The document discusses the author's personal experience transitioning from being a flute player to a sign language interpreter after injuries prevented her from continuing a career in music. It then summarizes the results of a study the author conducted which found many parallels between the skills of musicians and sign language interpreters. The study surveyed 249 sign language interpreters and found that most had musical backgrounds or interests, supporting the author's hypothesis that musical training can help develop skills relevant to interpreting like analysis of notation, memorization, and coordination with other performers. The document outlines some of these shared skills in more detail and argues more research is needed to further explore the connections between the two disciplines.

1. 6 Newsli issue 90 October 2014
in love with sign language in just the same
way I had fallen in love with my flute. I went to
classes and applied myself to learning sign
language with the enthusiasm and discipline
that I had once had for music. I found myself
using techniques that I had used in my
musical training. I kept a ‘practise’ notebook. I
set aside a particular time slot to concentrate
on one specific area of skill (just as I had
focused on one particular flute exercise or
challenging bar of music before).
I went on to give up my retail job and go to
the University of Wolverhampton to do a BSL/
English Interpreting degree. It was then that I
became aware that many of my fellow
students were rather musical too. Over the last
10 years I have met countless student
interpreters, trainee interpreters and qualified
interpreters who are active musicians, have a
musical past or have a keen interest in music.
I now work part-time as a lecturer at the
I recently undertook a study to explore how
many British sign language interpreters play
musical instruments and/or sing. Here, I will
discuss the results of that study and explain
the reason for my interest in this area.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a
sign language interpreter. I didn’t even learn to
sign until I was in my mid-twenties. Rather, I
spent my childhood dreaming of being a flute
player and of travelling the world in a fine
symphony orchestra.
At 13 I gained a music scholarship to a
residential school and spent the next three
years in a music room, practising the flute or
piano for hours at a time, singing in the choir
stall, or analysing scores and reading up on
the history of music.
I went on to do music at A-level and
applied to the various music schools.
However, all my hours of practise had taken
their toll on my tendons and it soon became
clear that I was not going to be able to
continue playing and practising for the amount
of time required to attain and maintain the
required level. I was heartbroken and packed
my flute away for the next 18 years.
After 10 years in retail management I came
across British Sign Language, courtesy of
some Deaf customers in one of my shops. I fell
Music and silence
Are you musical? Odds are, you are, and it might
even heighten your interpreting skills. Thaïsa
Whistance explores the links between sign
language interpreters and musical ability
‘It is possible that having
had musical training aids…
interpreters and increases
their potential interpreting
ability’

2. www.asli.org.uk 7
There are many areas of similarity to be
found when comparing the tasks carried out
by musicians and sign language interpreters.
I have briefly explored some of them below
and hope to go on to look at some of these
areas in more depth in the future.
Text analysis
Both musicians and interpreters start their
work with a text originated by someone else.
In the case of a musician, they are looking at a
manuscript that has been composed and then
perhaps edited further before being published
for interpretation and performance by the
instrumentalist, singer or conductor.
The composer’s original aim and intended
impact on the audience may be made explicit
by notes that accompany the manuscript itself
University of Wolverhampton. I am also a
practising BSL/English interpreter and (having
unearthed my flute seven years ago) a keen
musician. As an interpreter trainer, I am always
looking for new ways to help my students
unlock their interpreting potential and I have
often found myself falling back on the
discipline and techniques instilled in me
during my musical training.
I am, of course, aware of the wealth of
research which proposes a link between
music and language. ‘A growing body of
evidence suggests that language and music
are more closely related than previously
believed,’ writes Patel (2003), but I also felt
there could be a correlation between musical
training and interpreting ability. I undertook this
study to find out whether that is the case.
RESEARCH
MarcRoberts

3. 8 Newsli issue 90 October 2014
and by historical documents that enlighten the
musician. The editor of the published
manuscript may well have added symbols to
the notation which detail tempo and dynamics,
but the final rendition is borne of the skill of the
musician in both interpreting this information
and in playing their instrument.
An interpreter may have the benefit of the
speaker being present and may be able to
clarify their intentions in order to inform their
interpretation, but that is not always the case.
We may be faced with a piece of video
footage for translation into English or we may
be engaged in sight translation of a document
whose author is unknown or is not immediately
accessible. We too are then aided by any
extra contextual information available.
As we know, two interpreters will interpret
the same original text differently. This is also
the case for musicians. Instrumentalists will
render distinct performances of the same
piece of sheet music.
Physiological factors
There are parallels to be found in the decision-
making and processing skills involved in both
disciplines, as well as the intense levels of
work required to attain the practical skill level
required. Further study is now necessary to
review existing research to explore which
parts of the brain are involved in the various
activities undertaken by musicians and
interpreters and to determine whether there
are similarities.
Sign language interpreters and
instrumentalists alike must demonstrate
manual dexterity within a defined range of
movement parameters. There may also be
something to explore in terms of the use of
peripheral vision in both reading music and
receiving a signed message.
Preparation
Interpretations benefit from preparation on the
part of the interpreter. Although we may well
cope with assignments that are contextually
unfamiliar or contain terminology that is new to
us, we would prefer to prepare for these
challenges beforehand.
There may, however, be jobs which do not
require any preparation because the
interpreter is experienced within the domain or
because the assignment is not linguistically
complex. This is something else that we have
in common with musicians. A skilled and
experienced musician will be able to sight
read many of the pieces of music they come
across (whether or not they have any chance
to prepare). There are other pieces of music
which present particular challenges that the
instrumentalist will need to practise before
they are able to render them confidently. It is
almost always the case that a period of
familiarisation with the manuscript before a
performance will allow for an enhanced level
of dynamic variation and a more complete
performance in terms of getting across the
nuances of the piece, even with something
that is not technically challenging.
Preparation or prior knowledge can also
enhance the ability to anticipate or predict
what may be coming next. A pianist who has
practised and learned a D major scale will use
that knowledge to aid them in anticipating
potential phrase endings for a piece in that
musical key. As interpreters we are always
anticipating what the end of a sentence or
‘Both musicians and
interpreters start their work
with a text originated by
someone else’

4. RESEARCH
www.asli.org.uk 9
phrase may be, based on our prior knowledge
of our first and second languages and the
context of the assignment.
Specialist settings
Interpreters may favour particular domains of
interpreting and choose to specialise in these
disciplines. In the same way, many musicians
prefer specific genres or time periods of music
and specialise in these. There are parallels to
be drawn between the need for an interpreter
to build an understanding of domain-specific
terminology, and for a musician to know
genre-specific musical rules and parameters.
For example, in the domain of mental
health interpreting an interpreter will need to
have knowledge of lexical items relating to
mental health conditions and treatments. They
will need to have experience of and a
developed understanding of the way their
presence may influence the dynamics of a
therapy session. They will need to understand
the means by which psychological
assessments may be undertaken. Similarly, a
musician specialising in the Baroque period
will need specialist knowledge of the particular
style of playing required. There are specific
types of ornamentation which they must be
confident about delivering. They may also be
playing instruments which are not modern and
require different techniques.
Another consideration for interpreters is the
use of domain/context-appropriate register.
Being able to adjust your language use to a
courtroom on a Monday morning and a hen
party on a Friday night can be likened to a
musician playing in a jazz club one evening
and a symphony orchestra the next.
Co-working
Interpreters and musicians regularly work with
fellow professionals and have to develop
co-working strategies. Orchestras and
ensembles have to communicate with each
other via body movement, a glance of the eye
and the rhythmic movement of their
instruments in order to stay in time and in tune
with one another. Interpreters must seamlessly
turn take and ‘feed’ each other during an
interpretation and rely on some of the same
techniques for communicating with each other.
Having considered these various elements
of similarity very briefly, I am even more
fascinated by the idea that there may be
something to gain by exploring the links
between our two disciplines.
Research results
In order to test my theory that interpreters
seemed to show a higher level of musical
engagement that the general public, I sent out
an online survey to interpreters listed on the
NRCPD register.
A total of 249 interpreters responded to the
survey. The respondents were varied in terms
of their current registration status, with some of
them holding more than one registration:
53: Students
32: TSLI
192: RSLI
9: Eligible to register but
not currently registered
Over half (56.85%) can read musical
notation (20.97% to a high level and 35.89% to
a basic level). This is very high considering
that ‘only a small fraction of the population are
musically literate’ (Stewart et al, 2003).
This high level of musical literacy may be
significant as there is also evidence to suggest
that ‘experienced musicians, in reading,
perceive structurally defined groups of notes
as “chunks” of information instead of
processing them one note at a time, and that

5. 10 Newsli issue 90 October 2014
they do so cognitively’ (Grier, J 2012). This
action of ‘chunking’ is also something that we
interpreters need to be good at.
According to the Music Industry Market
Review (2010), 27.2% of adults claim to be
able to play a musical instrument. In
comparison, 33% of respondents currently
play musical instruments and 28.51% of us are
singers (some of those included here both
sing and play multiple instruments).
Only 20.97% of respondents could not play
or had not ever played a musical instrument or
sung, so this means that an astonishing
79.03% have had some kind of musical
training during their lifetime.
This may also be important because it has
been found that the effects of musical training
on the brain remain, whether or not you
continue to play later in life. Skoe and Kraus
(2012) suggest that ‘music practice during
childhood is associated with more robust
neural responses to sound in adulthood.’
There are also studies which demonstrate
that learning to play an instrument or sing can
have other consequences which may
contribute to enhanced interpreting ability.
‘Long-term music training in non-professional
musicians is associated with improvements in
working memory, in both the auditory and
visual domains and on both behavioral and
ERP measures, and perhaps with
improvements in attention’ (Stewart et al,
2003). Nutley et al also conclude that ‘Time
spent on music practice predicted both
visuo-spatial working memory and verbal
working-memory development.’ (2014).
Various research studies have posited the
theory that increased working memory
capacity leads to increased interpreting ability,
or that spoken language interpreters have a
working memory capacity advantage
(although others have not found the same
results). There is more research needed in this
area. For work related to the working memory
capacity of sign language interpreters see
Wang and Napier (2012) and Wang (2013).
Wang and Napier (2012), in their study into
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED BY RESEARCH RESPOND
Instrument Play
strictly
for fun
Grade
1
Grade
2
Grade
3
Piano 56 5 3 6
Violin 10 1
Singing 49 2
Flute 7 1 1
Clarinet 6 1 1
Alto Sax 3
Cello 1 2
Guitar 53 1
Trumpet 3
Oboe 1
Trombone 2
Viola
Descant
Recorder
32
Harp 1
Percussion 7
Horn 1
Bassoon 1
Double
Bass
1 2
Euphonium 1
Tenor Sax 4
Treble
Recorder
10
Organ 3
Tuba 1 1
Ukelele 13

6. RESEARCH
www.asli.org.uk 11
signed working memory capacity, found that
‘the hearing signers (ie the professional
interpreters) have a remarkably larger Auslan
WMC (working memory capacity) than the
Deaf signers’.
George and Coch (2011) conclude that
changes to the brain related to working
memory ‘are training-related and not intrinsic
to those individuals’ and so it is possible that
having had musical training aids those
interpreters and increases their potential
interpreting ability.
There may well be other benefits which
come from having had musical training.
Schellenberg and Weiss (2013) explore
musical aptitude and its relation to cognitive
abilities, referring to a large number of studies
which cover various strands of that main
theme. They found that ‘the ability to map
more complex pitch patterns in speech onto
the emotions they signal is enhanced among
musically trained adults and children in some
instances but not in others’ (2013). They
conclude that, ‘in short, musically trained
participants are particularly good listeners’.
This enhanced ability could result in an
interpretation from English to BSL that is
more highly reflective of the speaker, because
of the increased sensitivity to emotional
nuance in the original utterance. The potential
increase in the skill of effective listening is
obviously highly relevant to interpreters who
need to be able to focus their auditory
attention on the main speaker and that
person’s register, explicit and implicit
informational content, style of delivery,
ENTS
Grade
4
Grade
5
Grade
6
Grade
7
Grade
8
Total
2 3 3 0 3 81
1 1 13
5 1 57
2 5 1 1 18
4 2 1 15
3
2 1 6
1 1 56
1 1 5
1 2
2
1 1
32
1
7
1
1 2
1 4
1
4
1 11
3
2
13
‘There are parallels in the
decision-making and
processing skills involved in
both disciplines, as well as
the intense levels of work
required to attain the practical
skill level required’

7. 12 Newsli issue 90 October 2014
intended impact and so on. All of these areas
warrant further investigation.
Having established via the questionnaire
that many of the respondents had indeed had
some kind of musical training, it was important
to explore the extent of that training in the
context of quantifiable musical ability.
Graded music examinations
There are two main awarding bodies for music
performance qualifications: The Associated
Board of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM)
and Trinity College London (TCL).
ABRSM examinations are currently the
most popular, with 288,400 music qualification
achievements shown for 2011-12. Trinity
College London is shown with 83,317 arts and
media-related awards (including music or
dance, etc) for the same period (OFQUAL,
2013). This indicates that the number of
graded music examinations held by Trinity
College is around a quarter of the number
held by ABRSM in the same period (83,317 is
precisely 28.88% of 288,300, although the
former figure represents all arts and media
exams at TCL, not just music).
ABRSM statistics for 2012 show that in the
UK, 9,084 people achieved a Grade 8 music
performance qualification. Exact figures for
Trinity College Grade 8 examinations are not
available as a separate entity, but if we
estimate them at a maximum of 28.88% of the
total taken at Grade 8 with ABRSM (in line with
what we know about the total yearly figure)
then this gives an estimated figure of 2,830
people. This leaves us with, potentially, 11,914
people achieving a music performance
examination at Grade 8 level in 2012.
The population of the UK was estimated to
be 63.7 million in mid-2012 (Office for National
Statistics). This means that in 2012 an
estimated 0.018% of the population achieved
a grade 8 music performance qualification.
Allowing for the same amount of the
general population achieving this level every
year over a span of say, 60 years (covering the
age span of the respondents), this would still
only equate to 1.08% of the general population
having a Grade 8 qualification. Four per cent
of our respondents can claim this same
distinction. It therefore seems reasonable to
suggest that 4% is well over the level one
might expect. When taking Grade 5 figures as
an example, 8.4% of our respondents hold a
Grade 5 certificate but when applying the
same numerical extrapolation to the 2012
figures for the general population, only 3.5%
might be expected to do so.
Instruments played by respondents
The table on the preceding pages shows
details of some of the instruments played by
respondents, along with the level of
qualification (if any) attained. The graded
exams figures include those who took ABRSM/
Trinity and Guildhall examinations and those
who could not remember which exam board
they took.
We also have in our midst a diploma-level
pianist and violinist, and interpreters
who play some rather unusual instruments:
the didgeridoo, the steel pans, the theremin,
the harmonica and the mandolin to name but
‘Interpreters must seamlessly
‘‘turn take’’ and feed each
other during an interpretation
and rely on some of the same
communication techniques
for communicating with each
other (as musicians)’

8. RESEARCH
www.asli.org.uk 13
a few. We could put together an entertaining
concert programme between us!
Conclusion
We interpreters are indeed a musical lot. A
higher proportion of the respondents play
musical instruments than is the case for the
general public and it seems that there are
proportionately more of us that have achieved
graded levels in musical performance
examinations than could be anticipated (as far
as can be determined with the data available).
I hope that further investigation of the parallels
between the tasks and processes undertaken
by sign language interpreters and musicians
may lead to the conclusion that musical
pedagogy has something to offer the world of
sign language interpreting, given that it has a
much longer history to draw upon. I now plan
to continue to look in finer detail at why this
may be the case and to etsablish what, if any,
benefit may result from this correlation.
I would like to thank all of those BSL/
English interpreters who took the time to fill in
the survey, and I look forward to continuing my
exploration of this area.
REFERENCES
ABRSM (2012) Graded Music Exams by result available online at http://us.abrsm.org/en/press/
exam-statistics/graded-music-exams-by-result-practical/
George, E.M and Coch, D (2011) ‘Music training and working memory: An ERP study’ in
Neuropsychologia 49 (2011) pp1083-1094.
Grier, J (2012) ‘Musical literacy: a historical perspective’ in Anais do ii simpom 2012 - simpósio
brasileiro de pós-graduandos em música pp89-101.
Music Industry Marketing Review (2010) available online at http://www.keynote.co.uk/market-intelli-
gence/view/product/2324/music-industry/chapter/11/amateur-music
Office for National Statistics available online at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/popula-
tion-estimates-for-uk--england-and-wales--scotland-and-northern-ireland/mid-2011-and-mid-2012/
index.html
OFQUAL (2013) Annual Qualifications Market Report. Available online at ofqual.gov.uk
Bergman Nutley, S, Darki, F, and Klingberg, T (2014) ‘Music practice is associated with development of
working memory during childhood and adolescence’ in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7 (926)
pp1-9.
Patel, D.A, (2003) ‘Language, Music, Syntax and the Brain’ in Nature Neuroscience 6 (7) pp674-681.
Schellenberg, G.E and Weiss, M.W, (2013) ‘Music and cognitive abilities’ in Psychology of Music, 3rd
Edn, ed Deutsch, D (Amsterdam: Elsevier Inc) pp499-550.
Stewart, L and Henson, R, Kampe, K, Walsh, V, Turner, R & Frith, U (2003) ‘Brain changes after learning
to read and play music’ in Neuroimage 20 (1) pp71-83.
Skoe, E and Kraus, N (2012) ‘A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical
Training in Childhood’ in The Journal of Neuroscience, 32(34) pp11507-11510.
Wang, J and Napier, J (2012) ‘Signed Language Working Memory Capacity of Signed Language
Interpreters and Deaf Signers’ in Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 18(2). April 2013
pp271-286.
Wang, J (2013) ‘Bilingual working memory capacity of professional Auslan / English interpreters’ in
Interpreting 15(2). 2013. iii, pp139-167.