Making Music with my Eyes

Mr X is an emerging songwriter, musician, artist, animator and filmmaker from west Wales. He has quadriplegic athetoid cerebral palsy, which means he is unable to speak, sit independently, walk, talk or use his hands. He is 23 and although he was born with a lifelong condition that affects his movement and speech – it hasn't stopped him expressing himself through music and the arts.

Mr X composes and arranges music via a piece of assistive technology called eyegaze. Eyegaze is a computer with a specialist camera that tracks eye movements. Mr X has developed his creativity through working with inclusive arts organisation Forget-Me-Not-Productions, which he has been doing for over 4 years. In that time he has gained 10 qualifications in music, composition, filmmaking, animation and sound design.

Mr X writes lyrics using a piece of specialist software called Supercore. He then comes up with ideas for melodies using an on-screen piano or via Google Music Chromelab. Forget-Me-Not-Productions' Clary Saddler will then develop these melodies further, creating an outline of the song. Mr X plays and records the music using virtual instruments operated by eyegaze. He then edits his early demos using Audacity; before helping Clary Saddler with the overall production and musical arrangement in Garageband by giving verbal commands and instructions using his communication aid.

Mr X also uses eyegaze to create storyboards for music videos and short animations. He then uses his eyegaze device to film and edit his videos using a piece of software called the Grid 3 (to operate Wondershare Filmora Video Editor), facilitated by Forget-Me-Not-Productions' Mel Saddler.

Mr X has had his music featured at Cardiff's Rawffest in 2018 and at Make Music Day 2019. He says “I love my music sessions with Forget-Me-Not-Productions. I've learned a lot about what I can do and I’m finally using my brain properly.”

You can listen to his debut single 'Only Love' featuring Clary Saddler on vocals here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kdXPqvuqj0

article posted by:Clary Saddler, Forget-Me-Not-Productions