster and cornet soloist, remarked at the exceptional quality of the music, not only from the standpoint of the musicians not being able to hear, but also the fact that they were of such a young age (Sheldon, 1997).