Concussion Accident Turned Derek Amato into a Music Virtuoso
Derek Amato literally became a musician by accident. Here's his strange life story. He plunged headfirst into a pool and accidentally hit the shallow part of it. On the same day, he lost 35 percent of his hearing and part of his memory and....
Amato was uncertain about the result of the accident but the effect became astonishing and it wasn't even bad at all. Along with the headaches and other post-concussion symptoms, the incident gave Amato a surprise present: it enabled him to become a musical connoisseur. Amato’s injury occurred in 2006 while he was horseplaying with his friends.
In a blog post, Amato was caught saying: "As I shut my eyes, I found these black and white structures moving from left to right, which in fact would represent in my mind, a fluid and continuous stream of musical notation," he also added, "My fingers began to scale the piano keys as if I had played all of my life. I can't explain the feeling of awe that overcame my entire being, although I can tell you the expression on my friend's face was enough to put us both in tears."
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Although he already have a bit of musical background even before the accident happened. He isn’t really that inclined to music as he was just experimenting how to play a guitar and that if he will try to compare his skills today with his skills before, the ratio would probably 10 is to 2.5 or 3.
Amato now displays piano demonstrations like a virtuoso, where melodies from the patterns of black and white blocks that stream across his brain in endless succession. It drives him to do such an exceptional musical act. He already had an album of original compositions and is currently at work on a new one.
Dr. Andrew Reeves of the Mayo Clinic said that Amato has a rare condition called acquired savant syndrome. In case you are not yet familiar with this medical term, it is a condition where “dormant savant skills emerge, sometimes at the prodigious level, after a brain injury or disease…where few such skills were evident before.” Reeves said that the injury must have changed Amato’s brain chemistry. And he may be the only man in the world to have acquired genius-level musical talent after getting a concussion.
“I think the headaches and the loss of hearing – those things are kind of the price-tag on this particular gift,” Derek Amato said in an interview. “And I’m OK with that. So I look at it as a blessing.”
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It's odd but I would love to acquire that kind of talent! I’m a hopeless guitarist. I would be very grateful if I will even be a classical pianist in an instant. I’m just scared of hitting my head intentionally just to have this kind of talent though. Since there are at least 30 others around the world who have developed musical abilities after some sort of brain trauma. So it is indeed a very rare medical condition.