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Singing with new hearing aids

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Hi. This is a bit of a different post. A couple of months ago I got my new hearing aids, which I’m pretty happy with, however, I have noticed it’s a bit of a struggle adjusting to singing with them.

I think when I didn’t wear them before, I blocked out a lot of noise so I could hear myself better; now it’s like I have to relearn to sing a bit.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any tips?

Thanks

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@mrprez: Hope for what, exactly? Your expectations are a key determinant of your satisfaction with whatever hearing devices you choose. If they are unreasonable, then hearing loss for you will be a lifelong series of letdowns.

Have you searched for one of the many threads that may help you come to terms with your loss? If not - you may find them helpful.

In reply to @SpudGunner

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. . .”

–Strother Martin as “The Captain,” Cool Hand Luke, 1967

My previous response was totally in jest.:smiley:

Have you got a music program on your aids? I play clarinet and find that the normal program produces some distortion but my music program doesn’t. The normal program sometimes transposes high sounds to a lower frequency to bring it within the wearers hearing range but obviously for music this can’t be tolerated. So even though it’s your own voice the aid may be transposing high harmonics to a lower frequency. Ask your audiologist to give you a music program or if you already have one try it when singing.

I am a professional musician/singer and sing half the songs in our duo all night. Singing with hearing aids takes a little getting used to. You have to practice a lot to learn how to control your voice using different feedback techniques.

Your tone will also sound different to you.

Remember to breathe with your diaphragm, not with your rib cage, and use proper breath support. If you haven’t had singing lessons, get at least that much down.

It can be done. Hang in there and once you get it, it’ll sound weird singing without anything in your ear.

Do be aware of volume. You don’t want it to be too loud, as it will damage what’s left of your hearing.

I use in my ears, so I can turn down the hearing aids to a comfortable level. I’ve done this all my life, with sound level meters so I know what 85dba feels like. If you don’t get a meter, they aren’t expensive. Set it on A weighting and Slow response.

Of course, I don’t know your particular problem, I’m neither trained nor capable of giving you professional advice, check with your and/or Audi.

Bob

In reply to @JohnA

I have this exact problem too. It took my last audiologist several visits to figure out how to turn that off, and I don’t have the right words to explain to my new one what’s going on. I have relative perfect pitch (I play harp and a few other instruments) and wind up not wanting to wear the aid (I’m only deaf in one ear) when practicing or performing.

Sorry to repeat what you have already learned. I’ve been in the biz for many decades, and you are one of the rare few that have had singing lessons. Good for you!!!

I started out wearing “high fidelity” musician’s ear plugs made by either Westone or Etymotic. So I got used to the difference there. I bought the ear pluts to protect my hearing, then an unrelated misdiagnosed (three times) problem took out a lot of my high frequencies. I guess one way or another it was going to get me :frowning:

So the transition to hearing aids wasn’t a big leap for me. I’d already done that with the ear plugs for years.

I use a small, on-stage, 15watt monitor. Being small, it is biased to high frequencies, which is what I need.

With my Oticon aids, I have a little “connect clip” which is a small clip on device that communicates to the aids, I guess through Bluetooth or something similar. It has volume controls on it.

I keep a sound level meter on stage and I keep the average volume to about 85dba. Rare peaks might go to 90. 85dba is considered maximum safe listening volume. Since I know the aids amplify, I click the down volume button a couple of times.

Between songs if someone in the audience speaks, and I need to hear, I can click the up button on the clip back to the default, so I can better understand the person speaking. I put the clip where I can discretely adjust it without being obvious.

What you are going to get used to most, is the sound of your voice through your bone conduction combined with what comes through the aids. It will take some time to get used to, but it can be done if you practice enough.

After you get used to it, if you try to sing without your aids, you will sound odd to yourself. It’s all about adaption.

I started singing and playing the saxophone professionally in the late 1960s and still do it today. I’ve added a few more instruments since then. It’s a great way to make a living, and neither the ear plugs nor the hearing aids are going to stop me. I hope they don’t stop you, either.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for the encouragement. I like that with what I’ve got I can at least adjust the volume, on my other one I wasn’t able to, except to block out background noise. I’ve never really performed, except for in choirs, so luckily background noise isn’t an issue. I’ve always just wanted to be the singer I can be given my hearing loss :slight_smile:

Kind of a long shot that I didn’t see mentioned, but another option is just muting one or both of them. You often see professional singers cup one ear to better get a sense of their own pitch.

I guess that might work for some, but it never worked for me. Perhaps small venues are not the place where that works.

It’s definitely worth a try, though. It might work for you.

Bob

@lhall2182, you may be experiencing a “warble” effect when you sing a high, sustained note with your in. Try it. If you hear that warble it’s your HAs mistaking that high note for feedback and trying to disrupt the feedback by modulating the pitch of the note.
To fix this (or at least improve it) ask your audi to set up a separate program that you will use only when you sing. In that dedicated program, in the audi’s programming software, reduce the feedback control to the minimum you can get away with without getting feedback when you speak or are spoken to. You’ll likely not be able to turn the feedback controller totally off.
Also eliminate any compression or speech comprehension enhancements. That should help your singing sound more natural to you. Good luck.

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