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I've just gotten hearing aids, and I'm having a terrible time playing...rather, a terrible time enjoying what I'm playing. Lots of echoes, overtones, squeals.

Does anyone else try to play with hearing aids? How do you manage?

If you don't need the hearing aids to hear yourself play the play, why not shut them off and save the battery life.

I don't use hearing aids ... yet.

I almost always turn my hearing aids off to play, for the same reasons cited by the OP. Once in a while, though, I practice for a while with them switched on, because it helps me even out passagework. If one note is louder than the others, the hearing aids tend to make it sound like I banged it out with a hammer, so it's a strong motivator to keep things nice and even.

Amen. When I'm practicing with the band I'm in I often take them out. So all evening I'm constantly taking them out, putting them in, etc (I have cheap ones, and turning up/down isn't always easy with them in).

That being said, it did take awhile - months - to really begin to get used to having them, so that I didn't feel like there was wind noise all the time, or the traffic didn't startle me. So hang in there - they do get better. And I can sometimes now practice solo with them in. I'm sure my tri-plex neighbors appreciate the turn-down in volume

Cathy

What kind do you have? I have worn oticons (they are probably a passe model by now) for years and have gotten so used to them that they do not interfere with anything. Maybe the audiologist can dial them to solve your issues. You probably just are not used to them yet. Hearing loss is so gradual and causes such a withdrawal from everyday interactions that correcting it like this can be a shock.

Mine are Oticon as well, but do not have a volume control on them. They were over $5,000, despite having no volume control.

I'm happy to see some of your positive posts, that they may get better with time, and that my audiologist may be able to better adjust them. Right now we're remaking the right aid because of poor fit. I'm about 3 weeks in, now, and so far I'm feeling just miserable about them. I cannot see much if any improvement in hearing speech (still asking people to repeat a lot), and the telephone is impossible to use.

Mine do not have volume controls either. I like mine. Hope you can adjust and get used to them. Your audiologist ought to be able to help.

One potential bright spot is that some phones are more compatible than others with hearing aids. There's some information on that subject here.

Also, www.hearingaidforums.com is a site that I found pretty helpful for adaptation issues when I first got hearing aids a few years ago.

If you look at the "Digital Hearing Aids" forum at http://www.hearingaidforums.com, you should be able to find several threads within the last year or so discussing problems and possible solutions related to musicians use of hearing aids. I think I can summarize what has been said there as hearing aids have always been designed to provide the best results for hearing speech, but if you work with your audiologist, you may be able to get your aids setup with a program that will work somewhat satisfactorily for music. I have been wearing Oticon Vigo hearing aids for about four years now, and for the first three of those the audiologists I saw were really not willing or able to help me with music. But this year I found one who was able to set my aids up with a second program for music (use both front and rear microphones, don't do speech oriented processing, don't try to manage feedback) and I am very happy with the results.

Larry

Thanks so much for the links to HA forums. I spent over a year on piano forums before I bought my current piano; I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to do a similar search before I bought hearing aids.

Much of the forum terminology is beyond me, but I think I may gain a lot from reading there. Thanks again.