Music with a CI

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mellenart

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Hi, I was wondering if any of you CI user could give me some advice. How does music sound after having a CI? I am having a surgery done on May 6th for my right ear to be implanted with Nucleus freedom, therefore, am curious how music will sound. I love listening to music and dancing...pop and country are my favorite. I wear two hearing aids right now and can hear music, but cannot comprehend some of the words to the lyrics.

Thoughts?
 
If you can hear music pretty well with a HA, you generally will hear it pretty well with a CI. That was the case for me. I have really enjoyed listening to music with my CI.

On the other hand, speech discrimination is a whole different ballgame and all the more so in songs Understanding words in a song is difficult enough for many hearing folks and thus obviously a challenge for those hearing impaired. Having said that, I can understand many more words in songs than I did before. That has been the fun part.
 
I love listening to music but like sr17soars said, word discrimination is hard. I find that I need to teach myself the songs first, or play them online with the lyrics up so that I can read them. Once I learn them I can fully *immerse* myself in the song. Occasionally I'll come across a singer who sings VERY clearly, and I can understand most of the words, but that tends to be rare. I've found that's more common in Country/Bluegrass, as the music isn't so loud it washes out the words.
 
Interesting, neecy and sr17soars.

If you knew the lyric of a song, when listening to the music you'll be able to follow the song with no difficulties?
 
Cheri said:
Interesting, neecy and sr17soars.

If you knew the lyric of a song, when listening to the music you'll be able to follow the song with no difficulties?
Click to expand...

I can do that with my hearing aids..
 
Cheri said:
Interesting, neecy and sr17soars.

If you knew the lyric of a song, when listening to the music you'll be able to follow the song with no difficulties?
Click to expand...

Not only that - once I've "learned" a song, I can automatically recognize it once it starts playing, even if its someplace that I don't expect it - Just last week, I heard Nickelback's "Far Away" playing in the supermarket. I normally never recognize the songs on the PA system.
 
For me I never understood music all my life with my HA it was just noise and sound same even if it was different type music all I hear was staticky-like noise with beats.
But now with CI I can hear actual instrument sounds and much more, like few time I heard the reverbrate sound from cymbal I never heard it before on radio usually if I can I'll only hear the inital hit noise but not the after effect of hitting cymbal, it was awesome I love hearing that. Can hear guitar notes pretty well but since I never listen to music growing up I couldn't distinguish music and vocals yet I can't hear singing because I don't know what to expect and if I do know few words in lyircs like nine inch nail "only you" I can't hear "only" being sang but maybe someday later I will be able to. But generally it sound much better.
I want to add, it sound much better on focused listening program (BEAM) if ur in car listening to radio. :)
Good luck!
 
sr171soars said:
If you can hear music pretty well with a HA, you generally will hear it pretty well with a CI. That was the case for me. I have really enjoyed listening to music with my CI.

On the other hand, speech discrimination is a whole different ballgame and all the more so in songs Understanding words in a song is difficult enough for many hearing folks and thus obviously a challenge for those hearing impaired. Having said that, I can understand many more words in songs than I did before. That has been the fun part.
Click to expand...

This is definitely my situation, in my experience, music sound was really distorted wthin the first year after activation, but it SLOOOWLY came together. But the kicker is, you have to be exposed to it and try to hear the music, yeah it will sound like :hyper: but it will kick in. I have to agree, lyrics are still a problem for me also. I figured it may be due to recruitment. (I recently started a thread about the recruitment condition)
Disclaimers: It may or may not happen, maybe tomorrow or 2 years down the road, the above is based solely on my experience.
 
SCBassist said:
This is definitely my situation, in my experience, music sound was really distorted wthin the first year after activation, but it SLOOOWLY came together. But the kicker is, you have to be exposed to it and try to hear the music, yeah it will sound like :hyper: but it will kick in. I have to agree, lyrics are still a problem for me also. I figured it may be due to recruitment. (I recently started a thread about the recruitment condition)
Disclaimers: It may or may not happen, maybe tomorrow or 2 years down the road, the above is based solely on my experience.
Click to expand...

:hmm: I am not a CI user,yet , from what I read on this thread, the music experience highly depends on the user's previous experience before a CI.. I guess I am very succesfull at music listening with my hearing aids when I regard the CI users' experiences
 
highlands said:
:hmm: I am not a CI user,yet , from what I read on this thread, the music experience highly depends on the user's previous experience before a CI.. I guess I am very succesfull at music listening with my hearing aids when I regard the CI users' experiences
Click to expand...

I would agree with you. Prior to going deaf, there was *always* music playing in my house, and several members of my extended family, and many family friends were in bands.
 
Sr17soars: That was also the case for me. I could hear music well with a HA, and can hear it now with my CI, only better, since I can now understand more words/more lyrics in songs than I did before. So, yep that's the fun part for me. :) heh. :)

To the OP: Good luck on your May 6th surgery! I had my right ear done May 17th last year and am about to have my left ear done two days after your 1st surgery. =)


sr171soars said:
If you can hear music pretty well with a HA, you generally will hear it pretty well with a CI. That was the case for me. I have really enjoyed listening to music with my CI.

On the other hand, speech discrimination is a whole different ballgame and all the more so in songs Understanding words in a song is difficult enough for many hearing folks and thus obviously a challenge for those hearing impaired. Having said that, I can understand many more words in songs than I did before. That has been the fun part.
Click to expand...
 
sr171soars said:
If you can hear music pretty well with a HA, you generally will hear it pretty well with a CI. That was the case for me. I have really enjoyed listening to music with my CI.

On the other hand, speech discrimination is a whole different ballgame and all the more so in songs Understanding words in a song is difficult enough for many hearing folks and thus obviously a challenge for those hearing impaired. Having said that, I can understand many more words in songs than I did before. That has been the fun part.
Click to expand...

Hey guys, I'm curious. Is there any such thing as a captioned music video? I mean so it will help CI users distinguish the words, especially until they get better aqauinted with their new hearing? If there isn't any music captioning, some one should invent it. :)
 
dreamchaser: What I do is when I listen to a song I've never heard before or don't know all the words to it, I'll go to a website that provides lyrics and read 'em while listening to the songs. Or on youtube, I'll find songs that also has words provided so that I could learn it. After that I wouldn't need to read the lyrics to know what was said. I hope that made sense. I'm tired! Heh.
 
dreamchaser said:
Hey guys, I'm curious. Is there any such thing as a captioned music video? I mean so it will help CI users distinguish the words, especially until they get better aqauinted with their new hearing? If there isn't any music captioning, some one should invent it. :)
Click to expand...

I have seen some music videos on MTV that had captioning. Not sure if they still do that.
 
deafmama78 said:
dreamchaser: What I do is when I listen to a song I've never heard before or don't know all the words to it, I'll go to a website that provides lyrics and read 'em while listening to the songs. Or on youtube, I'll find songs that also has words provided so that I could learn it. After that I wouldn't need to read the lyrics to know what was said. I hope that made sense. I'm tired! Heh.
Click to expand...

Ditto! I much prefer reading the lyrics to a song and listening while it is playing.
 
shel90 said:
I have seen some music videos on MTV that had captioning. Not sure if they still do that.
Click to expand...

I wonder how complicated it would be to get captioning added to MTV or CMT videos. ???? interesting question. It would be really cool if the caption was right on the video, so you could be reading them, and also getting the visual story lines on MTV etc.

I wonder if anyone has ever contacted any of the music producers to suggest it. It shouldn't be that expensive for them to add cap. It is not like having to do a whole movie. Songs are pretty short. I think I will look into that and see if there is any info. Couldn't hurt to sugget it to the producers. Well, I don't think it could hurt anything. My foot has been in my mouth so much lately, I am afraid to open it... :)
 
What I do is, if I hear a song I like, I find the lyrics and more or less memorize them til its branded in my head. Sometimes I try to learn the bass lines of the song. I'll play the song with full treble on the stereo so as I can play bass "karaoke" to it. All other songs, I just listen for the beat and rhythm of it.
 
Knowing the lyrics helps me a *lot*, as others have mentioned. I never really listened to music (deaf in stages finishing at age 3.5) and to be honest, didn't try to listen to music post-implant (age 7) until about 3 years later.

Of course, then in sixth grade I joined the school band, playing trombone... by 8th grade, I switched to percussion because the rhythm was much easier than perfect pitch tuning! At that point, throughout high school and college, I guess I listened to music about like any other kid.. maybe a little less. I admit I don't really listen to much anymore, but that's because I'm too busy! ;D
 
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