The Hamilton Spectator Thursday, January 23, 1997 Piano prodigy soars past poor vision by Linda Jacobs Signs of Life (905) 336-6909     It was a moment of triumph. Yet one of ineffable sadness, too. When eleven year old piano prodigy Scott MacIntyre finished his remarkable concert at Brant Bible Church this Christmas, the crowd rose as one to applaud Scott's musical gift. It was a spontaneous outpouring of wonder.     There was only one person who didn't know about the standing ovation - Scott himself.     That's because the boy who may have been given the gift of perfect pitch was not granted the ordinary gift of vision.     Scott's family had to tell him about the great tribute paid to him that night.     Scott is legally blind, born with retinal damage.     What he can see, he sees reasonably clearly, but his field of vision is so narrow, it's as if he's looking at the world through a straw.     "As long as you're across the room, I can see the outline of you, but it's not perfect," he tells me. Up close, he sees only a narrow patch. Try looking through a straw and you'll understand.     The condition makes it impossible for him to read music while he's playing because, he explains, "I can't see both staves at the same time." He can either see what his left hand should be doing or his right, but not both. Also he can't see enough notes ahead to make sight reading practical.     So to learn a complex classical piece, Scott says, "I have to memorize it one hand at a time. I learn most of my classical music by sheet music, but then I perform it from memory."     Yet he's already an experienced concert performer - Scott has memorized hours of music to perform for charities and at several churches here and in his native California. He was featured on television on CNN when he was only 7.     And he'll soon take his Grade 8 (Royal Conservatory of Music) piano exam - an amazing level of performance for any 11-year old, never mind a pianist who cannot see his music. A Burlington piano teacher said in her many years of instruction she has met only one other child who has achieved Grade 8 by that age, and that was with normal vision.     Scott started playing at age 3 - just by going to the piano and playing melodies he liked from TV or tapes. "I played by ear then," he explains, "and actually I mostly still do." "When he was little," says his mom, Carole, "I'd put him to bed and then I'd hear the piano. He'd been listening to tapes and was picking out the tunes he liked."     By age 4, he was making his own tapes of himself playing the piano and telling jokes. "I mostly still play by ear because I have to," he says. "My hearing is very good." At that, his mother smiles. "It's not just music," she says. "He can hear people's emotions, too. He picks up Mom's feelings immediately, put it that way, so I can never pretend I'm not upset. He knows."     Carole provides home schooling for Scott and her two other children, Todd, 8 and Katelyn, 5. Katelyn is also visually impaired and has already started learning Braille. Carole figures the vision-oriented regular classroom can't meet the needs of two of her children.     The day I visit, the children are all excited by their home school program - curious and bubbling about all there is to know in life. That enthusiasm is typical, Carole says, and a side benefit is that it also gives Scott the flexibility to work on his music for hours. "It's not that I ever tell him to practice," Carole says. "He just goes over himself and starts playing."     They have two pianos, one of which is a grand, and Scott also has a keyboard hooked up to a computer. It allows him to compose and arrang