Music and Cochlear Implants

I have to say that I heard bagpipes recently and had to remove my magnet. It just sounded really bad. All other music sounds good to me.

joanhawsey

Virginia, US

You may fare better than others because your good ear still has some useful level of hearing. I have a similar . I find that with my I do enjoy music, but it seems my ear that is picking up the melody. Together they are good. I played on my daughter’s piano with my good ear plugged and had trouble distinguishing the higher notes. However, adding the HA it was possible and after a few tries it got better and easier. Each is different, but I am happy with my CI and music. I had piano training for years when young, but am not a musician at this time.

@joanhawsey said:

You may fare better than others because your good ear still has some useful level of hearing.

Can concur here, I have hearing up 4 khz and music sounded better with due to the missing high freq component (from 4 to 8 khz freq) in my hearing aid ear. Bass (187 hz and lower) is notably absent from my implant which my hearing aid ear can definitely make out…

Deaf_piper Author

Melbourne

In reply to @joanhawsey

@joanhawsey i have to agree with you, pipes and just don’t mix.
I went to the Edinburgh Tattoo in Scotland 3 years ago. At that stage I still had some useful residual hearing. I also took my whole processor off and zipped it into a pocket. It was the only way I could enjoy the tattoo. I didn’t travel 1/2 way around the globe to listen to crap music. Yet on the other hand, all the brass bands sounded wonderful.

@ssa I don’t have very much useful hearing over 1500 htz. As for high frequencies, what I have left, as far as listening to pipes are concerned they are useless.

Jody

Thanks @Deaf_piper, @joanhawsey and @ssa. This is encouraging, especially since among you you cover both and CA brands. If i’m understanding correctly, though, @Deaf_piper and @joanhawsey are saying similar things about not being able to hear high frequencies with their , and @ssa seems to be saying the exact opposite?

Deaf_piper Author

Melbourne

Jun 27, 2023Edited

@Jody the key for pipe music is D major. And the scale is in A major. So the top hand notes are very sharp/high.

Now it totally depends on your instrument and how high your high notes go. With me orchestral, brass, and all other of music genres sound wonderful. It’s just pipes because of the pitch that sound like an egg beater scrambling eggs.

ssa has more natural high frequencies than I do. Compare our 2 .

Also if your prepared to do a lot of music rehab you will be able to train your brain to recognize what you want it to. I had retired from playing pipes before I had my .

Yes that what i’m saying, my hearing loss is from environmental factors and aging i’m only 33 and started noticing a decline my early 20sI was wearing. regular power devices but my hearing dripped 15 dbhl putting me in severe to profound range…

Jody

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper - thanks Cheryl. The range of a clarinet goes way higher than the brass instruments, up to about 1.6 kHz. You may find this interesting:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Frequency-ranges-of-orchestral-instruments_fig27_3393135936 for comparing ranges of most standard orchestral instruments (I was disappointed that they didn’t show bass clarinet!).

Also I had my implant for 5 years and @joanhawsey had it for 9 month

Deaf_piper Author

Melbourne

@Jody @joanhawsey the bagpipes concert A pitch is higher still though.

This explains why it sounds so crappy with a . You just about need near perfect hearing to get a really good listening experience. I don’t think any CI company would give a good listening experience with bagpipes, when the pitch is that high.

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Peterson makes precision tuners that are compatible with Great Highland bagpipes and Uilleann pipes. Learn to tune your bagpipes using this comprehensive guide.

Raudrive

Texas Hill Country

Reading the posts here sure shuts down music. I don’t agree with this at all.
I have zero experience with bagpipes so I can not add to that experience.

Now I do listen to rock and roll from the 60’s through 2000 for example. When I first got my ’s music really was bad and I did not practice listening to it. Music did not get better until I spent a lot of time listening to it with an open mind. It has taken many months but music is getting much better. Like speech it takes practice.

I might have to listen to some bagpipes and just see what they are like.

There is more to CI hearing than science. The brain is plastic and is very flexible.

iI lisstened to bagpipe, it was terrible but i could hear the high frequency that droning in .but i couldn’t make out the details without my hearing aid in my ear

Deaf_piper Author

Melbourne

@Raudrive said:

Reading the posts here sure shuts down music. I don’t agree with this at all.

It doesn’t shut down all music though, just bagpipes. I also am a R & R lover, I listen to Rock an awful lot and really enjoy it and have a good experience with this genre.

@ssa yes pipes and ’s just don’t agree with each other. I can hear the low notes and drones but the high frequencies are absolutely blooming awful.

bcarp

@Jody said:

@bcarp & @Deaf_piper - I’d like to hear more about your experience playing with ensembles. Do you find your pitch hearing improves the longer you have your CI’s? Or is it just totally a washout never to return. I play clarinet and bass clarinet in bands and small ensembles (so no IEM), and if I can’t distinguish pitches, I will never be able to play in tune.

I have pitch recognition through the cochlear if I listen really carefully and the notes are distinct and about half an octave apart. Less than that & it’s tricky. Certainly, the nuances of an ensemble playing together with the notes mashed together is not possible. When I had a hybrid acoustic/electric component for a few months, it was better but still not perfect. I definitely don’t have enough pitch definition to play an unfretted instrument like a cello. Even piano would be hard, but I could give it a go, stay roughly to the right key and call it jazz!

Using my good ear only, cello is possible in an ensemble. It’s just really hard without the other ear to listen to others.

There’s also a big difference through the cochlear between rock music with a definite best and fewer instruments vs classical music with a less definite beat and complex harmonies.

I span genres from classical to jazz to pop to modern worship music, across guitar, keys (acoustic piano, electric keyboards, etc), cello, & percussion. I do play purely acoustically now when needed, but try to offload to others if possible & reserve my performances for IEMs if possible.

I also do live sound engineering. This is still possible. However, judging overall volume is very difficult & I rely much more on my sound pressure meter than I did in the past.

Jody

@bcarp Thanks, that was what I was thinking as I read the others’ responses. I mostly listen to classical and jazz, and play in concert band, jazz big bang, and small swing band. I think in rock music, there is both a strong beat and lyrics to tide you over and help make sense of the music. I worry about my situation - not being able to distinguish notes that are less than a half-octave apart would be murder.

As you are a user, like I would be, I wonder if you think the following suggestion would work for acoustic ensemble playing (this was suggested to me by an Consumer Specialist): when playing in group and it’s important to hear the people on both sides, take off your processor gear and use a (or ) hearing aid to send all the sound from your bad side to your other ear. Do you think that would work for you?

In reply to @bcarp

@bcarp said:

I also do live sound engineering. This is still possible. However, judging overall volume is very difficult & I rely much more on my sound pressure meter than I did in the past.

Yes it is very diffcult because you have like 10-20 db electrical dynamic range… they have to compress the incoming sound can be 0-140 db. the sound processor have a very difficult job of putting them in the right loudness based on your electrical dynamic range…

@Jody said:

Do you think that would work for you?

No i think you will find the to be better bimodally than system but you are welcome to try it and experiment. you have 2 brains in your head so you have 2 data cable connected to your brain so take advantage of it ( left and right brain and 2 auditory nerves… )

Deaf_piper Author

Melbourne

Jun 28, 2023

@Jody BiCros aids wouldn’t work for me either. Firstly because my residual hearing wasn’t preserved. Therefore I have virtually no natural hearing in my ear.
Secondly because my aided ear, I have profound loss and speech clarity just isn’t good. Without my processor on speech is so very difficult to understand, I’m virtually just hearing sounds. So for me all that would be sent to my CI ear would be a whole pile of unintelligible sounds.

bcarp

Jun 28, 2023