ray charles

Ray Charles Robinson was born in 1932 in Albany, Georgia, he lost his eye sight

as a child and studied at the Saint Augustine, Florida, School for the blind. At three years

old Charles was already trying to involve himself in music. Charles knew a man named

Wylie Pitman who was one of the first people to encourage him in music. When Charles

was a child he would jump in the chair next to Pitman and bang the keys with all his

fingers. Pitman would say to him, "Oh no, son, you don't play like that; you don't hit the

keys with all your fingers at one time. I'm going to show you how to play a little melody

with one finger." Pitman could have said, hey kid get away IM practicing, but he didn't.

He let him play and sit in to learn the piano.

Things started to change fast shortly after that. The first major tragedy in Charles

life was seeing his younger brother a very bright and talented kid, drown in a washtub

when he was five years old. At first Charles thought he was playing, but it dawned on

him that he was drowning. Charles tried to save him but he was too heavy for him to pick

up, out of the washtub. This was very traumatic for Charles, and after that he started to

loose his sight. They tried to save his sight for

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His mom helped him deal with it by

showing him around and how to find things.

They called him in the principals office and said that he need to go home right away. He has won numerous awards in in his life some of

them inculde: the induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1979 , he was the

first performer to be so honored. He wanted to form his own trio, not work for somebody else, like in the past. He had to first learn the bars of music, practice it, and then

play and memorize it. It

had always been something that had captured his attention since he was three years old,

and Mr. As a student, Charles was playing

music that somebody else wrote and got the idea that he wanted to write music. They ended up going out to going out to

Los Angeles to record around 1950. It took about two years for Charles to loose his sight, but by the time he was

seven it was gone completely. Also, during all his fame Chalres had a drug problem and was fortunate to

over come, later in his life. After a few

weeks at this club he went to a nicer club The Rockin Chair. Later he was able to get in the piano class. During his time in Seattle

he met many musicians who later made names for themselves.

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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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