SUE Daw grew up listening to The Beatles and playing the piano. But all that changed when the Canberra resident started to lose hearing in both ears when she was seven.
“I loved listening to music and all those wonderful musicals and symphonies,” said Sue, who is now 71 and an aural rehabilitation teacher with Better Hearing Australia. “Over the years in our house the radio went off, records were not played and our house became quiet.”
Sue gradually started to lose the rich sound of instruments in the orchestra, but said all that changed when she attended a Rediscovering Music session with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.
The free program is run by orchestra bassoonist and clinical audiologist Kristen Sutcliffe.
“Losing the ability to listen to music can be very traumatic for some,” Kristen said. “Often they say ‘I’m going to give up because I can’t enjoy it any more’. This program is about saying ‘all is not lost’ and enabling listeners to really appreciate the music and instruments again.”
The program, which has been running for four years, offers interactive concerts for older people who use hearing aids or cochlear implants and have difficulty listening to music through these devices.
“For many people with hearing loss like Sue, they can’t hear music like they used to,” said Kristen, who works with Australian Hearing.
For Sue, instruments that have deeper sounds, such as the cello, viola, bassoon and tuba, are more pleasant to hear than those with high-pitch sounds such as violins, piccolos and ukuleles.
Kristen said while the distortion is different for everyone, the key is to keep the sound of the concerts simple, moving away from big orchestral set-ups and focusing on chamber music with a few instruments. The concerts tend to steer away from the brass section, which can seem very loud to people with hearing devices, using instruments such as harps and strings instead.
“We also focus on familiar music, so people can follow the melody and build their confidence, even starting with things like Happy Birthday. We then focus on the timbre (tone) of the instruments.
“This is because people with hearing problems have difficulty distinguishing one instrument from another when they hear it.”
Kristen said the visual cues of watching a live performance were invaluable. “When we listen to people talk, we all actually do a lot of lip reading too to make the connection. This is the same when listening to music.”
For Sue, who wears hearing aids behind both ears, the experience has been amazing.
“Suddenly my ears could hear those individual sounds again and as the session progressed my brain started to remember how these instruments sounded,” she said.
“It was such a moving and uplifting experience.
“I have seen people with cochlear implants in tears as they realise they can enjoy music again.”
Six Rediscovering Music presentations will be held this year. Sessions are 1pm at Grant Cameron Community Centre, Holder, and 5.30pm at Hellenic Club, Phillip. How Do We Experience Music, March 7, presented by guitarist Steve Allen and speaker Rod Taylor; Discovering the Double Bass with Dave Flynn, May 30; and Strings Through The Ages, October 31. Free.
The orchestra is also offering two instrumental scholarships for people with hearing loss to learn the recorder with oboe player Megan Billing.
- Details: (02) 6247-9191 or email hearing@cso.org.au