Hi everyone in this community. I come from China and I’m a bialteral CI user. I have noticed that its few people from China here, so I’d like to share some stories that happened in the Chinese CI community. Recently, Cochlear in mainland China reported the news that a child with congenital deafness who had received cochlear implant was admitted to a reputable music conservatory. This child is very skilled at playing the piano. I’d like to ask everyone, how is your music appreciation ability after the surgery? I saw materials compiled by the University of Iowa indicating that even musicians need to spend a lot of effort rebuilding their sense of music after receiving CI.
Welcome @Julian
Music appreciation is very different for most CI users. I’m bimodal, and it took an awful lot of rehab to get to the stage that I can now enjoy and appreciate most genres of music. I enjoy orchestras, brass, R&R, jazz, & R&B, and the list goes on. The one type of music I absolutely love but cannot enjoy anymore is pipe band music, listening to bands play live is horrific.
Hi @Deaf_piper
I’m also bilateral Cochlear user with two N6! Glad to meet you here.
For me, most types of music sound similar and it is hard to distinguish them in terms of timbre.
I am bilateral Cochlear N7/K2 processors, almost 5 years.
For me listening to an old song I knew by heart many times I started learning music.
At this time I enjoy older music I used to listen to. Music I don’t know can be difficult. Certain types of music are better to me than others.
Those that enjoy music with CI have practiced at it. Some have listened to music from activation day on and do well with it.
Like many things in life, you do well at what you want to.
@Julian Did you do very much music rehab?
I constantly had music playing, I used the radio, as well as Spotify. Spotify I found very good as I could choose the artists and songs I knew. Using Spotify help me the most with music appreciation. Music for CI recipients is a really tough gig. So many different achievements with music.
Both @Raudrive and I painfully worked our way through Cochlear’s “Bring back the beat”. I’m not at all sure I found it beneficial though.
Listening to music every day had been part of my rehab since activation and it’s worked out well for me.
Overall, I can appreciate music more than I had prior to CI now that nuances can be picked up more readily. Allowing me to enjoy a much more wider range than previously.
Streaming directly is always great since it gives the maximum signal, and listening via the processors microphones is fine too, live music with instruments being played have been really good.
I’m bimodal. I have an Advanced Bionics Marvel CI and the matching Phonak Link HA. I enjoy music a lot more than before my implant. As some of you have said, some music sounds better than others. I’m still working to enjoy all types of music.
Streaming sounds better to me. I have a large collection of CDs and Vinyl’s and found I could stream from my stereo by plugging a TV Connector into the headphone jack (with an adapter).
Thank you all for your kind sharing. I will upgrade my device to nucleus 8 and hope everything goes smoothly. I belive my situation would be improved after using the bluetooth.