(♪♪♪) - (narrator): Two men, worlds apart, have followed similar paths.

In Ottawa, Canada, guitarist Lucas Haneman's passion for music brings him and his wife closer together.

- Music is everything to me.

- And in Cuernavaca, Mexico, jazz pianist Eduardo Ibarra's house is also filled with music, whether he's playing it wit his children, or teaching it.

- I've learned to teach from my own experiences as a musician, having played so much over so many years - not from books.

- Blind or partially-sighted, the musicians featured in this series are living out their musical dreams.

They teach us to be tru to ourselves, no matter what.

Their stories are examples of hard work, dedication and passion which make us truly see music.

Today, we're in Ottawa, Canada to meet Lucas Haneman and his family.

Lucas is a guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter.

Whether playing solo or as part of his four-piece band, the Lucas Haneman Express, Lucas certainly gets around.

He has performed all across North America.

But it was here at the Club Saw, a local venue, that it all began when Lucas got his first professional music contract as a teen.

- The main project for me, over the past few years, has been this Lucas Haneman Express, which is my own group.

We're very lucky to have some great opportunities in the past few years.

We've had the chance to perform in the States, in Memphis, Tennessee.

We recorded at the legendary Sun Studios.

You know, my group, the Lucas Haneman Express, I really settled on where my heart is, musically speaking, which is funk, blues and just a little tiny bit of jazz mixed in there to make it a little special.

♪♪ Come on, pretty baby ♪♪ I have a visual impairment called retinopathy of prematurity.

I was born prematurely, about two months or so early.

I don't see anything out of my left eye and I see about 8% in my right of what people see.

And I think I'm at a place where I am doing my own thing and I do have my own sound.

It took a long time to get there.

I've never ever had a challenge with music due to being visually impaired.

I've had challenges with the business due to being visually impaired.

Because it is complicated and people look at you a certain way, sometimes.

And they don't know how to talk to you.

The promotional side of it can be tough because sometimes, computers don't want to agree with the software that we have to use, you know, text-to-speech software, things like that, to make things work.

But I don't think about that stuff very often and I really try hard to not get bogged down by it because musically speaking, I see my visual impairment as only something that has blessed me and helped me.

I've always been able to listen to music on a deep level.

I'm aware that I can do that.

I can help people learn songs on a deep level because I can hear the chor changes really, really quickly, because of the way I've had to learn music.

I've never really read it.

Right now we're in a beautiful place in Ottawa called Saw Gallery.

I'm with my dad, Wayne, here, today.

And he brought his old guitar.

This is the guitar that got me started.

Ha!

ha!

- Lucas was a baby, I used to play this guitar for him and his brother.

And he always wanted to grab and play it.

I think it was when he was probably about four or five, and Lucas came into the room playing the guitar, and it sounded like the Beatles' song Yellow Submarine.

And I said, "He's playing Yellow Submarine!"

I couldn't believe it.

That's when I knew that he was going to be a guitar player.

- Don't pay attention to my fingers.

(laughs) - Just keep doing what I'm doing.

- Let me see if it's in tune with yours.

(♪♪♪) Initially, my father taught me all of the basic chords.

I was raised in a situation where, obviously, I am visually impaired, but my parents didn't make me feel that I was at all.

They just treated me like anybody else.

There was no reason for me not to get things done or not to learn how to mow the lawn, you know?

Even though sometimes, I'd mow into the garden or whatever.

Ha!

ha!

(♪♪♪) But you know, I'm thankful for those experiences because I'm not afraid of the world.

I've flown all the way over to Vancouver and to L.A. by myself, you know, just to get work done.

(♪♪♪) - (Wayne): Seeing him on stage, I get quite emotional.

Especially when I see the audience reaction to him.

(♪♪♪) - (narrator): Cuernavaca, Mexico is known as the city of eternal springtime.

This morning, the magnificent city wakes up not only to the sound of birds singing, but also to the melodious notes of jazz piano.

The music is being played by Eduardo, a blind musician.

(♪♪♪) - (dubbed): My name is Eduardo Ibarra.

I'm a musician.

I've studied classical guitar and jazz piano.

For me, making music is like seeing images.

Imagining stories and landscapes that've come to me through my ears.

What I have understood.

When I make music, I imagine what the lighting is like.

The freedom to stroll through forests, through gardens, and along the beach.

When I make music, I explore all those worlds... - (narrator): Today, Eduardo is attending a dinner party with his family.

He's been invited over by his friend, a doctor.

This friend has a world-class grand piano, which he regularly makes available to Eduardo.

- I lost my sight when I was three.

By four or five, I was enrolled at a special school for the partially-sighted.

As a child, I didn't really feel discriminated against because of my condition, since my parents gave me a very normal life.

My older siblings were responsible for playing with me.

They'd sometimes ask permission to go play soccer - and my parents would say, "Yes, but take your brother with you."

They'd be like, "Nah!"

but my parents would insist, "Take him or you're not going."

Doctor, you sit here!

They're sitting me in your spot, are you sure that's okay?

- That's fine.

No worries.

That's perfect.

- Okay, let's pray.

Dear Father, thank you for blessing us with this meal.

We ask you to bless the rest of our time together in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.

The reality of how others saw me only really hit me later in life, when I wasn't accepted to study classical guitar at the University of Mexico.

Actually, it wasn't the University - it was a professor there who said he wasn't trained to teach a blind student.

Cheers!

(laughs) It was a huge blow - because he was a professo I'd really wanted to study with.

Luckily, I found teacher Manuel Lopez Ramos's academy, where I met some great classical guitarists.

That's where I started my career as a guitarist.

In my twenties, I got a scholarship from CONACYT to study guitar at the Boston Conservatory.

That's when I fell in love with jazz and with the piano.

I started putting aside the guitar in favour of the piano, even though I was supposed to be focusing on the guitar.

I started playing the piano more and more, and today it's what feeds me and my family.

(♪♪♪) - (narrator): After the meal, Eduardo expresses gratitude to his host by playing the piano.

He dedicates a bolero to him, accompanied by his son Andres, on the cello, and his friend Jose Alberto, a percussionist.

(♪♪♪) Jose keeps the beat on a cajon - a kind of large wooden box on which he sits and taps the side of with his hands.

(♪♪♪) - (Eduardo): I live and breathe music.

And it's also important because it's what my children have inherited.

Andres plays the cello and Javier sings.

(♪♪♪) Fortunately, my wife puts up with me being in my music all day.

That's the relationship with my family.

(applause) Here at Raven Street Recording Studio, Lucas is developing his new project - a duet album with his wife, singer Megan Laurence.

(♪♪♪) - (Lucas): So, my wife Megan and I are working on a duo album right now, with our project called The Blind and the Beautiful.

♪♪ Every morning, 7 am ♪ We're working on our first project as an official duo.

And it's very roots-based, very... Well, for us, anyways, it's traditional type blues-ish music.

- We refused to play together in the beginning.

That was the funny part.

We were living together, and we'd kind of made the decision not to work together because I didn't want people to think that I got together with Lucas to have a partner to play with.

And he didn't want people to think he got together with me to have somebody to play with as well.

(♪♪♪) Every time we do a gig, he's got to hire a singer, I'v got to hire somebody to play.

So, why don't we stop doing that and just keep all the money?

(♪♪♪) - We're so lucky to be able to share this musical thing.

It's something that a lot of people don't get the chance to experience with their significant other, right?

- And we're funny about it too.

Because we don't tell people that we're married at all.

When we do our gigs, we don't act like we're married or anything like that.

We always have this fun thing at the end of the night.

If one of us gets hit on, we feel really good about that.

Because that's the whole illusion, right?

You're supposed to be available and single.

(♪♪♪) - So I'm working on this tune called Side Piece.

It's a solo tune for you to sing, right?

I'll do the backup parts.

All right, we're good to go.

(♪♪♪) - ♪♪ Hey baby ♪ - (Megan): They almost forget that Lucas has a visual impairment because of the way that he carries himself.

Hence why we called ourselve The Blind and the Beautiful.

Because we would go to events, and people wouldn't realize that Lucas was visually impaire until after he got off the stage and they notice that I was helping him get off.

And all of a sudden, there would be this barrier and people would be afraid to come over because they didn't know how to approach him.

And it's sad that I get to see that.

So that's the hard part.

We were like, you know what?

We're just going to call ourselves this.

And that way, it's out in the open right off the bat.

They get it and they realiz that we don't take it seriously and you can come up to us, we're a fun group.

- And it also means that too, this duo name that we have.

It kind of means, you know, life is absolutely amazing if we just close our eyes and don't see the differences that we all have.

And do we really have any differences, you know?

- It's a slide.

We're almost there!

That's good!

Lucas and I have a beautiful three-year-old daughter named Kenzie.

Do you want anybody to come with you?

- No.

- No?

You don't need anybody?

All right.

Where do you want to go?

We discovered this week tha we're not the normal parents.

She was on her playgroup online and they started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and our daughter had no clue what that song was.

But if you put on Bungalow Bill, she knows that, by the Beatles.

You can play any old songs, blues songs, first couple of bars, and our daughter, at three, will tell you exactly what song it is.

(cheering) - (narrator): Eduardo is a family man who enjoys spending his free time with his children.

He particularly enjoys a good game of chess with his son Javier.

By feeling each of the pieces, Eduardo can visualize the chessboard in his mind.

In fact, it was with his family that Eduardo first discovered his passion for music as a child.

- (dubbed): Between the ages of five and six, at a dinner at my uncle's house in Mexico City, they left me sitting in the living room.

Just like this.

And I found something.

A long, smooth wooden thing like a box with metal strings.

And I was like, "What's this?"

I picked it up and it was light, and as I touched it - the metal wires suddenly made a sound.

And I was like, "What is this?"

(♪♪♪) I was totally intrigued, holding this strange thing in my hands.

Then a voice suddenly said, "Eduardo, what are you doing with my uncle's guitar?"

"Oh, - it's a guitar," I thought.

So my cousin Gabriel sat down and started playing.

That was the day I decided to become a musician.

(♪♪♪) Music was something that came easily to me, and I ultimately found a broad range of work - from recordings to jingles to producing albums, as a producer and as a musician.

It opened doors and gave me a way to earn a living.

(♪♪♪) At downtown Ottawa's Club Saw, a live music venue, Lucas offers insight into his creative process.

- (Lucas): Ottawa's just a beautiful place.

It's a beautiful city and, you know, as fast as some places in the world, so you don't feel quite a overwhelmed by the pace of life.

So there actually is time to create here, I think.

And I really like that.

A ton of amazing musicians here who are influenced by the landscape, the type of people here.

My musical process varies, depending on the type of music I'm writing.

I guess I should say I don't think too much about it.

You know, I try to let it happen.

So I'll start playing something.

(♪♪♪) And then, you know, what I'll do is I'll mumble melodies on top of that.

(He hums.)

And then what I'll do is I'll take my iPhone and I'll record a voice memo of me playing this thing where the guitar usually sounds pretty complete, you know, ish.

I'm the type of person where I'm changing the lyrics until I'm recording the final vocal take, you know, for the album.

(♪♪♪) - (narrator): Once Lucas has recorded a song's demo, he shares it with the other musicians in his band, and each of them then makes it their own.

Playing onstage in the intimate space of the Saw Gallery, Lucas uses music to explore his inner world and to try to form connections with other people.

(♪♪♪) - (Lucas): Music can change depending on how you feel.

I want it to make sense to people and tell a story, in terms of the lyrics.

♪ I don't care about your politics ♪ ♪ When it's love, it's love ♪ The best moments in music are when you completely forget where you are and you completely forget what you're doing.

And you just... You feel like you've fallen asleep and had the most amazing dream, you know.

Music hasn't lost that feeling for me.

Maybe it's because I have so much improvised content in my music.

I'm happy that I get to g to that place as often as I can.

(♪♪♪) I want to communicate every emotion possible.

I want to communicate love, generosity.

I want to communicate anger, frustration, you know.

To me, it's all in there.

(♪♪♪) I want to accomplish a lot.

I'm going to be growing until the day I die.

And I know that.

I'm going to be playing music until I can't play it anymore.

They're going to have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers, you know?

Ha!

ha!

♪ Love can't you hear me ♪ ♪ When I call your name out loud ♪ - (narrator): There's more to Eduardo's life than playing the piano and the guitar; physical activity is also a key part of his daily routine.

He works out at least once a day to maintain good health.

Since he has the space for it in his large house, he even has his own treadmill.

And of course, it goes without saying - he listens to music while he exercises!

- (dubbed): Lisa!

Where are the remotes?

Do you have them?

Blindness and poverty are related.

Blindness is often caused by poor nutrition, or mistakes made at birth.

The government allocates only leftovers for education and proper rehabilitation.

That's one of my special projects, to try and change the paradigm.

To try and help the partially-sighted gain better access to the necessary resources.

(♪♪♪) Stop, stop, stop!

Do it in parts.

(♪♪♪) Keep your fingers aligned.

- (narrator): From his home office, Eduardo also gives piano lessons online.

For many years now, he has devoted a significant portion of his time to teaching, mainly at the University of La Salle in Cuernavaca.

It's a job he truly loves.

With the help of sheet music written in braille, the man who was once denied permission to study at university on account of his blindness now proudly passes on his own knowledge to the next generation.

- No, no, one by one!

Don't rush.

Play the fifth finger.

What we're developing online now helps to expand musical training.

I'd love to explore how to do it even better.

Using the technology within our reach.

Improving the online programs.

(♪♪♪) - (narrator): By way of his piano, Eduardo is transporte on the most wondrous journeys - and all without ever having to leave his garden.

When he's carried away like this, he dreams of a world where obstacles for the blind all magically vanish.

- I think we have to start with legislation.

Congress needs to allocate a larger budget for technology dedicated to the arts, and other disciplines, so that the visually-impaired aren't forced to just become musicians.

(♪♪♪) It's very difficult for someone partially-sighted to have the assistive devices that allow them to truly compete.

"The world is made for the sighted"- that's an attitude that will hopefully change.

The sightless need to help make it change - as do their families and society as a whole.

(♪♪♪)