Singing in a choir with profound hearing loss

YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION!
Forgive me, I always have some opinion, so sometimes I may respond, while others who actually know something, are still thinking.
You might get a better response with an audiogram included in your profile.

I have been a photographer for five decades - long before everyone with a smartphone, thought they were, and sadly, if I lost my vision…I would no longer be able to practice my craft. I would have to use other skills, perhaps as an adviser, teaching theory, speaking about inspiration and how to find it - possibly not working for money any longer in that field, but also possibly I could still be an inspiration to others - those still with fine eyesight but untrained yet in seeing!

I don’t know what your choir associates know of you, nor what your relationship might be with them. Drama and music have been a large part of my early life. I did a lot of singing, and was particularly into Gilbert and Sullivan Opera - an interesting and unique choice for one today who wants to actually be able to understand lyrics in song. Gilbert was a master of elocution as well as an amazing librettist who insisted that every single syllable even in a choir be intelligible! Something I appreciated, long before my hearing losses. Frankly, I hated my short time in the chorus, even though it was the NYC All City Chorus. But that is me. I love a solo performance and don’t really appreciate group activities. Thus I love watching a chess, tennis or boxing match and have zero interest in football, baseball or socker.

But I know I am an unusual sort. I can’t understand why people drink soft drinks instead of filtered water, or pollute clean air with sneeze triggering fragrance, or smoke - when the lungs are meant for air, not particles of solids.

But as far as my limited experience in the chorus - my impression has been that half the people are not really contributing much to what the audience hears! Some rely on OTHERS to actually sing both the right lyrics and the notes. Your challenge is finding a way of amplifying the sound of those you need to keep up with, singing in harmony with them, so also hearing yourself.

Perhaps at this time… you can to a great extent feel the notes you are producing… feel the power you are projecting?

Maybe there could be some technical solution - coupled with your choir’s teammate approach that can help you continue to be a valuable contributor to the ensemble!
I keep asking myself what would Beethoven be doing in this situation?!?

But my concern is that in order for you to hear and feel the other sounds, without a hearing aid, so that you can hear the range beyond hearing aids - ( I guess that is why you considered removing one or both ), there is the increasing likelihood that you will further injure your hearing.

Possibly not just yourself, but others in the group could also be fitted with HEADPHONES. Headphones would give you options to wear them over or instead or in some combination with your aids. And by not being the only one wearing headphones, the choir as a group would seem ADVANCED, High Tech, and Modern! The right conductor could use this as a positive, to get more control and precision from his choir perhaps.

On the other hand, perhaps it is time for you to use your long developed skill in contrapuntal harmony to go in a different direction and try singing with a paintbrush, experimenting with harmonies in color, tone and contrast.

Maybe todays’ best hearing aids, ideally adjusted by a skilled practitioner could be the solution?
I believe that some with Cochlear implants sing - I have seen that!
But you have made me think! And that is a beautiful thing. I am sure others… will gradually chime in - this is a great community to be a part of !
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Thank you so much for your very delightful and thoughtful response. I like the idea of headphones…just not sure what sort they would need to be

Also a musician but with mild-to-moderate loss. This sounds like it must be very frustrating for you. One question to consider is how difficult is it to maintain pitch? How difficult is it to maintain pitch, or how far off from the other choristers are you? One thing to consider is that we don’t hear pitch/frequency as a continuum, but that the hair cells place frequency information into “bins” called auditory bands. With more hearing loss, your auditory bands widen. This means that a wider group of pitches will be percieved by you to be the same pitch. This of course applies if you are a bit out of tune or if you are a half step-ish off. I don’t know how far this effect goes but I’m sure there is more information on this around the internet. Regardless, hearing aids cannot solve this distortive effect of hearing loss.

Also, it seems like some individual practice with the music and with pitch discrimination by feel and by intervals might help you. Maybe plug a keyboard into a speaker and touch the driver with your hand while you press a key and try to match the pitch with your voice? Beethoven famously put his pencil into the soundboard of a piano to help him hear the pitches he was composing. You might do well to develop your sense of touch for musical pitch as a supplement to the hearing that is remaining.

In terms of your hearing aids, I recommend trying a program with the extra digital signal processing features turned off as much as possible, and using an ear mold if you aren’t already doing so. A default program or a program with frequency lowering could also be confusing your concept of pitch with the choir.

Again, this sounds frustrating and I hope you can find out the best solutions for this.