Food for thought: hearing impairment/deafness and music

Rocketscientist90

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Some context first. We recently discovered that our 17-month old currently has an hearing impairment and is barely hearing anything if at all. Together with some medical specialists we are figuring out if this can be remedied by placing tympanostomy tubes, or whether something else is going on. Given the poor test results so far, it seems to us that the attenuation/hearing loss is considerably higher than what is typically caused by fluid in the middle ear (which according to literature is typically 30 dB). In about 6 weeks from now, some more conclusive tests will be done and these tubes will have been placed if they are necessary. My wife and I are ofcourse still hoping for a simple and effective solution and for full recovery of our daughter's hearing, but we are mentally preparing for a permanent hearing impairment.

This got us philosophizing on the role music plays in our lives, what her relationship to music might be, and if our relationship to music might change if it turns out that she has a severe hearing impairment or deafness.

Listening to music and making music are some of my favorite pastimes. I listen to music several hours per day and try to make music at least 30 minutes to an hour per day. I find it hard to imagine a life without music. When our daughter was just a few months old, I told my wife that I wondered whether our daughter would be interested in picking up playing the piano, playing the guitar or singing (we have guitars on the wall and a piano in the living room). To my mind, it was more a question of which one of the three (or any other instrument for that matter) and not whether she would have any interest in making music at all. Now, of course, those ideas have changed.

So, food for thought.
Philosophize with us. What are your thoughts on the topic? Can you imagine a life without music? Would your relationship to music change if a loved one would have a hearing impairment? Any experiences on the matter that you would like to share?
 
One of the most moving moments for me was at a concert many years ago. I was walking into the arena and saw a large group of kids using sign language amongst themselves. Two people in the group were chatting with each other and I had to ask about their friends attending a concert when they couldn’t actually hear the music.
I was taken back when they smiled at me and said “No, they don’t hear the music, they FEEL it”. Definitely one of the most moving and just coolest conversations I ever had.
Oh! It was Metallica on the …And Justice For All tour at the Meadowlands in NJ.
 
That makes total sense! I wonder though how it is experienced, as a lot of the high frequency content is lost.

I came across this article in "Trends in Amplification" from 2004 (!):
McDermott HJ. Music Perception with Cochlear Implants: A Review. Trends in Amplification. 2004;8(2):49-82. doi:10.1177/108471380400800203
They conclude that there is still a lot to be done and a lot to be gained in music perception through cochlear implants, but it appears to be an active field of research and development and be one of the focus areas too. A very interesting trend. I should scan the citing papers to see if there are more recent results :).
 
First of all, so sorry to hear about your daughter having trouble! I am not a parent, so I can only imagine your emotional state at the moment, but I empathize with your situation.

What are your thoughts on the topic?
My thought on the topic of not being able to hear music is it would be hell for me personally. Music is my religion ;~)) My latest album is comprised of 16 songs and half of the songs are specifically about music and music related stuff. In the case of a loved one who can not experience music via the auditory sense, I would do my best to explore ways in which that individual could experience some of the pleasure of the world of music.

Can you imagine a life without music?
I can imagine it, but I shutter at the idea of living it!

Would your relationship to music change if a loved one would have a hearing impairment?
I don't know that my relationship with music would change, but I would certainly be exploring ways to assist my loved one in experiencing the music whether it is through vibrations or other mediums.

Any experiences on the matter that you would like to share?
Although I do not have any experience in this topic, off the top of my head, there are a couple of things that I would explore to try and bring music into the world of someone who does not have that sense (I don't have my sense of smell due to an accident decades ago, which also extremely limits my sense of taste, so I do know what it is like to live without more than one of your senses, including my common sense). The first thing I would try are the "bone phones", those speakers that you wear like a necklace or whatever, and the sound is felt through the tactical sense. Another thing that I would try to help that individual understand and feel the music would be to accompany it with videos that would include wave forms, meters and other visual implements that would help that person experience what the sound waves are doing.

The medical procedures we have available today are of course cutting edge and there are so many things that can be done which even 50 years ago were unheard of. I would certainly continue to explore all medical avenues and not give up until all roads have been traveled. I express my deepest wishes that things resolve for your daughter on a physical level. If that were to not come to pass, I sincerely hope that some other methods of absorbing the music can help her to experience the beauty of music! Best wishes to you, your wife and daughter in this journey!!!
 
Appreciate the empathy, @Moondog Wily!
We are very much in a "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" situation. We are trying not to get ahead of ourselves, and this topic is just a spin off from some recent discussions that we had. Either the tympanostomy tubes lead to an immediate improvement of her hearing, and we've done a lot of reading/thinking for our general knowledge or it doesn't lead to an improvement, and we at least have a rough idea of what is coming our way.

My wife is a linguist and phonologist, and I am an engineer that works on medical devices (amongst other things). So (un)fortunately, this also tickles our general/academic interests. Even if we try not to think too far ahead, we keep wondering "but how would that work?".

I was just reading this article:
Marozeau, J. (2021). Why People with a Cochlear Implant Listen to Music. In: Kronland-Martinet, R., Ystad, S., Aramaki, M. (eds) Perception, Representations, Image, Sound, Music. CMMR 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12631. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70210-6_27 (accessible here, p 418).
The author concludes:
Although the cochlear implant (CI) can be highly successful in restoring speechperception in quiet, it still has some important shortcomings to convey the signals. Many studies have demonstrated that, overall, CI users perform below normal-hearing listeners in tasks relative to pitch, harmony, and timbre. However, they are still able to follow a rhythm change and a variation of intensity accurately. Based on this capacity, they can identify musical emotion, and followchanges in musical intensity. Although their overall percept of music is degraded,they seem to receive enough information to still be engaged in musical activities or simply enjoy listening to music.
The advancements in technology have come to a place (5 yrs ago), where pitch, harmony and timbre, rhythm and variation of intensity are conveyed accurately enough to be engaged in musical activities and enjoy listening to music. Together with @DISTORT6's story, that sounds encouraging!

@Moondog Wily, sorry to read that you lost your sense of smell (and by extention have a limited sense of taste). I think this is - philosophically at least - very similar to a reduced sense of hearing. You may be able to pick up the major elements of a meal and even enjoy certain foods, but will be missing subtleties in flavor. Similarly, those with cochlear implants can pick up important elements of music, but will miss out on the details. Like looking at a black and white photograph of a Van Gogh or a Mondriaan.
 
Appreciate the empathy, @Moondog Wily!
We are very much in a "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" situation. We are trying not to get ahead of ourselves, and this topic is just a spin off from some recent discussions that we had. Either the tympanostomy tubes lead to an immediate improvement of her hearing, and we've done a lot of reading/thinking for our general knowledge or it doesn't lead to an improvement, and we at least have a rough idea of what is coming our way.

My wife is a linguist and phonologist, and I am an engineer that works on medical devices (amongst other things). So (un)fortunately, this also tickles our general/academic interests. Even if we try not to think too far ahead, we keep wondering "but how would that work?".

I was just reading this article:
Marozeau, J. (2021). Why People with a Cochlear Implant Listen to Music. In: Kronland-Martinet, R., Ystad, S., Aramaki, M. (eds) Perception, Representations, Image, Sound, Music. CMMR 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12631. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70210-6_27 (accessible here, p 418).
The author concludes:

The advancements in technology have come to a place (5 yrs ago), where pitch, harmony and timbre, rhythm and variation of intensity are conveyed accurately enough to be engaged in musical activities and enjoy listening to music. Together with @DISTORT6's story, that sounds encouraging!

@Moondog Wily, sorry to read that you lost your sense of smell (and by extention have a limited sense of taste). I think this is - philosophically at least - very similar to a reduced sense of hearing. You may be able to pick up the major elements of a meal and even enjoy certain foods, but will be missing subtleties in flavor. Similarly, those with cochlear implants can pick up important elements of music, but will miss out on the details. Like looking at a black and white photograph of a Van Gogh or a Mondriaan.
Sounds to me like your daughter is in the best hands possible! I will read that article you linked (well parts of it anyway, skimming it I could see a lot of it was over my head)!! Thanks for sharing and again, best wishes!!!
 
I Am Really Sorry To Hear This...Breaks My Heart In Fact. I Would Look Into A Rife Frequency Machine. Everything Is Frequency And Often Times When A Person Has A Condition Of Some Sorts When That Frequency Of The Condition Is Matched By The Machine The Body Is Positioned To Heal Itself In Time And In Some Cases Very Quickly. That Would Be The First Thing I Would Dive Into If I Were In Your Position, After Praying Of Course. Which I Will Be Doing For You, Your Wife And Your Daughter. :)

Regarding Music And Listening To It Or Playing An Instrument, Etc. I Would Not Let This Situation Take Away From That Love That You Have For Listening To And Playing/Creating Music On An Instrument.
 
No music in my life due to something beyond my control. I couldn’t honestly deal with it. I won’t say anymore. As soon as my eyes open I have music on. Whatever I feel like listening to. Then I stop to have my coffee and then a super long doggo walk with my buds in. There are so many songs on my Spotify. Music has a very magical spell over me. It excites me. I know that if I am in a really bad mood and I listen to Krokus everything changes for the better.

And then my playing. I am still so excited to get better. There is no better love then picking up my guitar. It’s saved my butt so many times in dealing with life.

Sorry this is probably what you didn’t want to hear.
 
Some context first. We recently discovered that our 17-month old currently has an hearing impairment and is barely hearing anything if at all. Together with some medical specialists we are figuring out if this can be remedied by placing tympanostomy tubes, or whether something else is going on. Given the poor test results so far, it seems to us that the attenuation/hearing loss is considerably higher than what is typically caused by fluid in the middle ear (which according to literature is typically 30 dB). In about 6 weeks from now, some more conclusive tests will be done and these tubes will have been placed if they are necessary. My wife and I are ofcourse still hoping for a simple and effective solution and for full recovery of our daughter's hearing, but we are mentally preparing for a permanent hearing impairment.

This got us philosophizing on the role music plays in our lives, what her relationship to music might be, and if our relationship to music might change if it turns out that she has a severe hearing impairment or deafness.

Listening to music and making music are some of my favorite pastimes. I listen to music several hours per day and try to make music at least 30 minutes to an hour per day. I find it hard to imagine a life without music. When our daughter was just a few months old, I told my wife that I wondered whether our daughter would be interested in picking up playing the piano, playing the guitar or singing (we have guitars on the wall and a piano in the living room). To my mind, it was more a question of which one of the three (or any other instrument for that matter) and not whether she would have any interest in making music at all. Now, of course, those ideas have changed.

So, food for thought.
Philosophize with us. What are your thoughts on the topic? Can you imagine a life without music? Would your relationship to music change if a loved one would have a hearing impairment? Any experiences on the matter that you would like to share?
This sounds to me like a “cart before the horse” kind of issue. And I’d be right there with you dwelling on the same things. To answer though, I find it difficult to imagine life without music. If a totally deaf composer could write some of the most beautiful and inspiring music that is still appreciated centuries later, I’m guessing that music must somehow be internally ingrained in all of us, regardless of physical difficulties.

That said, there are some miraculous treatments and procedures that have been wonderful in correcting severe hearing loss. A good friend of mine had an inner ear implant that restored his hearing completely. He plays guitar and sings. I’m praying for a decisive answer for your child.
 
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If I didn’t have music and my guitars I honestly would shrivel up and blow away. Music is my mental health. That in itself is extremely paramount to my mental health.

I remember when my husband got my phone fixed but wiped all my music out. When I found out I had a major meltdown in the middle of the mall. All the stuff my band had recorded. Ya I threw a hissy fit and started to cry. They were finally able to retrieve everything for me! Ya not very mature but that’s how important music is to me especially my recordings.
 
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One ray of sunshine .. for those that are hearing challenged .. hand drums provide the physical interface ..you can feel the drum vibrating .
Most low frequency instruments will as well, they have BIG sound waves .
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I've posted about this before a while ago but this seems to be a good time to retell this story...


Back before I had a "real job" and was only playing guitar, we were booked regularly at a large venue downtown which would occasionally host corporate buyouts, local club meetings, large parties, etc.

One particular night we come in for load-in and they tell me I'll need to move a little closer to center stage because there will be an interpreter on stage. Turns out there was some hearing impaired group that brought a bunch of people to this venue so they could experience the show (this place had multiple subs under the front of the stage, flown mains, lights that I was told by the lighting director were originally used on tour with Rush, multiple cameras, the whole deal basically.)

On one of our breaks, we were talking to the interpreter about experiencing music as hearing impaired or completely deaf. She tells us to watch them because they can still feel music even if they can't hear it.

Sure enough, they'd come right up to the stage and feel the subs and run away giggling and come back later with others to repeat the experience.
 
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