Hearing Loss and Music: Enjoying Music with Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids

By Wendy Cheng

Editor: Here's another of Wendy's reports on the 2006 HLAA Convention. The workshop Wendy is reporting on has some great tips for increasing appreciation of music.

Wendy Cheng is a cochlear implant user who is also an amateur musician and viola student. Wendy also manages a website and listserv for musicians with hearing loss. Please visit http://www.aamhl.org to learn more about the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss or to join the listserv.

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Presenter: Kathy Allen, MA, Cochlear Corporation

Kathy Allen started the workshop by introducing the following quote by British novelist George Eliot (1819-1880):

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Kathy works at Cochlear Corporation and wears two Nucleus Freedom 3G cochlear implants. In elementary school, she joined the school band and was first placed in the oboe section. However, the music teacher realized that she could not hear the high tones of the oboe and moved her to saxophone. Even so, Kathy was not able to tell the difference between flat notes and sharp notes in the saxophone. In the end, she finally was moved to the drum/percussion section and remained there for several years. As a result of this experience, she grew up with a life-long love of listening to music.

Many hearing aid and cochlear implant users often wonder why listening to music is so challenging. A common question is: "I can hear speech, why not music?" Part of the reason is that unlike speech, music is made up of rhythm, timbre and pitch (e.g. low and high notes). Music is a complicated mixture of sounds so, in the beginning, it can be difficult for the brain to organize the sounds in a meaningful way.

How can hearing-impaired persons develop music listening skills? There are many factors that influences the development of a person's music listening skills: audiological history, previous experience with music, length of severe/profound deafness and motivation. Kathy also discussed the 4 "P"s in developing music listening skills: Patience, persistence, practice, and positive attitude.

The following tips helped Kathy to face the challenge of listening to music. First, understanding music will take time and effort. Second, accept that music may never sound the way you remember. Third, keep an journal of your progress. Last, if you have heard music before, use one musical selection as a way of focusing your ability to understand a piece of music. When Kathy was first activated with her Nucleus cochlear implants, one of the first piece she wanted to hear was Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree". She used that piece as a focal point for developing her ability to understand music with the cochlear implant.

If you have no experience with listening to music, try listening to simple children's songs, or very simple tunes to start with. Cochlear Corporation has developed an aural rehabilitation kit called "Sound and Beyond". Sound and Beyond has a music appreciation module that contain sounds clips of various musical instruments. At present, Sound and Beyond is only available for computers with Windows platforms.

If you are listening to vocal music, have the lyrics in front of you. You can use Google.com to find lyrics of popular music. For example typing "Kokomo lyrics" in Google will generate a list of web sites where you can find the lyrics for the piece "Kokomo" written and sung by the Beach Boys.

Kathy suggests setting aside a daily time to listen to music. She prefers doing it in the morning when the mind is clear and refreshed. Dance to the music to get a sense of the musical rhythm.

What devices are available for hearing aid and cochlear implant users to listen to music? Kathy recommend 3 devices for hearing aid users: HATIS (Hearing Aid Telephone Interconnect System), NoiseFree and the ClearSounds neckloop.

HATIS is an abbreviation for Hearing Aid Telephone Interconnect System. It consists a silhouette of a behind the ear hearing aids that has an electromagnet coil. You place the silhouette over your aided ear and between your head and hearing aid. The other end of the cable goes into the headphone jack of your audio device (CD player or Ipod). The electromagnetic coil is activated when the t-switch (or telephone switch) of the hearing aid is turned on. HATIS generally retails for $149 and is hands-free. A bilateral version with two silhouettes (for individuals with two hearing aids) is also is available. NoizFree is a smaller version of HATIS and retails for $39. It is smaller than the HATIS, but the sound quality is not as good as the HATIS.

For users of cochlear implants without telecoil capability, direct connect/direct audio input is recommended. Cochlear Corporation has a TV/Hi-Fi adapter cable for Nucleus Freedom users. CI users should turn sensitivity down and volume up when listening to music.

Resources on the web:

HATIS: http://www.hatis.com/

Noizfree: http://www.harriscomm.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=18702

ClearSounds neckloop: http://www.harriscomm.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=18332

Sound and Beyond auditory rehabilation kit and CD: http://www.cochlearamericas.com/Support/169.asp
Note: Sound and Beyond will work in a Windows environment only. A member of the audience commented that it would not run on her Macintosh computer and Kathy conceded that was indeed the case.