A Music Sense

Find out what Bayadera acoustic guitarist Dat Nguyen has to say about music, his upbringing and being blind.

Dat Nguyen

Age: Mid-30s
Instrument: For Bayadera, he usually plays acoustic guitar but has also performed with anything from a nylon string guitar to a bamboo flute. He actually knows how to play 10-15 different instruments, including electric guitar, piano and drums.
Time playing guitar: About 20 years.
First instrument played: Drums.
How music began: “I grew up in the neighborhood with a lot of musicians ... that does not happen a lot in Vietnam. Somehow the neighborhood I grew up in has a lot of radio repair shops ... people that played guitar.” He started with drums, but then got into guitar in his early teens. “When I held the guitar and actually began to try to play it, that was it.”
Blind since birth: He was able to see only light until about age 10 or 11, at which point he lost his sight completely.
Being a blind musician: “In a way, it’s a very neat experience. I don’t have to be distracted by a lot of things. I have to be somewhat well-trained on the hearing sense. I like sound. I like sound patterns and the way sound is organized artistically. ... I have learned to adapt to the regular world. Blind people adapt to the world. But the world is not always adapted to blind people, that’s OK."
On his free time: “I like to read science fiction. I like to read about ... cooking. I like to read the recipes ... and find out about good place(s) to eat.
“I only trust musicians that love to eat.”
Musical inspirations: "Carlos Santana, and my man, Stevie Wonder. A couple other guitarists, Paco de Lucia -- he’s my guitar god.” There are a range of other bands, musicians and genres that inspire him, including Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Tool, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and electronic music.

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