Playing while wearing hearing aids

[Colburn]

Does anyone else have issues with "stray" sounds when wearing hearing aids while playing? Sometimes it seems like my hearing aids pick up guitar sounds that you normally would not hear. Almost like getting harmonics on one string when playing another. I have some control over hearing aid settings but I haven't found a good way to deal with all of them. Does anyone else have a similar issue?

[gotto]

I don't notice those problems with mine. I wear them playing acoustically and take them out and use custom  fit  earplugs. when playing electrically. Quite an auditory adjustment with ear plugs, I will say though. Getting harmonics and stray string sounds  can happen on adjacent strings when you are not muting them while striking a note. It took me some time to learn how to routinely mute unplayed strings with my palm and fingers. Your hearing aids may be allowing you to hear this when you might not without them in.

Greg

Greg

Edited July 11, 2020 by gotto

[Colburn]

That may be it. I saw a video yesterday of a man using a string mute at the first fret. That seemed to make a lot of random sounds go away.

[Oldjock]

Luckily for me, my audiologist is also a guitar player. She asked me to bring a guitar into the lab and play songs. My hearing aids are digital and allow for four different programs to use in various situations. My programs are standard, dining, wind/golf and music. While playing she designed a special program for music. Then asking me if the tweaks to the program were better or worse, she dialed in the response which sounded good to me. Unfortunately she could not make me sound like Carlos Santana.

Henk

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

there are certain sounds which modern active hunt and peck (looking for voices) hearing aids have problems with

esp if you're using a Wah pedal.

hopefully you have hearing aids with more than 1 program (I have 4 on mine ) you might need to go back to your tech, have them make one of the programs for guitar,

taking a lot of the compression and hunt'n'peck for voices, and a lot of the auto stuff off for that 1 program

Edited April 23, 2023 by Eracer_Team-DougH

[Colburn]

I do have multiple programs, even one for music. The best results I get are with the treble turned nearly all the way down. I have an appointment later this month so I'll discuss it with her. Thanks for the responses. They are helpful.

[Popeye]

OldJock- Henk.....Unfortunately she could not make me sound like Carlos Santana. Too bad, I sure would buy a set if she could!

Mike

[matonanjin]

@Oldjock, I need hearing aid but keep putting them off.  Your audiologist makes me sound like Carlos Santana and I am making an appointment with her and buying an airline ticket same day😮😄😎

[Triple-o]

That was the third thing I noticed when I stated wearing hearing aids.First, was that my tinnitus went away, 2nd,  the birds are way too noisy and 3rd, my guitar playing sounded really bad. The mornings  when tinnitus wasn’t too bad I leave them out until after I practiced.Now, after about a year I am pretty used to the sounds and they don’t bother me anymore and the acoustic sounds fine.  Funny thing though, my classical guitar sounded about the same if not a little better.

[Oldjock]

13 hours ago, Triple-o said:

That was the third thing I noticed when I stated wearing hearing aids.First, was that my tinnitus went away, 2nd,  the birds are way too noisy and 3rd, my guitar playing sounded really bad. The mornings  when tinnitus wasn’t too bad I leave them out until after I practiced.Now, after about a year I am pretty used to the sounds and they don’t bother me anymore and the acoustic sounds fine.  Funny thing though, my classical guitar sounded about the same if not a little better.

Interesting that you said, "...the birds are way too noisy". Four years ago, I could finally afford a set of new digital hearing aids and that was the first time I noticed. I had never been able to clearly hear the beautiful sounds of birds singing and made me realize how lucky I was.

Henk

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

True test of good hearing aid programming is they don't make all sorts of wierd noises when you use a wha pedal 

[Triple-o]

Soon as I get my amp back, I’ll give it a try.  The only reason I got them was for tinnitus and they work great. 

[gotto]

5 hours ago, Triple-o said:

Soon as I get my amp back, I’ll give it a try.  The only reason I got them was for tinnitus and they work great. 

The tinnitus going away, hearing the birds singing , the gentle breezes and rustling of leaves.....I can really appreciate these observations in my use of hearing aids myself. It's great! 

Greg

[Popeye]

The tinnitus going away, hearing the birds singing , the gentle breezes and rustling of leaves.....I can really appreciate these observations in my use of hearing aids myself. It's great! 

Greg

Greg- Did Audiologist explain why Tinnitus disappears when you wear hearing aids???

Mike

[gotto]

On 8/27/2020 at 8:01 PM, Popeye said:

The tinnitus going away, hearing the birds singing , the gentle breezes and rustling of leaves.....I can really appreciate these observations in my use of hearing aids myself. It's great! 

Greg

Greg- Did Audiologist explain why Tinnitus disappears when you wear hearing aids???

Mike

I never asked but an interesting article from the American Tinnitus Association suggests that augmenting external noises with aids may help mask the internal noise of tinnitus. The relief probably varies from person to person but picking up even softer background noise can help retrain the brain to receive and interpret auditory stimuli. I have even heard the term “white noise” to describe the concept . Stimulating the auditory nerve pathway may override the internal drone of tinnitus, even if not completely. It may be that the tinnitus blends in with the background noise and the brain auditory centers may reprogram. All I really know is that the subtle slow loss of hearing was somewhat miraculously restored with sounds I hadn’t known for decades, by acquiring hearing aids. My advice to the hearing impaired....don’t wait. 
 

Greg

 

I need to add an edit. I still have tinnitus without the hearing aids. So Mike, the disorder does not technically "go away". 

Edited September 4, 2020 by gotto

[Popeye]

Thanks Greg- Appreciate the response. My tinnitus is increasing in pitch and volume. Gets old especially at night when all is quiet and trying to fall asleep.

Mike

[Triple-o]

On 9/4/2020 at 8:36 PM, Popeye said:

Thanks Greg- Appreciate the response. My tinnitus is increasing in pitch and volume. Gets old especially at night when all is quiet and trying to fall asleep.

Mike

At night I use a pillow with two speakers inside that are connected to a white noise machine.I also live in a state where using a   “volcano” is legal.
I have never tried it, but I took a class where they seemed to think “mindfulness meditation “ was the answer. 

[Colburn]

My tinnitus never goes away - with or without hearing aids. Fortunately it doesn't drive me totally crazy. I normally sleep with music playing. But to me it's just background noise. If it's loud enough for me to hear, it's too loud for my wife.

[Triple-o]

20 hours ago, Colburn said:

My tinnitus never goes away - with or without hearing aids. Fortunately it doesn't drive me totally crazy. I normally sleep with music playing. But to me it's just background noise. If it's loud enough for me to hear, it's too loud for my wife.

My Signia hearing aids work fine during the day. I am  not sure how they were programmed. I hadn’t kept up on hearing aid technology. I just when in and let them test and fit me without asking questions.I know they have some type of tinnitus feature and it certainly works for me.

Most nights strains like afghani is the only reason I sleep. Laying awake for 2 -4 hours wasn’t uncommon. When I use just my pillow alone, I  need to be in another bedroom and be really tired. 

I’ve tried to determine what causes my noise levels to increase and I  think stress is a big part of that  equation.I thought maybe wine, caffeine or  changes in blood pressure were also involved, but I really don’t know.

Guitar practice seems to be a really good distraction.

Before a doctor mentioned hearing aids during a physical my thoughts were getting pretty dark. I really didn’t believe they could make a difference, but I add nothing to lose.One of the best decisions I ever made.

Travel is a problem, guitar gathering not possible.

https://www.signiausa.com/tinnitus/solutions-for-tinnitus/

Edited September 11, 2020 by Triple-o

[Johnny whitley]

I am hearing impaired. I became sick and almost died at age 3 by spinal meningitis. Lost 100 percent in my right ear and lost 80 percent in my left. Not only lose sense of hearing but lose of sense of picking up word and memory. Wear hearing aid at high volume to 10. Didn’t help. Playing guitar near my left ear with hearing aid without read my fingers and wires are hard to following up. Add some speaker to it might help but I haven’t try. I have been listening to music, sound were beautiful but can’t pick up words that were saying. It depresses me.

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

@Johnny whitley sorry to 'hear' that Johnny. I have otosclerosis where the inner bones harden and kill the inner ear from hearing since I was a child..

I've had stapedectomies and came close to -30db at bottom end of 'normal' hearing but it's been fading over the years and I'm somewhere near -65db without aids.

sounds like you might need to use headphones (obviously for only the left ear.) to help the guitar playing so you can leave the guitar in normal position.

as for word articulation. you probably rely on lip reading a lot, I do

when it comes to modern music.. I can't tell you what they're singing.. (and I won't even talk about rap)

my family often goes "oh who's singing on the music system in the store/restaurant", I'm like 'I can barely make out there's music let alone know who's singing other than maybe yet another female pop singer; if I can hear them at all.

unfortunately there is currently no cure for deafness.

but sometime after I'm long gone.. all those "booming" cars at 50,000 watts enough Gen X'ers will be deaf and hearing aids will become amazing.

 

 

[Colburn]

Doug, that all sounds very familiar. I can barely understand most things. Recently my audiologist said I'm legally deaf above certain frequencies. I have to rely on my wife telling me what someone said. It's discouraging since my hearing aids are really expensive and they've tuned them up as much as possible. Guess I'll get new hearing aids instead of another very nice guitar. But at least I'm around to complain about it. 

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

@Colburn my last set cost me $5500 , there are more expensive but my tech said my gain in quality is minimal 

 

Can’t remember if I said it above 

I brought my acoustic in and played while he adjusted settings to I found a spot that sounded right/good

[Crayguniii]

Charlie here with a 45 db notch from 1.5K to 4K.  Make EQing the Matchless/Tele combo interesting.  I have to set the tone using my hearing aids so that it is presumably attractive to the normal ear.  Once the stage volume gets loud at show time, out come the HA’s and in go the ear plugs for a very muffled experience.  Less than inspiring but but necessary to continue to play.  I guess I should be glad to not ice pick the audience at 2k.  Play till you die!!!’

[Fretless]

For those of us who are not deaf this is very sober reading and gives us a better understanding of what you are going through.

I am one of thos annoying people that enters a café, bar or restaurant and tries to identify the song and artist before the singing starts (the UK's Radio 1 used to have that quiz every day) and so reading @Eracer_Team-DougH's life of hardly noticing that music is playing will make me more understanding and sympathetic to those who cannot.

Thank you one and all for sharing your experiences. Do please keep telling them.