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Getting hearing aids is music to your ears if you’re a music lover. We look at:
Music also has tangible benefits as well:
It can even help reduce pain.
Many of our clients tell us they’ve stopped listening to music over time because it ‘doesn’t sound the same any more’. And it’s not just the sound of ‘modern’ music either, even favourite songs and symphonies seem lacking.
Typically, higher frequencies are lost first, which means the subtle changes in music are often lost and higher pitched instruments and notes sound ‘wrong’.
The good news is, hearing aids can make a great improvement, not only to your understanding of speech but also to your enjoyment of music.
In recorded settings, hearing aids were rated as ‘fairly helpful’ or ‘very helpful’ for the majority of musical elements including for hearing the melody, bassline, singer, and lyrics and for being able to pick out individual instruments (e.g. hearing the guitar within a band, or an oboe within an orchestra).
In live settings, hearing aids were rated as helpful for hearing the melody, singer and bassline, but were less helpful for hearing the lyrics and for picking out individual instruments.
For a better sound quantity, a music program is essential. Hearing aids and fitting formulas were initially designed for speech.
The normal speech program might consider some repeated rhythms and notes as noise, and will try to remove them.
A separate music program will provide more low frequency amplification, it also turns the noise reduction to minimum or off, so repeated rhythms and notes are preserved. The music program also increases the sound processing speed which helps In this way, the sound processing speed is also increased, which provides a faster response to make sure music sounds as it should.
Modern hearing aids also come with a streaming function using Bluetooth, which means the sound comes directly into your ears.
That’s the good news, but it tells only half the story.
There are another two factors which will impact on how well you will hear music again following hearing loss.
Extent of Hearing Loss
Hearing Aids for Music researchers discovered that people with mild hearing loss benefited the most from wearing hearing aids to listen to music.
If your hearing loss is more severe, then you are more likely to hear lower bass notes more acutely than higher frequencies, even with your hearing aids.
Retaining your brain
We have an article on using audiobooks to help you get used to wearing your hearing aids.
Listening to your favourite music with the song lyrics in front of you is another way to help your brain getting used to process music and sound.
Find musical harmony by partnering with your audiologist. Be sure you understand all the volume and program controls which come with your hearing aid.
Talk to your audiologist about whether you would benefit from a telecoil program or other assistive devices to enjoy your music.
When hearing aids are an integral part of your lifestyle, it helps you get the most out of life. We share some lifestyle articles here: