Long story short... it's not great. The end.
Short story long... I do rather miss the sounds I liked to listen to, even via my hearing aids... before. I know I missed loads even then but now, with the CI, I'm not only missing things, what I do hear is (can be) distorted. And yet you read of folks that really enjoy music with their CI... so...
I attended a 'day' organised by OPCI. This is the 'Independent Platform CI' in The Netherlands, for various organisations working together to inform those of us with a CI, without speaking for any one group in particular.
They advertised an afternoon of workshops designed to inform and instruct on how best to enjoy music on your CI so that seemed like just something I really shouldn't miss. I wasn't wrong, it was a fun and informative afternoon, a wee bit on the silly side with the usual embarrassment thrown in, but all in all, well organised and nicely done.
It was a good two hours travel for me to get there and meant an early start but that's ok now and then, 'heb ik voor over'. HAH! I missed my planned train by the proverbial hair (don't ask). This meant a quick rethink of the best way to get there...hmmmm... not my forte, but I got the following train which meant a changeover, then oh, right, another change over. Sorted! This got me half way and only going to be ten minutes late woohoo, how cool am I? But that was then snookered by 'works on the line' and having to get a bus. Ok, I can do that... but that waited ages, then took ages, then I still had to get another train. Nothing ventured eh? I f inally arrive at my destination (according to the route given by the organisers!) and 'we're right opposite the station, 2 minutes walk'. Aye right! Not when your name is Mackie it ain't. Turns out Ede has another station, Ede-Wageningen... and although still not entirely obvious (!!!) I found the place after a not unpleasant walk to this next station. Four hours, door to door... I could have been in Scotland by then!
I'd missed the morning's proceedings, but lunch and all the workshops were still to come.
What I really like about going to things dedicated to us HoH folks is that you just cannot miss what is being said to you, what with typing interpreters and always a properly working audio loop. Signers too when more deaf folks are involved, love it! So anyway...
After lunch, and meeting up once more with quite a few familiar faces, and chatting to not a few new ones. It's so cool, all in the same boat eh? So you don't feel you have to explain why you didn't quite hear what was just said hahaha. The 150 or so attendees were split into four groups, one for each workshop, each lasting about half an hour.
Wee pauses to chat between each one, before moving into the next room of wonders, during which I was severally asked as to what I had on my head... 'is that a BAHA?' (Bone Achored Hearing Aid). Once again, no-one recognised my Rondo as a CI! Not even other Med-El CI wearers. I told the girl at the Med-El stand that they really do need to advertise it more because everyone is surprised by, and I'm sure, jealous of, the 'all-in-one -nothing-behind-the-ear' affair that is the Rondo! Even the stand they had, and the information booklets... all very vague about the Rondo... sort of 'mentioned in the passing'. I just don't get it!
There are folks of all ages at this sort of thing, male and female, and I met a lovely wee boy with perfect speech, eight years old 'but I've had my CI for seven years'. Amazing. It is definitely also more and more prevalent to see double-sided CI wearers... and I also actually met a very nice baha wearer - those are weird, with like a popper on your head to clip it on to hehe - not that the implant lump on my now magnetised skull isn't weird to some folks.
Our first workshop was singing. Hysterical. La-la la-la la-la la-la laaaaaa! As you do. But we actually did not bad, ending up with some 'playing' recorders and the rest of us singing a rondelay to accompany a wee dance. Won't be selling any records soon (or dancing in public for that matter) but it was fun, if kinda embarrassing hahaha.
We moved on to playing percussion instruments. What a racket! We learned to follow the 'music' from the page, missing beats and doubling up the beats... '4, 3, 2, 2, 5... and repeat!' An enormous cacophony of drums (me!) triangles, (cow) bells, tambourines and all sorts of maracas and 'if you can bang it, it's fine'... totally hysterical.
Next up was 'listening'. This was actually quite the eye-opener. We were shown how Beethoven's 5th 'sounded' with the use of this thing (click 'this'). I can't find the actual one we listened to but you get the picture I'm sure. By the 3rd time of watching this through, over the half hour, I could actually hear much more of it because the blocks show you that something (whichever instrument) is playing and suddenly they kick in, so next time you notice it more and the time after that you hear it better... and so on. Now this would take quite some effort on my part to achieve a good level of enjoying whichever music I want to hear better, and I'd of course need this programme with the blocks to help. So I'm not sure if I will actually make that effort - nor if it would even be possible - but it was great to find out that there is definitely a layer of improvement that can be achieved if you go the whole hog. The person giving the workshop is a music/piano teacher wearing a CI so, pretty inspiring really.
Last but not least, we were given a wee singing recital by a guy and his wife. He wears a CI and plays guitar, she did the singing. He told us (all up on screen so easily followed) about the hows and whys of his deafness, how he still had lots of trouble but manages better now... all the usual... and we got four wee songs accompanied to his guitar playing (we were not to be afflicted by his singing we were told). One by Clapton (Tears in Heaven, so ok, I heard the title), three in Dutch. Two of those I caught the odd word (no text on screen) but the third was 'subtitled' and was really lovely, I liked that a lot. Bram Vermeulen 'heb een steen verlegd'. The other two perhaps had equally nice words but I of course missed them. Still, was nice. The point of it all being, despite setbacks, this CI wearer was still enjoying music to the full. He'd had things adjusted in his CI (one side) and HA (the other) to enable him to choose a 'music programme', for when he is listening, or playing, music. So it can be done!
We all finished up in the auditorium to hear the thanks and see the flowers handed out as per, and we were able to listen to the pianist playing rather nicely before being treated to a percussion concert on drums and bongos... infinitely better than our effort but then, we only had half an hour eh?
Everyone then 'took their leave'. Me to a reasonable two hour run home, 'moe maar voldaan', marginally wiser about 'music and the CI' but in any case glad to have been there. Thanks to all at OPCI for the very well organised affair.
