Music, Singing, Piano/Guitar - what can I expect with CI’s? Hearing Preservation?

[DoctorNo]

Hi all, an experienced HA used for 25 years but still in my 40’s, my hearing loss is getting to the point where I am profound in the high frequency range and reaching the limit of what conventional HA can do. I am close to hitting the word recognition threshold for CI’s.

I am an inveterate music listener, and play guitar and piano. I was an a cappella singer in college and music is a huge part of my life. Much of the info on exactly how bad music hearing is with CI’s is vague (eg “sounds alright” “ I can enjoy music” etc) but really doesn’t speak to singing, harmonizing, playing/singing in tune, pitch recognition, etc. Any musicians out there with CI’s?

Would love some Real Talk.

I am also curious if anyone out there with CI’s has done well long term with Hearing preservation in the low ranges, and particularly with what electrode array your surgeon went with to achieve that, steroids, etc.

Thanks in advance!

[bcarp]

Hi DoctorNo,

Have a look at my post here. I think it answers quite a few of your questions:

Music and Cochlear Implants

I have pitch recognition through the cochlear if I listen really carefully and the notes are distinct and about half an octave apart. Less than that & it’s tricky. Certainly, the nuances of an ensemble playing together with the notes mashed together is not possible. When I had a hybrid acoustic/electric component for a few months, it was better but still not perfect. I definitely don’t have enough pitch definition to play an unfretted instrument like a cello. Even piano would be hard, but I cou…

The summary is that the CI is useless for music playing. I have a unilateral Cochlear CI622 implant with Nucleus 7 processor, which was implanted by the surgeon with a Cochlear company technician in the room with live monitoring of the array during implantation.