Music And Hearing Aids

By Gail Linn, MA, CCC-A

Potomac Audiology

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Music And Hearing Aids

Hearing aids were developed to help people hear and understand speech better. And for the most part hearing aids do a good job accomplishing that goal. But there are many people with hearing loss that not only want to hear speech, they also want to hear music as well as play music. This can be a challenge both for the audiologist and the individual.
Luckily, most hearing aids today are programmable and have multiple programs. This allows us to have a program for speech AND a program for music. Designing the program for music is based on the individuals hearing loss and whether they are just listening to music, playing an instrument or both.
When we give individuals a hearing test, the lowest or most bass frequency we test is 250 Hertz (Hz). That lowest frequency is just about Middle C on the piano, so our hearing aids amplify from about Middle C and above. This works well for speech but is not appropriate for music. However technology has allowed us to solve many of the problems faced by music lovers.
In the past few years advances in technology allow us to have very large vents or openings through a hearing aid whether it is an ITE (In-the-Ear) or BTE (Behind-the-Ear) style. This is important because low frequencies are long sine waves and travel through those open vents nicely allowing the low frequency part of the music to enter the ear. Low frequencies also pack a lot of power so this helps them be heard without amplification. Then for music some of the high frequencies need to be reduced in order to keep a nice balance between the high frequencies (treble) and low frequencies (bass). With a little patience and work a music program can be designed to the satisfaction of most patients.
Those that play an instrument pose a different challenge in that the music is louder. I have had patients bring in violins, guitars and various other instruments so that they can be played while designing the music program. Usually the overall volume needs to be lower when playing an instrument because it is close. For larger instruments such as a piano a trip to the house may be required with a laptop computer. This may take several programming sessions before satisfaction is reached.
For those of you who love music and have a hearing loss there is an association called Association of Adults Musicians with Hearing Loss and their website is www.aamhl.org. They provide a wealth of information as well as online lectures and chats. Visit their website I think you will be inspired.
I hope you have found this information helpful Happy Holidays, Gail Linn