6 ms·

What It's Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time

93 points by mdariani 14y ago

philipDS 14y ago
With so much more to listen to, Chapman says that, "ironically enough, I'm turning my hearing aids off more often than before." There are too many annoying sounds. "Silence is still my favorite sound," he writes. "When I turn my aids off my thoughts become more clear and it's absolutely peaceful." ============================ This is remarkable. I wonder what the world would be like if we were able to turn our ears off and on.
- peteretep 14y ago
  ... buy some really good ear plugs? It's not perfect, but it's pretty good if you buy good quality ones and stick them in deep enough ... I bought some noise canceling headphones a while back, and started wearing them in the office even when I didn't have music coming through them. The world became a quieter, gentler place when they were on, and it was good.
nitrogen 14y ago
This just looks like a rough summary of a Reddit thread. Where's the discussion of why he was deaf, what he could and could not hear before, and what the new hearing aids did differently? I want to know more about the medical cause of his deafness, and the technology behind the hearing aids.
- danparsonson 14y ago
  You probably weren't looking for an article entitled "What It's Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time", then.
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    The article didn't even really cover that; it basically said "imagine the emotion" and listed a bunch of music.
    - Hari_Seldon 14y ago
      >When Mozart's Lacrimosa came on, I was blown away by the beauty of it. At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. Seems to cover it to me
      - corin_ 14y ago
        It's a fairly simply-described reaction that a non-deaf person could have to that piece just because of its beauty not because they are hearing music for the first time.
        Hari_Seldon 14y ago
        Yeah, but you seem to be assuming that the experience would be completely alien, a language needing to be learned so to speak. I'm not so sure about that, perhaps music being the most visceral of the arts, does not require interpretation or explanation, so that even the unschooled ear can apprehend beauty.
        corin_ 14y ago
        I've no idea if it would be any different for a deaf person to hear music for the first time than for a normal person to hear music, and if it is different I don't know if there is any way to answer "What It's Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time". My point was that this article really doesn't cover that question, as you said it did.
        gknoy 14y ago
        While it doesn't fully convey the depth of his emotion, or likely even allow us to fully imagine it, I think that looking at the article as a whole, we can see that he basically now can experience music in ways very similar to (and likely the same as) the way we do. He cries to it. He has samples several different kinds of music, and has definite feelings about the genres (e.g., classical vs country). He's actively seeking out new music, and is finding ways to describe (very well, IMO) _why_ he likes one or the other better. He's found a song that he has had to listen to over-and-over. I think that covers "what it's like" from an emotional perspective very well. It was profoundly moving for me to read this.
- Shivetya 14y ago
  I am curious to what he could hear before but only from the standpoint of having worked with a deaf person back in my high school days. He felt the music more than hearing it is probably the best way I can phrase it. So in his car the music was always loud and not always of the same genre. Strong bass guitar and of course drums of any type appealed because he could feel the beat. Subtle sounds would probably be missed completely.
nathan_long 14y ago
After hearing a description of a similar sudden change to hearing on This American Life, I expected the answer to be "confusing, because his brain can't interpret the sounds or sort out signal from noise." I was surprised that he was immediately enjoying music. Any ideas why this might vary so drastically? ==== Edit: maybe it's a technological difference; the TAL story involved cochlear implants. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/transcript http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/t...
- guard-of-terra 14y ago
  I am too under impression that your music taste is a product of a long and sophisticated coevolution between you and the music you like. Without it, you might appreciate a piece of music for its qualities, but not actually enjoy it. If you get to hear the music of some unknown civilization, you won't likely enjoy it right away (and they won't enjoy your favourites). So I'm willing to sign off his enjoyment on novelity. Any mind-opening new experience makes you ecstatic, but it's not the content - it's the form. But this effect wears off and you start to be choosy.
  - fusiongyro 14y ago
    > I am too under impression that your music taste is a product of a long and sophisticated coevolution between you and the music you like. This is the best description of musical taste I've ever seen.
- sp332 14y ago
  If hearing aids which are just amplifiers help, then he's not 100% deaf. His brain still has some input from the ears and can learn which impulses are from the ears. The guy in your story didn't even realize the vibrations were noises at first. If you have any ability to sense things with your ears, you can enjoy music. This video explains why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0DXxNeaQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0DXxNeaQ0
- Jun8 14y ago
  I don't know how deaf the person in the OP was, as with blindness, there are varying degrees of deafness. He may have some form of hearing because the vocabulary that he describes the first things he hears, e.g. friend with a "slight rasp in his voice" is quite rich. But even assuming he was totally deaf before, a lot of people believe that basic music appreciation is one of the wired-in aspects of the brain, like language. In fact, there is some proof that language and music are processed by the same parts of the brain (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927121101.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927121101.ht...). So, just as a person who never have exposed to language can quickly learn it when s/he encounters it (many such cases are documented, e.g. feral children, Genie) so a deaf person theoretically would start enjoying music from the get go. The difference in the other story may be related to the sensor technology, as you point out, maybe the cochlear implant was distorting the sounds somewhat.
rickyconnolly 14y ago
Either this guy is spending a king's ransom on all these tunes or the RIAA is going to have a field day with him.
- briancooley 14y ago
  "The response was tremendous, running more than 14,000 comments and garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membersion and a 13-hour playlist that covers a huge range of music."
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
mst3kzz 14y ago
"...garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membersion..." What is membersion?
jpwagner 14y ago
sigur ros - staralfur yes yes yes yes
shell0x 14y ago
Beethovens symphony nine is the best piece of music, which I ever listened to :)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
brianjyee 14y ago
I think one important thing to understand is that beautiful music is not the only kind of music that can be great. Sometimes music is designed to invoke a wide array of emotions which is why good music is crucial in TV and film. Good music can make you feel excited, happy, sad, scared, calm, nervous, anxious, angry, inspired, or any mix of the above. So while I think it's great that he is moved by beautiful music, he should keep his mind open to allowing music to take his emotions in other directions too.
deltaqueue 14y ago
Not really a technical comment, but I found a video of this type of experience to be so much more powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA Even better, Ellen (US talkshow host) saw the video and paid for both cochlear implants ($30k each): http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/index.php?mediaKey=1_ccmh4z8w http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/index.php?mediaKey=1_ccmh... *edited for clarity
wamatt 14y ago
I felt unusually moved by this article, my rational side is trying to figure out why.

93 points by mdariani 14y ago

With so much more to listen to, Chapman says that, "ironically enough, I'm turning my hearing aids off more often than before." There are too many annoying sounds. "Silence is still my favorite sound," he writes. "When I turn my aids off my thoughts become more clear and it's absolutely peaceful." ============================ This is remarkable. I wonder what the world would be like if we were able to turn our ears off and on.

peteretep 14y ago
... buy some really good ear plugs? It's not perfect, but it's pretty good if you buy good quality ones and stick them in deep enough ... I bought some noise canceling headphones a while back, and started wearing them in the office even when I didn't have music coming through them. The world became a quieter, gentler place when they were on, and it was good.

nitrogen 14y ago

This just looks like a rough summary of a Reddit thread. Where's the discussion of why he was deaf, what he could and could not hear before, and what the new hearing aids did differently? I want to know more about the medical cause of his deafness, and the technology behind the hearing aids.

danparsonson 14y ago
You probably weren't looking for an article entitled "What It's Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time", then.
- nitrogen 14y ago
  The article didn't even really cover that; it basically said "imagine the emotion" and listed a bunch of music.
  - Hari_Seldon 14y ago
    >When Mozart's Lacrimosa came on, I was blown away by the beauty of it. At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. Seems to cover it to me
    - corin_ 14y ago
      It's a fairly simply-described reaction that a non-deaf person could have to that piece just because of its beauty not because they are hearing music for the first time.
      - Hari_Seldon 14y ago
        Yeah, but you seem to be assuming that the experience would be completely alien, a language needing to be learned so to speak. I'm not so sure about that, perhaps music being the most visceral of the arts, does not require interpretation or explanation, so that even the unschooled ear can apprehend beauty.
        corin_ 14y ago
        I've no idea if it would be any different for a deaf person to hear music for the first time than for a normal person to hear music, and if it is different I don't know if there is any way to answer "What It's Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time". My point was that this article really doesn't cover that question, as you said it did.
        gknoy 14y ago
        While it doesn't fully convey the depth of his emotion, or likely even allow us to fully imagine it, I think that looking at the article as a whole, we can see that he basically now can experience music in ways very similar to (and likely the same as) the way we do. He cries to it. He has samples several different kinds of music, and has definite feelings about the genres (e.g., classical vs country). He's actively seeking out new music, and is finding ways to describe (very well, IMO) _why_ he likes one or the other better. He's found a song that he has had to listen to over-and-over. I think that covers "what it's like" from an emotional perspective very well. It was profoundly moving for me to read this.
Shivetya 14y ago
I am curious to what he could hear before but only from the standpoint of having worked with a deaf person back in my high school days. He felt the music more than hearing it is probably the best way I can phrase it. So in his car the music was always loud and not always of the same genre. Strong bass guitar and of course drums of any type appealed because he could feel the beat. Subtle sounds would probably be missed completely.

nathan_long 14y ago

After hearing a description of a similar sudden change to hearing on This American Life, I expected the answer to be "confusing, because his brain can't interpret the sounds or sort out signal from noise." I was surprised that he was immediately enjoying music. Any ideas why this might vary so drastically? ==== Edit: maybe it's a technological difference; the TAL story involved cochlear implants. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/transcript http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/t...

guard-of-terra 14y ago
I am too under impression that your music taste is a product of a long and sophisticated coevolution between you and the music you like. Without it, you might appreciate a piece of music for its qualities, but not actually enjoy it. If you get to hear the music of some unknown civilization, you won't likely enjoy it right away (and they won't enjoy your favourites). So I'm willing to sign off his enjoyment on novelity. Any mind-opening new experience makes you ecstatic, but it's not the content - it's the form. But this effect wears off and you start to be choosy.
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  > I am too under impression that your music taste is a product of a long and sophisticated coevolution between you and the music you like. This is the best description of musical taste I've ever seen.
sp332 14y ago
If hearing aids which are just amplifiers help, then he's not 100% deaf. His brain still has some input from the ears and can learn which impulses are from the ears. The guy in your story didn't even realize the vibrations were noises at first. If you have any ability to sense things with your ears, you can enjoy music. This video explains why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0DXxNeaQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0DXxNeaQ0
Jun8 14y ago
I don't know how deaf the person in the OP was, as with blindness, there are varying degrees of deafness. He may have some form of hearing because the vocabulary that he describes the first things he hears, e.g. friend with a "slight rasp in his voice" is quite rich. But even assuming he was totally deaf before, a lot of people believe that basic music appreciation is one of the wired-in aspects of the brain, like language. In fact, there is some proof that language and music are processed by the same parts of the brain (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927121101.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927121101.ht...). So, just as a person who never have exposed to language can quickly learn it when s/he encounters it (many such cases are documented, e.g. feral children, Genie) so a deaf person theoretically would start enjoying music from the get go. The difference in the other story may be related to the sensor technology, as you point out, maybe the cochlear implant was distorting the sounds somewhat.

rickyconnolly 14y ago

Either this guy is spending a king's ransom on all these tunes or the RIAA is going to have a field day with him.

briancooley 14y ago
"The response was tremendous, running more than 14,000 comments and garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membersion and a 13-hour playlist that covers a huge range of music."
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

mst3kzz 14y ago

"...garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membersion..." What is membersion?

jpwagner 14y ago

sigur ros - staralfur yes yes yes yes

shell0x 14y ago

Beethovens symphony nine is the best piece of music, which I ever listened to :)

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

brianjyee 14y ago

I think one important thing to understand is that beautiful music is not the only kind of music that can be great. Sometimes music is designed to invoke a wide array of emotions which is why good music is crucial in TV and film. Good music can make you feel excited, happy, sad, scared, calm, nervous, anxious, angry, inspired, or any mix of the above. So while I think it's great that he is moved by beautiful music, he should keep his mind open to allowing music to take his emotions in other directions too.

deltaqueue 14y ago

Not really a technical comment, but I found a video of this type of experience to be so much more powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA Even better, Ellen (US talkshow host) saw the video and paid for both cochlear implants ($30k each): http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/index.php?mediaKey=1_ccmh4z8w http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/index.php?mediaKey=1_ccmh... *edited for clarity

wamatt 14y ago

I felt unusually moved by this article, my rational side is trying to figure out why.