In the past people with cochlear implants were told to forget about music – that it was impossible to enjoy music with ‘electronic’ hearing.
While it can be challenging to enjoy music with CIs to start with, it is well worth putting the work in if you want to regain the ability to find joy in your favourite music.
Start with the familiar
Choose a song or songs that you know well. Choose something with one singer, and maybe one or two instruments. Play the song a few times and see if you can recognise the beat, some words or some melody. Don’t be disappointed when it doesn’t sound flash straight away – this is normal! You can work your way up to more ‘complicated’
Try YouTube
Search for a familiar song with lyrics. Then you can play the song and listen and watch the lyrics at the same time to help you recognise where you are in the song – this way you can sometimes ‘trick’ your brain into hearing it more completely if you know which part of the song you are up to!
Use a good quality sound source.
Whether that is via direct streaming with your Roger device or your phone – or with a good Bluetooth speaker – or in the car. Using the tinny speakers on your laptop, tablet or phone can make it harder to hear, especially at the beginning.
Don’t give up! Just like you probably had to work hard to understand speech at the beginning or to tell people’s voices apart you will need to practise listening to music to appreciate it. If it’s important to you, we encourage you to keep at it!