![]() ![]() Then Limb put Whitaker through a different series of auditory tests. Whitaker played a melody, with his feet keeping time, while Limb and his team recorded his brain's activity levels with the MRI scanner. He brought Whitaker to an MRI facility at the University of California, San Francisco and put him in the scanner with a mini keyboard on his lap. Once Limb also explained other artists had participated, the Whitakers agreed to let him scan Matthew's brain. "Or you know, 'What are they trying to do with my child?'" "Because somebody comes to you and says, 'Can we put your son in this scan?' And right away you're thinking, you know, lab rabbit," May Whitaker said. ![]() But when Limb approached the Whitakers, they were dubious. Specifically, Limb wants to know why the brains of certain artists seem better wired to give rise to new ideas. "I think anytime somebody watches Matthew play piano the first thing that you think is, 'How does he do that?' Except rather than just wondering I'm actually trying to answer the question," Limb said. Limb, a musician himself, is a surgeon and neuroscientist who uses MRI brain scans to better understand how exceptionally creative people do what they do. Charles Limb shows Matthew Whitaker's brain scans to correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi Since then, he's played in more than 200 clubs and concert halls around the world. His first paying gig was in Capri, Italy, where he cut his chops with seasoned jazz musicians. By the time he was 11, Whitaker was performing around the world. He's obviously, you know, got something to offer to the world and so you want to make that possible." Because you have someone of this talent, of this creativity, this enthusiasm. "Yeah, well it was scary more than exhausting," Sakas said. Then she played something else and Matt repeated it. "And Dalia played something on the piano… and Matt repeated it. "So we brought him over," Moses Whitaker said. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School in New York City, a school for the visually impaired. Sakas is the director of music studies at the Filomen M. Or, 'I don't know how to teach a blind child.'" Matthew Whitaker and Dalia Sakasĭalia Sakas agreed to meet Matthew. "At the time, we got a lot of answers where people were saying he's too young," Moses Whitaker said. So the Whitakers decided to get Matthew a teacher, which proved to be difficult. And they don't play chords and the harmonies and all of that. Because most kids don't play with both hands. "They were nursery rhymes more so than anything," Moses Whitaker said. It didn't take long for Whitaker to show that he had a gift. No one in Whitaker's family was a musician, but his grandfather bought him his first keyboard when he was 3 years old. He did start crawling towards music, sometimes sliding up to the speaker to feel the music. So that he would want to crawl, want to reach those things." So a lot of his toys and stuff we had to have sounds. Well, Matthew couldn't see to get to anything. You know most kids learn to crawl, they learn to walk because they want to try to get to something. "They said that he might not crawl," Moses Whitaker said. We'll just deal with it as it is.'"ĭoctors told the Whitakers that Matthew may never speak, but the challenges didn't end there. ![]() We just said, 'You know what? That's enough. Because the doctors weren't seeing it was getting any better. "We just felt like he was going through too much," Moses Whitaker said. Even if it meant he'd be permanently blind. After two anxious years, they decided they didn't want him to endure any more. Whitaker's parents watched helplessly as he braved 11 surgeries to try and save his sight. "I think at the time I didn't think he was gonna make it," May Whitaker said. One of the many complications he faced was retinopathy of prematurity, a disease which can lead to blindness. His parents were told he had less than a 50% chance of survival. So my question was, 'Okay, who showed him how to do that? Somebody had to show Matthew how to- how to play this song.' And nobody showed him." "Matt was playing the chords and the melody of the song at the same He hadn't had a lesson or anything. "He was playing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' But he was playin' it with both hands," Moses Whitaker said. Moses and May Whitaker, Matthew's parents His parents, Moses and May Whitaker, say Matthew had an ear for music before he could even talk. Whitaker grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey.
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