Friends and fellow musicians direct Thomas Leonard toward the guitar pick he's dropped by telling him if he is hot or cold. After feeling around for the pick, Leonard finds it, resumes playing his acoustic guitar and says, "Well I'm blind, it's not like I could see it anyway," as he chuckles.
He pauses from playing his guitar to tune it up, which he does by ear, leaning his head close to the sound hole. When he finishes on the guitar, he begins to assemble a drum set that he plays with the accompaniment of two other guitarists. As more musicians join in, Leonard moves on the keyboard and tears it up.
"I'm not entirely a traditional classical pianist. I have my own distinctive style of playing piano, ranging from soul, to blues, to soul-gospel and more than that. When you hear what I play, you'll notice that it's got a lot of soul in it. That's because I like to get people to feel what I'm feeling," Leonard said.
As Leonard's hands dance across guitar strings, with drum sticks and on piano keys, it's not at all hard to tune into the amount of pure soul that he pours into his music.
Leonard picked up his first guitar when he was 6 years old, and continued from there with the piano. He can now play every instrument, which he has basically taught himself, despite being completely blind since birth.
His blindness stems from a lack of growth in the optic nerve.
"I promised myself if I ever were to gain my eyes, I wouldn't use them for me. I'd use them to help other people," Leonard said.
Until then, Leonard focuses on absorbing the ins and outs of all that music has to offer.
"My grandfather taught me the basics (of guitar)," Leonard said. "He began by giving me the notes and telling me what they were. He'd say, 'This is F, this is F sharp,' and would keep going up and down the fret board as he told me what the notes were."
He explained that this is how he developed the case of "the perfect pitch." If given a sound, no matter which instrument it's played on, Leonard can identify the note.
Other than having deep running roots as a seasoned musician, Leonard has also been dabbling in the recording world for the past seven years. He admits to not entirely being a professional, but takes pride in his skill of being able to quickly polish off a session after recording.
"I say this with the utmost humility, but I've always had an ear for sound because I'm blind. One sense goes away, and the others pick up the slack," Leonard said.
Leonard is interested in working with local musicians who are looking to record their music, especially after feeling the embrace of the Auburn community once he moved here.
"Everybody out here is very generous," Leonard said. "I've never met people as generous as this. Never. They actually really take the time to just to sit and talk with you."
Though Leonard is passionate about Auburn and its residents, there remains one force that pulls at him stronger than any other - his music.
"Music is kind of a gift and a curse to me," Leonard said. "It's a curse because I feel it more than most. If it's sad I become sad with it. If it's soulful, I become soulful with it. It's a part of me, just as an arm is a part of a shoulder."
Anyone interested in recording music with Leonard may contact him at 251-454-9829 or taljazz@bellsouth.net.
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