Ways to Enjoy Music When You Have Hearing Loss

Music doesn’t always sound the way we hoped, but there are ways to make it work.

Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.

Key points

• Listening to music can be challenging for people with hearing loss.
• Music you know can be easier to enjoy since we hear with our brains, which fill in some of the missing sounds.
• Reading lyrics in advance helps; so does using assistive listening devices or music programs on hearing aids.

“I love this song,” my son calls out from the ocean where he is swimming. The boat’s speakers are weak, but strong enough for my family to enjoy the music in the background. They all break into their best rock star moves, bopping their heads to the music and lip-syncing into their pretend microphones. I watch them and smile, but I don’t join in. Not yet.

“What song is it?” I ask. They are too busy jamming to reply at first, but eventually one of them will voice the lyrics out loud. Only then do I stand a chance of getting in on the act.

We Hear With Our Brains

If I know the song, something clicks in my brain, and what was once an indecipherable field of noise snaps into focus. My brain connects the bit I am hearing to a song I must have heard under different conditions (or perhaps when my hearing was more intact) and boom — I can now “hear” the song clearly. I sing along too.

But if it’s a melody I don’t know, their crooning doesn’t help. The indistinguishable sounds remain a blur because there is nothing pre-recorded in my cerebrum to fill in the blanks. We truly do hear with our brains.

It reminds me of something Roxana Rotundo discusses in our hearing loss documentary "We Hear You." After getting her cochlear implant, she needed to relearn people’s voices. It was much easier for her to do this with the voices of people she knew well. “The brain acts as a hard drive,” she says, “storing voices, and when the connection is made between what I am hearing now and what my brain has stored — the memory of the voice takes over.”

The same process happens for me — but with songs rather than voices.

Tips for Enjoying Music With Hearing Loss

Listening to music can be challenging for people with hearing loss. Sometimes it doesn’t sound the way we want it to or think it should because our hearing devices digitize the sound. But there are ways to make it work — especially if we leverage the idea of hearing with our brain.

1. Turn up the volume

Some people like to remove their hearing devices, put on high-quality headphones, and turn up the volume as loud as it needs to be to hear. Be careful to do this only for short periods so your hearing is not damaged further.

2. Connect directly to the sound

Use Bluetooth or T-coil settings to bring the music directly into your ears via your devices. T-coil connections work well for concerts and musical theater as well.

3. Use a music program or analog devices

Try a music program on your hearing device or utilize analog technology when listening to music to minimize distortion.

4. Read the lyrics in advance to improve comprehension

This is very helpful when listening to new music. I used this trick on the latest Taylor Swift album and it helped a lot.

5. Stick to music you already know

While this is limiting, it allows you to benefit from any pre-existing brain connections to the song and will help you partially fill in the blanks you are not actually hearing.

Love Music?

Love music, but have trouble enjoying it with hearing loss? I hope these tips will make listening to music easier and more fun.

Copyright: Living With Hearing Loss/Shari Eberts. Reprinted with permission.