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This visually impaired musician defied difficulties, stigma through his passion

ABS-CBN News Digital Intern

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1734885124603Screenshot 2024-12-23 003140.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Riane Foronda with his band &quot;Blind Side&quot;. Photo from Ethan Christensen Cardaño</div>MANILA -- Music has the power to fill gaps in people&#x27;s lives whenever they feel empty, heavy, or lost.For Riane Foronda, a 26 year old musician who lost his eyesight when he was 15, music made him whole and strong as a man that he is today. He navigates his passionate life along with his band named &quot;Blind Side.&quot;“Actually, my first intention when I first picked up the guitar was just to be popular,” he recalled when he was just starting out.But a month after his 15th birthday, a cataract surgery underwent complications. “My vision started fading, and since then, after a few months, I stopped playing the guitar,” he said. “Suddenly, I had the urge to pick up [my guitar] again, and music became my saving grace. That’s why I always say that music saved my life.&quot;On the first months of playing the guitar, he still could see, relying on the guitar’s inlays, a visual marker for guitar players on the fretboard for better navigation.“I relied on that for my markers, but without that, when my vision started to go away, especially when everything turned dark, I relied on my senses,” he explained.Foronda developed methods to play the guitar such as patterns and scales, helping him to figure out the number of the frets as he also uses imagery to play.“There are little images in my mind even though I can’t see, and I rely on my senses to hopefully land on the right notes. But then, after two years of studying guitar on my own, I learned, I learned decently,” he said.Foronda’s genre made it a little more complicated for him as he really wanted to play shred guitar like legendary guitar players like Slash or John Petrucci.“It was hard if you can’t see and do complicated, fast shredding stuff,” he said.Luckily for Foronda, his dad enrolled him in a place called the &quot;School of Rock.&quot;“My dad forcefully entered me in that [school]. But it was the greatest thing that happened to me because my teacher found a way for me to play without making minimal mistakes,” he said.<div>A community who loves music </div>Foronda said that besides his developing passion for guitar at the time, his time in the School of Rock in Katipunan was his gateway to be introduced in the Philippine local scene.“It developed my passion for music because I isolated myself for two years after I went blind and self-studied on YouTube, and my sister would help me read tabs,” he said.“When my dad placed me in School of Rock, I was kind of forced into this situation wherein I had to socialize again with people,” he added.“Of course, at first, it was awkward,” Foronda recalled, but with the help of his teachers, they guided him to socialize again, stating that a lot of his greatest moments in his life started in School of Rock.Foronda also recalled performing for his recital in Teatrino, with the theme ‘Pinoy Rock,’ “I had the opportunity to jam with bands like Hilera, so Chris and Bobby Padilla, and then Typecast [with] Sir Steve,” he said.“I was blown away by that live performance. I was in the moment,” he said.“That’s when I knew I wanted to pursue music,” he added.It was through School of Rock in which Foronda got to form &quot;Blind Side&quot;, with the encouragement of his teachers, especially a particular teacher by the name of Sir Daryl.“He is really my mentor, and it allowed me to socialize, improve my socialization skills, gave me the confidence [to perform], as they say, I learned to have a ‘thick face’ in the music industry,” he said.<div>Finding rhythm amid dark times</div>In his personal opinion, Foronda has a world record with all the surgeries that he experienced as his doctors joked about how he had already completed all the specialists in the medical field, even saying: “I just need a dermatologist for my eyes.&quot;“That was the joke of my doctors. It got to a point where they were the ones who delivered me to surgery. They know that we entered financial hardships because of my eye predicament,” he added.He recalled one moment when he was still undergoing constant surgery, as he lost hope that his eyesight would be restored.“When I got that news from my doctors, he held me in his arms and said ‘how old are you,’ I said ‘I’m 17,’ and he said, ‘You’re still young. You can do it,” recalled Foronda.“That’s when I knew that my eyesight was gone, and I drowned myself in music,” he added.Foronda also recalled a time in high school when his friends were in their school&#x27;s graduation ceremony, saying “I was already graduating from home. I was crying while playing the guitar, the theme song of the graduation song.&quot;“I was playing it during the exact day of their graduation because I was not with them. They left. My friends became professionals,” he added.Foronda asked himself at that time if his life was already over and dark thoughts entered his mind, but it was quickly replaced with an immense amount of hope because of music, as well as his peers.“My family, friends, and music saved my life, it got me out of those dark times, it allowed me again to grow,” he said.“I’m really thankful and grateful for it. That’s why I’m really passionate about music now… I’m grateful that I was able to step into the career of life. Music, friends, my family, and my faith helped me get back up again,” he added.“Even though I’m just walking now, they all ran away. I&#x27;m still walking towards that finish line,” he said.<div>&#x27;Finding meaning in our sufferings&#x27;</div>Foronda is currently a psychology student at the Philippine Women&#x27;s University as the COVID-19 pandemic halted his career in music citing that before the worldwide pandemic his band was at their peak.“I’ve been in the music industry for 9 years, [and] we achieved a lot as a band,” he said.“But we were pushed [back] by the pandemic, so we wanted to find ways to start back up again,” he emphasized.He remembered that he had a little bit of fun when choosing his program as he put psychology as his first choice, and music production second.“That wasn’t supposed to be my course, I was not accepted in the school that I I was entering because I did not take K-12,” he said.At first Foronda thought that he would be rejected by the psychology program but they accepted him and he revealed that there was also a blind graduate of the program at the time when he was enrolling.“I was the one who replaced him, so that was a laugh in my face,” he said.Foronda just thought of making it through the first year in the program but the more he stayed in classes, his interest in the study of the human mind became more apparent.“It made me understand more about the people I met in the music industry, before I questioned why there are good people, bad people, how do people do this to their own peers,” he said.Now the way he looks at other people changed thanks to his Theories of Personality course in college.“It explains why there are people who are so confident, why are there people who are so humble, why are there people who are so kind, why are there people who are a bit devious but not obvious,” he added.Foronda said that psychology tells him that the type of music that he plays is an expression of who he is, stating that through rock he is allowed to express himself freely.“Because I like rock and roll, I want to scream, I want to express myself because I’m really shy… [In] rock and roll, you should be wild, and it really fits me, and it allows me to validate my emotions,” he added.Foronda is especially thankful for his friends, and his family for the extensive support that he has garnered through his tough times.“Thank you is not a word that is enough to express my gratitude to them… I’m also grateful for my friends… We’ve been friends for 12 years, and they have been here for me,” he said. Foronda said that it was tough to tell his friends that he was blind at first, citing that he feared that they would reject him, but during one visit led him to say to himself that the connection they have with each other will last a lifetime.“That’s when I knew that these guys are forever. They’re my friends, they’re going to be my best friends until now,” he added.If Foronda had a message for the dreamers who are experiencing the same situation as him, he would tell them to just keep going. “&quot;Life might give us lemons, but let’s make orange juice with those lemons,&quot; he said.“The stereotypes about those people like me with disabilities, let’s go beyond that,” he said.Foronda said that human beings are creatures that have the greatest capability for adaptation, finding meaning in our sufferings, as well as keeping our mission in life despite trials that may go our way.“Once you’re able to overcome those negative adversities, you will see that you’ll just laugh at them. That’s how I was before, they become a part of you,” he said.<div>-- BY JIANZEN DEANANEAS, ABS-CBN News Digital Intern</div>

For Riane Foronda, a 26 year old musician who lost his eyesight when he was 15, music made him whole and strong as a man that he is today. He navigates his passionate life along with his band named "Blind Side."

For Riane Foronda, a 26 year old musician who lost his eyesight when he was 15, music made him whole and strong as a man that he is today. He navigates his passionate life along with his band named "Blind Side."

This visually impaired musician defies difficulties, stigma through his passion

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This visually impaired musician defies difficulties, stigma through his passion

ABS-CBN News Digital Intern

Published Dec 23, 2024 08:00 AM PHT

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