Year 8 Music student, Tai H has an extraordinary talent that only 1 in 10,000 people posess - synaesthesia. In simple terms, synaesthesia is a fascinationing phenomenom where there is a blending of the senses.

For Tai, this means he has perfect pitch because he can not only hear musical sounds but he can also identify them visually in his brain and know them instantly. In a practical application, it enables Tai to be able to learn to play an instrument and new music very quickly. In fact, despite only playing guitar for around five months, Tai’s talent is nothing less than exceptional.

Director of Learning for Music, Mr Smith spotted Tai’s special ability in lessons when he noticed certain behaviours that are common amongst people with synaesthesia. He said, “I noticed that if I played any musical note, Tai was able to correctly identify it almost instantly, but that he also appeared to be searching for it inside his brain. His ability to learn so quickly was also a major clue. The phenomenom is quite difficult to explain but Tai is in good company as Jimi Hendrix, Mozart and Beethoven were also synaesthetes.”

Tai, pictured below with Mr Smith, joined King James half way through Year 7 when he moved to the area from London, and he has become a valued member of our after-school guitar club and school band. He enjoys weekly guitar lessons with our visiting music teacher, Mr Waite.