At a board of directors meeting for Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, we learned that there would be a special after-dinner treat. One of the students in class at the time, we were told, is a professional musician, and he had agreed to sing for us.
Describing a voice is no easy feat. Richard Beausoleil's voice, however, is so, well, melodious, that it warrants an effort. The music was lovely. His voice is a tenor as smooth as butterscotch pudding, you might say, and his silvery guitar accompaniment was a perfect match for it. The effect was musical, of course, and soothing, too, lilting and lovely. This surprise entertainment was easy listening sans the oft-implied negative connotation associated with that label. It was "easy on the ears" and left my ears wishing for more of the same.
Richard Beausoleil, it turns out, is not only a professional musician who happens to be blind, but one with a very interesting set of tools and techniques that immediately prompted me to learn more for sharing his story with readers of AccessWorld.
Music in Any Language
When he speaks, Richard Beausoleil has a distinctly charming French accent. Born and raised in Quebec, where he lives and works today, his first language was French. One small part in selecting Guide Dogs for the Blind in California as his desired training center for receiving a guide dog was, in fact, the challenge of having to speak, listen, and learn exclusively in English for two whole weeks. He also commented that after each day of training, he was more than ready to call his wife for a relaxing conversation in his native French!
When he sings, however, his pronunciation is much the same as that of Billy Joel, Brian Wilson, Adele, John Lennon, or Paul Simon, to name only a few of the scores of artists whose popular songs from 1940 to the present he interprets. His diction while singing, in fact, is notably clearer than most, another mark in the plus column for the listening experience.
Richard Beausoleil's website identifies him as a musicien-chanteur (musician and singer) and, not unlike many professional musicians who make a living performing in restaurants, pubs, special events, and private parties; his repertoire is vast, aimed at pleasing audiences ranging in age from 20 to 100.
The methods he uses to be prepared to charm audiences with popular songs spanning so many genres and decades, however, are far from commonplace.
What's on Your iPod?
For me, Richard Beausoleil's performance was lyrical and flawless, and just plain pleasant. But I was not able to see his performance.
When a fellow board member who has normal vision asked, "What's on your iPod?" I began to understand that his performance style has some interesting visual elements, too.
First, Beausoleil plays his guitar with the instrument lying flat, rather than on its side against the body as is customary. Asked why this is, he explained: "I began to play when I was four years old. I just played to make the sounds I had heard. On a piano, you press on the keys. So I pressed on the strings."
How to hold the instrument, in other words, was not relevant to the four-year-old wanting only to make music. The answer to the iPod question was even more interesting. The "iPod" was, in fact a Victor Reader Stream. What Beausoleil is hearing while performing a song is the accompanying arrangement, (a track he has produced himself) in his left ear and the lyrics, (spoken by a speech synthesizer) in his right.
How he has these tracks for hundreds of songs is the rest of the story.
Beausoleil Productions
In his home, Richard Beausoleil has a professional recording studio. He uses a Windows 7 computer, JAWS screen-reading software, and software from Dancing Dots called CakeTalking for Sonar. Part of his business is rooted in producing demo tracks and arranging and creating musical accompaniments for songwriters and other musicians who require production services. For each of the hundreds of songs in his own performance repertoire, he produces the orchestral accompaniment. Sometimes, that multi-instrument sound is heard by his audience. Often, it is heard only by Beausoleil himself (as the track heard in his left ear), while his guitar and vocal performance is what his listeners hear.
Next, he develops a file with the lyrics, spoken by a speech synthesizer, and delivered in exact cadences, synchronized with the music, so that he is cued, line by line, as the song progresses.
For each song, he puts the two together, music for left track and lyrics for right, and adds it to his Victor Reader Stream. When a request is made, he simply searches for the desired song using the Victor Reader Stream text function, and begins to play and sing.
During our interview, Richard allowed me to cruise the amazing repertoire in his Victor Reader Stream.
"Dancing Queen," "Piano Man," "I'll Be Seeing You," "Big Yellow Taxi"—every artist from Elvis to Al Green, the Everly Brothers to Bruno Mars is there. And then, in the Victor Stream voice familiar to so many, I heard, "Mains Sur Tes Hanches," "Elle était si Jolie," and "Le Petit Bonheur."
I am momentarily bewildered. And then I remember: Oh, yes, of course, Richard Beausoleil would naturally sing as many songs in French as he does songs in English!
Sometimes, the left track is only the sound of a metronome, which he has synchronized with the right-ear lyric track.
I selected one song after another, listening to a bit of each, and admit that the strange effect of hearing a kind of robotic karaoke initially struck me as both brilliant and farcical. Reflecting, then, on how this musician can create such support materials, arrange and produce them, and then utilize them as he does on a regular basis, I was mostly just amazed.
Beausoleil says that technology has had tremendous and positive impact on his work. His wife, who works for HumanWare, happened to meet Bill McCann, president of Dancing Dots, at a CSUN conference over a decade ago. She knew immediately that the software created by that company, CakeTalking, providing access to SONAR, was exactly what her husband needed. And, of course, she was in the right place to recognize another valuable tool for him when the Victor Reader Stream was initially introduced by HumanWare.
How to Hear Richard Beausoleil's Music
Like many freelance artists, Richard Beausoleil's work is a collage of assignments. He produces demos and supporting tracks for other musicians. He provides the entertainment for parties, corporate events, weddings, and a variety of special occasions. And, if you are lucky enough to be in Quebec on a Friday or Saturday evening, he is the regular entertainment at a restaurant called Crêperie le St-L, 579 Avenue Notre-Dame, Saint-Lambert.
Of course, if you don't live in his part of the world, you can also hear plenty of samples Richard Beausoleil's website.
In a time when technology, both specialized and mainstream, presents work-arounds for so many professional and recreational tasks, there still are surprises. It was wonderful to see how talent, resourcefulness, and the ability to apply technology to the individual needs of one clever user have come together.
A Richard Beausoleil performance is, in other words, a sample of true harmony—the harmony of talent and technology—and the result is a treat indeed.
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