Scottish Independent Media

By Claire Elliot

LEARNING to play a musical instrument can be a challenge for most people, let alone if you’re deaf.

But 18-year-old Kieran Ross has refused to let his disability stand in the way of his passion for music.

By the time he was five, despite having to lip-read, he was able to read music and play the piano.

Now, after taking up the guitar at 13, he loves nothing more than to perform on stage with his band, The Seasons.

He attained an ‘A’ in Higher grade music and is studying music technology at university a year ahead of most of his peers.

The second year student, from Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, even writes his own music and has performed on stage in front of First Minister Alex Salmond.

He has also just been named as the winner of the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Creative Artist of the Year 2008 award for his outstanding talent.

“I really don’t know where I’d be without music,” said Kieran.

“I definitely wouldn’t enjoy my life as much.

“It’s just indescribable. It’s relaxing and has the ability to cheer me up when I’m down.

“I often forget that I’m deaf. I’m used to hearing aids. It’s just like wearing glasses, you sometimes forget

you’re wearing them.”

Kieran’s state-of-the-art digital hearing aids allow him to hear speech and music, albeit not the same as a normal hearing person.

But there are certain high frequency sounds that he will never be able to pick up, such as s, v, and th.

Following speech therapy as a chid, however, he can say them.

He has also learned to develop his own coping strategies, including viewing sound frequencies he does not hear on a computer screen when editing and mixing songs.

Kieran, who hopes to follow a career in sound engineering or video editing, said: “I just get on with my life and have always enjoyed my music.

“I don’t mind if I’m playing myself or to 100 people, it’s all the same. But when people come up and speak to you at the end of a gig it’s really good.

 “My only problem with music is I don’t have a big enough MP3 player.

“I had to buy a terabyte hard drive to hold all my music.”

 Doctors confirmed Kieran - one of 35,000 deaf children in the UK - had severe hearing loss, which he was born with, when he was three years old.

 As a result he spent a lot of his childhood playing catch-up as he had delayed speech and social skills.

And, with no experience of deafness in the family, his parents, Vanessa and Andrew, who now have a four-year-old son, Nathan, who is also deaf, feared what would become of their son.

Ever since playing his first toy guitar and drum set as a toddler, however, Kieran, has continued to amaze them.

 He has played Aberdeen International Youth Festival as well as various city venues. His favourite music includes progressive metal, acoustic and jazz.

And, having started university after fifth year at school, Kieran is already half-way through his degree course at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley.

He hopes his success will help to reduce the stigma surrounding deafness, having been bullied as a child.

“As you get older you learn to shrug it off,” he said.

“But at school I always felt like I was the odd one out.

 “I was always last to be picked for football matches or last to have my name called out.

“Then when people started noticing me playing the guitar in my class and saw I was really good they started to speak to me. Before that I was just in the background.“

His proud mother, a 42-year-old accounts assistant, believes the first sound he ever heard was a booming organ at the Edinburgh Tattoo when he was just 18-months.

 “It was very loud and he just stood there fascinated. So I think the first thing he ever heard was music.

“Now take away music and you take away Kieran’s life.

 “He’s just been very musical from the word go.

“When we were told he was deaf we were absolutely distraught. We didn’t know where to go or what to do.

“If you had told me then that he would turn out the way he has I wouldn’t have believed it.

“I’m really proud of him and what he’s achieved in his life.

“It’s not been easy. There’s been lots of ups and downs. But he just amazes me every day what he can do,” she added.