| Deafness and music | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 20 2018, 05:34 PM (252 Views) | |
| dai Cottomy | Mar 20 2018, 05:34 PM Post #1 |
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I suppose it is to be expected at my age, but for some time now I have been unable to listen to music. In spite of having hearing aids, listening to music has become peculiar. Music sounds distorted and out of tune. Stuff that should sound familiar is unrecognisable. I have a large collection of Cds covering a wide spectrum of music - Classical to Jazz.They are now sitting on the shelves, collecting dust. No more Beethoven or Bach - Duke Ellington , John Coltrane or Bill Evans. (how I miss his sublime harmonies). All is not lost, though - my brain has stored an eclectic array of music which it plays back in my head. I have no control over it , so it may play back hymn tunes from the days of school assemblies. or it may play songs from the 1940s and fifties, or odd snatches of folk songs or even orchestral pieces On checking with Google, it appears that this condition is known as 'Musical Hallucinations' (or earworms). It is related to tinnitus, "Based on his book MUSICOPHILIA, Dr. Oliver Sacks discusses the unique auditory hallucinations known as earworms. Earworms appear to be neurologically and sensorily unique--there is no olfactory equivalent, for instance, of having a song stuck in your head. However, they can also be quite distressing to the people experiencing them, and often appear and persist, unwanted, for long periods of time." I have now become accustomed to them, and find that I can stop them by reading , or some other occupation. . |
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| rumbaba | Mar 20 2018, 08:37 PM Post #2 |
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Sorry to read this, Dai. My hearing isn't great but my problems are minor compared to yours. Music is a big part of my life too . A shame the jukebox in your head is set to 'random play'. |
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| waiting4atickle | Mar 21 2018, 03:09 AM Post #3 |
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Interesting condition, Dai, although I'm not sure your musical hallucinations are the same as earworms as commonly understood. Do you get whole songs playing or just fragments? And does your jukebox get stuck on repeat, which I'd have thought would be worse than random play? It's good that you've found ways to stop them. Are you doing a lot of reading these days? |
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| dai Cottomy | Mar 21 2018, 01:58 PM Post #4 |
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Thanks, Rum. Things could be worse. Tick: I'm not sure of the difference between hallucinations and earworms. There is a lot of info on google but I don't feel inclined to plough through it all. The mental jukebox is inclined to be repetetive; I awoke this morning to "The British Grenadiers" which did go on a bit.I managed to coax it into Ravel's Bolero - which is nothing if not repetetive. `Yes I do a lot of reading. The latest is "The Time Travellers Guide to Restoration Britain" by Ian Mortimer. "Mortimer's curiosity is boundless and his profound scholarship is leavened by a sense of fun" - Daily Express Edited by dai Cottomy, Mar 21 2018, 02:08 PM.
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| Caro | Mar 21 2018, 11:20 PM Post #5 |
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Since my stroke I have often had the same phrase of music - just three or four notes - go over and over in my head. Different songs at different times, but very irritating. I think it is not so bad now. I did read where that is a form of obsessive compulsive disease, and my husband has an unwelcome way of saying when I am interested in something that I have OCD. Or am autistic. I don't think I am either of those, any more than his obsession with English football shows, well, obsession! But I was a bit concerned that earworms are considered a form of OCD, at least the sort that I had after my stroke. I think that and what Dai is describing are a bit different and more worrying that usual earworms. Though Dai's sounds much more serious than mine - I can still listen to music happily, and it is mostly in bed at night that I have these irritating short bursts of songs in my head. |
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| dai Cottomy | Mar 22 2018, 04:56 PM Post #6 |
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Don't listen to hubby, Caro. What we have has nothing to do with OCD. In my case, deafness has meant that my brain receives insufficient information to make live or recorded music reccognisable. To compensate, the memory part of the brain can recall and reproduce music that it has stored over the years. It can get irritating at times when a musical phrase repeats itself, but with practice it is possible to change it to something else. I have a theory that Beethoven, who as we all knov was profoundly deaf in his later years, might have suffered from this condition. I have noticed that sometimes, my mental jukebox will produce music that I don't recognise. Is it possible that this is how some of his music was created? Did he wake up one morning with 'Ode to Joy' playing in his head? Just a thought. So don't worry, Caro. Just concentrate on recovering from your stroke Dai |
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