Bobeee, our club president, often poses interesting questions to the SWC email lists. He asked about how our experiences listening to music, singing, and playing musical instruments has changed with our hearing losses. Following are the many replies to Bob's question.
Hi Bob -
I used to be a singer... spent many years singing in musicals on stage and singing in clubs, etc. I had perfect pitch and a perfect ear... could harmonize at the drop of a hat.
No more. One needs to HEAR where one is placing the voice in order to sing. Memory can only help a little. When my allergies are at their worst and my hearing is terrible with much distortion, I cannot sing at all, nor can I HEAR music accurately. It sounds like a jumble of noise.
So yes, hearing impacts totally on singing. I would venture to say it also impacts playing an instrument, although if one plays the piano, for example, the technical action of placing fingers on keys would not be impacted by loss of hearing. Beethoven could play even though he was deaf, and hearing the music in his head, he could also compose. But a musician would certainly miss the subtleties, lose the riffs, the improvisational aspect of playing. My opinion. My experience. Good topic.
Penny
(pennyantine)
I am deaf, cannot hear a sound, how do you expect me to sing, when I talk -I don't even know whether I whisper or scream!
I have played the mouth organ, harmonica, guitar, violin, piano, organ, tried the horn, flute, drums, etc., etc. I still have my mouth organ, just tried it out -
I only feel a faint vibration of the lower sounds, it made me dizzy! So much for singing and instruments!!!
Eddy in Canada
(edeltraut)
Bob, I used to love to sing (was in two choirs in high school) and played the violin (was in the orchestra--lead violinist--and a chamber music group). I can do neither anymore. My singing is awful. When riding with Chris driving and he admits he's a bit sleepy, I ask him if he wants me to sing. That wakes him right up! LOL I can no longer carry a tune, sad to say. I hadn't played the violin in a long time before the hearing loss, but I am sure, because it is an instrument with high notes, that it would be as awful as my singing.
Hugs, Jan
(willwriteforfood)
For the most part, I have quit singing in groups. I can't hear my voice. By myself I enjoy singing. I sometimes sing familiar hymns and hope I am some place in the vicinity of the right note. We are to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It doesn't say anything about beautiful or on pitch.
Except for being able to hear accurately the change of chords, I do quite well. Playing in jam sessions is difficult. I listen and enjoy more than play. I play piano, organ, auto-harp, and dulcimer. Hearing loss hasn't affected me too much except playing loud and soft on the organ and balancing the manuals, but my teacher and audiologist are both impressed that I can do it so well, and the other instruments, just not playing too loud. I can still count and read music!
Suzanne Jeffery
(SAJeff5092)
I found that as my hearing deteriorated, it became more and more difficult to continue to sing and hear my own voice in church or just while singing songs with a friend. I would continue to sing, but I found it to be more stressful to me since I could not monitor my voice for pitch information, etc. I know I would sing out of tune and I know it would bother others, so I sang less and less. The exception was when I was with just one other friend when we played and sang together. We both did it just for the fun of it so it didn't matter as much whether I was 'perfect' or not. I really found music to be an important part of my life, and have made my life fit around musical things.
To lose my hearing was the greatest loss I could imagine because it was so gradual and it was taking away the thing I loved the most. I felt no pain, no loneliness, no care for the future nor the past - when I sang I was just there, focused on the sound. I found it to be the balm to soothe my wounds of everyday life and was greatly saddened to have my hearing ability take that away from me. I found that hearing loss affected my playing of musical instruments as well. I have been actively playing instruments from the age of 13 - when I got my first auto-harp. I found that I liked the auto-harp from the use of them in class during music time and I would often volunteer to play while the class sang. This was in the 4th grade, so I was 10 at the time and I still had a substantial amount of hearing left.
In sixth grade I had a teacher who played the guitar during music time and I loved to sing then as well. There was something about a group singing together that really floated my boat. It was the same in church, and even if I didn't know the song or the words, I could chime in with what my own harmony would add to the mix.
But as I grew older I knew my hearing was fading and I hastened to do something about that. I started to play the guitar and piano at 14, and I was entirely self-taught - using music books and chord charts to tell me what to do with my fingers. I was lucky enough to have a sister who played the piano and her girlfriends would come over and sing the popular songs of the day as we played. It was casual enough to where I still didn't worry about my voice, and the skills I used from playing the auto-harp with picks gave me confidence. I was also a drummer in school continuously from the fourth grade, so I had a good sense of rhythm as well. I even played at a few of my parent's parties with a friend who played the accordion- and for money yet!
By the end of high school it became harder and harder for me to tune the guitar and hear all that was needed to play and sing as effortlessly as I had before. I started playing electric guitar to help with the volume problem, but pitch discrimination was going out the window. This was also a time where I was withdrawing from social activities because of my trouble understanding people. I continued to play - especially with people who were not critical about me not always singing in tune, and spent several years in college doing just that - sitting on the lawn under a tree and playing guitar until someone would come up and join me in playing or singing. I had my first hearing aids at 18 and they did help, but I really didn't like the way they sounded. But it did help with monitoring my own voice.
My hearing continued to worsen and playing was still quite important to me, but it was beginning to lose some of its ability to transform me into the peaceful place I remembered from times past. When I got my first electronic guitar tuner, it was like a giant weight was lifted off of me since I could rely on it to tune my guitar since I never felt I could do it right myself. I could tune it to any key I wanted okay, but when I changed keys it would sound bad and frustrate me.
The nature of our even-tempered scale of music is that it is really is not perfectly in tune, as many people will attest. The scale we use simplifies the making and playing of instruments, but sacrifices have to be made to allow that to happen. Otherwise we would have about 120 or more keys on a piano with no harmonic equivalents (such as C# and D flat.) On the piano, guitar and most other instruments, they are the same note, but not to violins and voices and other non-fretted or keyed instruments. Anyway, the tuner allowed me to stop worrying about the tuning and help me enjoy playing to a much greater amount since if I 'felt' or heard it to be out of tune, I would stop playing since it was to aggravating instead of fun. Now I use a tuner ALWAYS and it is that best thing that has ever happened to me musically up to the recent past.
I became a candidate for a cochlear implant at about the same time I was ready to get rid of all my stereo equipment, guitars (12 or so) and 1500 records since I was not getting much satisfaction from them anymore. My life was wrapped around music, as I had been involved in musical electronics for many years, my hobby being playing music and building speakers and amps, etc. When I got the implant, I was disappointed with the way music sounded, but it gradually got better. I have had my implant for less than a year and now I play and sing again. It is not perfect since there are problems with compression and loud sounds masking all the softer ones, but I have found that playing softly seems to make this less a problem. Before the implant - louder was better!
I am glad I didn't get rid of all my musical stuff since now I can enjoy it again. I have started recently to pick up a guitar and just play it as a soother to my soul or a break from everyday life. I am getting back what I had lost and I am extremely grateful for the technology and luck that made this happen. I know there are those out there who have implants and don't like music much, and those of you who might be contemplating getting an implant to get your music back, but I am a success story and I feel that the story should be told. If anyone wants to contact me directly to discuss this stuff, my e-mail is manoteal@sbcglobal.net
I hope this helps someone!
Mark Ashley
Hi Bob,
Perhaps you recall that I sing all of the time. My family was very musical. My mother played the piano, as did several of my sisters. All of them, including my father, spent many hours gathered 'round that piano singing. As the youngest and the only deaf child I was left out of this musical pastime that was so enjoyed. One day, my dear father decided that he would teach me to sing! We then worked on a method that let me duplicate the notes and syncopation of the lyrics. And sing I do!
The wonderful part of singing when one doesn't hear themselves is that I can be anyone I wish! From Beverly Sills to Enrico Caruso (I don't like to aim small) *chuckling* The beautiful Hebrew prayers that I sang for you in TX a few years back, were taught to me by a wonderful young boy of my youth. It is of no importance to me that perhaps the hearing world finds my singing voice more akin to Froggy the Gremlin than Beverly. When someone loves you that much to work so hard with you, to assure that you are not left out of the little pleasures of life even though you live in a world of silence, that is far, far more important to me. Each time that I feel my throat to assure that I am in my starting key, then sing out that first Irish ballad that me Da taught me or have the opportunity to share that beautiful Hebrew prayer..... well, I see in my mind's eye the faces of these two wonderful men in my life that loved me that much. I will always sing, Bob. It is my way of honoring their souls.
Zsal in PA
(SalBInn)
Hi Bobeee,
Another very good question you asked. I have played an instrument most of my life except for the last ten years when I became deaf. It was never the same again when I picked up my guitar.
I do continue to sing I guess mostly out of boredom. I know that I sing because my lips are moving.
I sing the hymns at church watching my Pastor singing and I can follow.
I sing when my tinnitus is bad so that I can forget about how annoying it is.
I sing when my tinnitus is in a melody state, which I like best.
I sing when I am sad.
I sing when a program has a song that I remember and it is captioned.
I sing when Lawrence Welk is on remembering the good (Old) days; when singing with my family.
I sing when my cousin and I get together playing the oldies and following her lips.
I sing some of the jingles when the advertisement comes on TV.
I have even sung when I am on the computer and I am on Lyrics.com to get the words from my favorite songs.
I sing before I go to sleep a hymn in prayer for comfort.
If I do all this singing I get a chance to forget my deafness and it brings a comfort from the loneliness I feel.
Now to only learn to sign/sing - that would be a joyful song!
Hugs,
Lee
(janlee22)
Music, Music, Music is continued on the NEXT page.
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