In the seminar room of the Vinegar There is a lot of hustle and bustle on the old town of Lübeck. 20 people come back from the break, chat with each other. The background noise is diffuse. It is a Saturday afternoon, the summer air in the room weighs heavily. Which is not due to the mood of the Cochlea implant bearers, who are now gradually spreading over three rows of chairs. Light falls into the room from behind. On the other hand, there is a piano on the wall, next to it to music box, a music box and some drums.
How does music enjoyment work with Cochlea implant?
Lea Mejia Barnickel stands in front of the piano. We totally have one thing together: If you study music – as in my case – you also train the hearing. We call the hearing education. This includes different training sessions. We also gradually do various exercises today.
Barnickel is a musician on Theater Lübeck. It leads the listening training, which is part of a music workshop for cochlea implant (CI). A CI is a kind of hearing prosthesis that is directly connected to the audio nerve. Expert from the Technical University of Lübeck, the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein And the Lübeck Theater organized the music enjoyment workshop with CI. Listening to music is of course integrated into everyday life for most people. On the way to work, weekly housing plaster or in the concert hall. But how does music enjoyment work with Cochlea implant?
How does that work now?
asks a participant. You clap first, then do I count and write down the number?
. The participant points to a piece of paper that is in a clamping board. Very important: First you put the questionnaires under the chairs
says Barnickel. Guido Ubben has the questionnaire, Hearing acoustics-S student in the 5th semester at TH Lübeck, developed together with Barnickel. The student wants to find out to what extent hearing training affects the participants.
The first exercise is rhythm training. I clap you clap after
says the musician. What is a mere sequence of three to four gossip at first is becoming increasingly complex. In the second step, Barnickel hides her hands behind the piano, so that the participants can no longer see them. After that, the CI carriers have to say how often barnickel clapped and enter their result in the questionnaire. Not an easy task even for normal listening.
I am impressed
After the workshop, the musician is beaming in the break room: I am impressed by how quickly the exercises went very well. For example, when I clapped a rhythm, the participants were able to clap very quickly. That sounds easy at first. But it is not. I also have a few more difficult tasks and hope that I will not demotive the participants.
Simply
says Frank-Christian (Chris) Lilienweiss when asked how music training was for him. Simply because I come from a family of musicians and have already learned piano playing before I was able to write and read. My uncle was a musician, my grandfather was a musician, my mother played the piano.
Lilienweiss is tall, has a friendly face, bald head and on his cochlea implant, a sticker from the band Nirvana sticks.
He became severe hearing at the age of 11. He has been wearing a cochlea implant since 2018. Because I was almost deaf for 30 years and only got my CI in 2018, I have no direct comparison on how I heard as a child.
The musician and Head of Music & User Experience at Med-EL-a manufacturer of implantable hearing solutions based in Innsbruck-is certain: I believe that our musician brain is simply much more positive and willing to get involved with new things than others and that helps to adapt the new listening impressions with CI much faster. I really hear how I can remember it as a child. It’s totally blatant. Of course I can’t say exactly how I heard 40 years ago.
Torsten Schubert stands next to Chris Lilienweiß and only disagrees. Nope
he says when asked whether the workshop was easy. But the experience as a musician was of course an advantage for the rhythm exercises, so it is easier to see
. Schubert and Lilienweiss discuss which apps and exercises they would know and recommend for music enjoyment with Cochlea implant. Meludia, for example, an online hearing training for more music enjoyment that Med-EL recommends. But there are also many other free apps
Lea Barnickel throws in the break discussion.
Applied research in hearing acoustics
The exchange is very important for the participants. It is mainly possible during the breaks. The participants pass on their experiences and exchange tips. But such a workshop is also very interesting for us as a researcher. Even clinics do not get so many CI carriers in one room. For my student Guido Ubben this is the best prerequisite for his research
explains Tim Jürgens, who is a professor of auditorial signal processing at TH Lübeck and has been organized by the workshop. The companies Advanced Bionics, Med-EL, and Phonak support the workshop using sponsorship.
Spanish romance
A long workshop day comes to an end for the participants with guitars, oboes and clarinet sounds. The Hermanitos trio sits opposite the CI carrier. Strahinja Pavlovic plays clarinet, Jesus Colmenarez Oboe and Alexander Vergara guitar. Each of them explains their instrument and lets the listeners immerse themselves in their world. Alexander Vergara plays the Spanish romance work and fulfills the vinegar factory with a sensual, thoughtful music. When he sounds the last plucked guitar tone, it breaks out of one participant: Craziness!