RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT
PAINTING THE TOWN BLUE How the Gahanna music scene, and local musician Zayne Harshaw, is striving to include individuals on the autisim spectrum By Michele Mooney
↑ Zane Harshaw
If you have attended the Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival or have visited Signatures or Gatsby’s, you probably have heard the musical talent of Zayne Harshaw and his band, Blue Spectrum. The self-taught guitarist from Gahanna who was diagnosed with autism when he was four years old, found his voice through music. According to Gene Harshaw, Zayne's father, after a few years of playing "Guitar Hero", Zayne asked for a real guitar when he was 12 years old. It was through watching YouTube videos of famous guitarists
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like Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix that he learned how to play. Although he cannot read music, Zayne was identified by a music teacher as having “perfect pitch” – which enables him to identify any musical note by name simply by hearing it, without reference to other notes. “Playing the guitar always would calm Zayne down,” said Gwendolyn Harshaw, Zayne’s mother. “Music has completely transformed his life and our family’s.”
