How My New Hearing Aids Affected My Adult Piano Lessons

Upgrading to new hearing aids with a special music setting affected this amateur pianist's piano technique and playing in more ways than she was expecting.
Nancy M. Williams at piano
Photo by Frank Schramm.

I expected, when I upgraded my hearing aids, that the technology would improve my piano technique. Yet I was not prepared for the full range of ways the aids would improve my playing.

After I was fitted with my new aids, I needed a couple of months to become acclimated to the increase in noise—a clasp on my messenger bag rubbing against my coat belt buckle actually sounded at first like two dinner plates clanging together! But the news aids were worth the painful transition. Since I have a high-frequency loss—a genetic loss caused by the Connexin 26 gene—the aids allowed me to savor the full richness of high notes. Now when I play the high C-sharp in the Chopin C-sharp Minor Nocturne, I hear not a stripped-down ping, but a fuller resonance, closer to what people with normal hearing experience.

What I did not anticipate was how the aids would affect the balance in my playing, for example, my ability to shimmer the melody in the Chopin E-flat Nocturne, while controlling the bouncing bass chords underneath. I had purchased my old hearing aids in 2003, apparently considered the Ice Age in the zooming world of hearing aid technology. These old aids lacked a music setting. And since aids are programmed to enhance human conversation—how many times I have struggled to hear friends in restaurants!—they also did a good job of suppressing the bass in the piano.

The most insidious aspect of my old aids was that I had no idea that this was going on. “I can’t hear the melody well enough,” my piano teacher Stephen would tell me. So I would mentally lower the bass engine and rev up the treble engine. I had decided that despite several years of adult piano lessons, I was not that good at achieving balance. Yet I was not able to hear the imbalance because it was a symptom of my outdated aids.

Help arrived. My new hearing aids came with a special music setting, accessed by pressing twice an external button on each shell. Quizzing my audiologist, I discovered that the music setting had two features:

1) It does not suppress loud sounds.

2) With music rather than conversation the objective, the setting raises up the bass to its balanced state.

With my new aids tuned into the music setting, I experimented with how much I could make the melody bloom while maintaining an audible bass underneath. After reviving the Chopin E-flat Nocturne with my new hearing aids, I finally felt confident that the melody shimmered. It is not an exaggeration to say that these aids raised the level of my playing more than a year of lessons and piano practice could have accomplished.

8 Comments

  1. Avatar

    I have owed a Steinway Grand since I was 17 and needed it to practice for my ARCT from the Royal Conservatory.My high pitch deafness has gotten progressively worse.I am relying on my aids from Widex and can still enjoy my music and gave up teaching 1 year ago.I am not ready for a cochlear imlant.

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  2. Avatar

    I’m grateful that my hearing loss is not severe; also worse in the high frequencies. I thought my hearing loss didn’t influence the way I perceived music. Since I got my Widex Clear 220’s I was amazed how loud the church organ (that I play) was and that my registrations were way to heavy on the “treble” side. Makes a HUGE difference.
    As I’m a music teacher as well (piano and beginner violin) it is much easier to hear my students speak.
    Strangely enough I have hyperaccusis especially in the higher frequencies; it almost disappeared since I’ve been wearing my Widex; tinnitus also not bothersome!

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  3. Avatar

    I am so happy to find this site. I am an 80-year-old, a life long pianist, and have lost all tones above G5. Since I can easily transpose almost any music to a lower key than that in which it’s written, I am struggling to decide whether or not to get a cochlear implant to improve my ability to hear speech.

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  4. Avatar

    Nancy, Your website is so helpful and delightful–thank you. I’m currently testing a pair of Oticon Real 1 hearing aids and working with my audiologist to find the best settings for my high frequency hearing loss and improving my perception of my piano sounds and listening to birds that sing in very high frequency ranges. I hear speech well in quiet situations but miss the “higher” consonants in noisy settings. So far I’m not enjoying the hearing aids, especially for the music, and I’m wondering if other manufacturers’ aids would work better for me. Do you think Widex is generally better for musicians? Thank you for any help.

    Reply
    • Nancy M. Williams, Founding Editor

      Hi Janie, I’m so very glad to know that you are finding Grand Piano Passion™ helpful. In the last year, I’ve discovered the best solution for me is to wear hearing aids for conversations and in-ear monitors customized for my hearing profile for all things music. Here’s my independent review of the 3DME In-Ear Monitors. They have absolutely revolutionized my enjoyment of piano music! https://grandpianopassion.com/alternative-hearing-aids-music-3dme-in-ear-monitors/
      Also, this piece shares my increasing difficulty with hearing aids for music as my hearing loss worsened. https://grandpianopassion.com/switching-from-hearing-aids-music/
      One final thing to consider: people often need time to acclimate to new hearing aids as their brains adjust to the new sound levels. I’ve found it’s a good idea, even though it’s not easy, to wear your new hearing aids as much as you can for the first month or so to give your brain a chance to adjust.

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