So, I'm almost 62 years old, and my tinnitus is worse than ever before.
But last Sunday I was just reading a book when my older son came to me and told me that my cellphone, next to me, was ringing. I did not hear the phone ringing, and there were two missed calls. I replied to my son that maybe my phone was in mute mode, but he said that he was able to hear the ring from the other side of the flat.
I have been playing several instruments all my life (alto sax, trumpet, and guitar), but i have to admit that at best I was mediocre with all of them. In the last few years I noticed the increasing difficulties to play my guitar while standing, and that's why I play most of time seated, as my back can´t cope anymore, and my wrists are sore after playing. And talking to my middle son (he plays the piano very very well) I realised that when we listen any particular song we hear different things, in particular the very low and very high frequencies.
I guess I won´t be playing guitar solos in big arenas o recording my albums.
Most probably music is gone for me.
I will still come down here to read all your posts, tho..... Rock on!

 

Fortunately favorite songs don't require as much hearing hardware, so at least listening for pleasure is still possible even if mixing is mostly beyond reach.
At over 60 years old, it's time to become a sub-bass specialist.

 

I know this teenage guy who is completely deaf, and plays the piano with an implant.

 

I'm in a similar position but can still hear in both ears (one attenuated and both with a loss of high end.As the music is for my pleasure only, this is not a problem. I mix the music so its right for MY ears. If you want others to hear a better mix, get your son to tweak it.

 

time to buy 20 subwoofers and meet every neighbor from blocks away!

 

this is not you going deaf, this is just you couldn't care less about stuff around you at this point of your age and your brain helped you realizing it. I lost count how many time it happens to me, phone calls, text messages and emails phone notification, and I'm still 18 (at heart). It's just when you are so focused and in the zone doing the reading (or probably just zoned out, revisiting cool memory or something), you just couldnt care less about stuff around you that you'd probably unconsciously considered as not important and ignored it. You basically had your "me moment" at that time, it can happens a lot during reading I believe. I think the amount of things we care become less and less the more we grow older and probably down to stick with those that we consider really matter. Especially when things are going pretty well, the awareness becomes lower so the body can relax more. Well, most of the time, we unconsciously do that. It's a lot like that selective hearing thing a shrink would've talk about. The case when the missus nag at you all the time 20 years straight, at one point you become immune to it and can't listen anything she is saying, you technically heard them all but the brain just filtered it out to keep the host happy. Stuff like that. Dont worry about it. I'm 200% sure under hypnosis you will recall hearing them all but let's not do that.

About not to be able to hear the extended low and high, that thing can't be helped considering your age now, it happens to everyone sooner or later, let's just call it leveling up and can focus on the mid frequency better. As long as you can communicate with people, you shouldnt worry about it too much. The difference between about to go deaf and not should be decided with the ability to recognize speech, or its intelligibility 2 to 5kHz range. If you still can communicate with people without them have to shout, it is good enough for 60yo I'd say.

 

For your playing sessions, you can just use a microphone, amplifier, EQ, and headphones. For listening, you don't need a microphone.
However, music is one thing. The challenges arise in real-world situations (e.g., phone calls, alarms, conversations, traffic) where some form of hearing assistance is often necessary but awkward.
Avoid loud noises: Excessive noise exposure can damage your hearing and worsen tinnitus. Wear ear protection in noisy environments and avoid listening to music at high volumes.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 19, 2024

I don’t wish that on anyone.

 

Nah, man, don't be negative.
I'm 63 now and my hearing has faded slowly the last 20 years. Partly because of tinnitus, partly because its the normal direction when you get old (the connections between the auditory ossicles slowly become stiffer therefore they cant swing as fast as in our youth. This is why the higher portions (>10KHz) of hearing disappear first)
There are many fantastic hearing aids today. If we had 1850 today, I would also say that music is over. But not now.
Many musicians - usually the more intelligent ones - wear in-ear headphones for hearing protection on stage. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to play in front of a larger audience with them.

In the event that we become completely deaf, there are cochlear implants that use electronics to restore hearing as long as the auditory nerve is not damaged. This requires a few weeks of intensive training, but then everything is wonderful (my mother-in-Law has a pair of CI)

So stay clear from depressions man and have a positive sight on things, be thankful to live today

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2024

My heartfelt condolences. I'm about the same age, and though my hearing has held out remarkably, in light of the 'lectric guitar abuse and general love of loudness, I've had some degree of tinnitus all my life, and a few years back I was diagnosed with certifiable hearing loss. That is, I was missing some frequencies here and there, but there had been no "baseline" test, when my ears were young and supposedly perfect, to show what and how much I might have lost since then.

I respect my hearing now; keep headphone volume to where the sound is full but not loud, and use noise-canceling headphones when I can.

About 25 years ago, my hearing was crapola, but then I went to a doctor, who discovered my eardrums to be encrusted with a layer of semi-hard wax. He removed it with a "pop!" and I suddenly could hear twice as well.

If you can, check with an audiologist about assessing the discrepancies in your hearing, and about getting in-ear hearing aids. The technology has improved such that the sound is better and the size is almost too small to detect them upon first glance.

In the meantime, there's this:
https://www.resound.com/en-us/online-hearing-test

 

I'm very sadly going through the same thing. I've got frequency valleys which are different in both ears, and coupled with the raging banshies screaming their maniacal tinnitus ragas now incessantly and with great fervor from inside my skull mixing is now more a necessary suffering than a consumate joy. My acoustic guitars tones have become somewhat muted as if the sun is being blanketed by those sandstorms from northern Africa that kick up to the north here in central Europe from time to time and that render the daylight diffused and somewhat ochre in color, the very air somewhat stained and with fog-like qualities. I'll be 65 this year. Oh well.

 

Yet you have everything I want.

 

OK, our youth is definitely over.
The most modern hearing aids can be programmed to several frequencies and amplification factors per ear.
In many cases, those who need a hearing aid are (or their audiometrists) satisfied too quickly just because its louder. Thus they don't get everything they can out of their devices. My father (93) spent weeks with an audiometrist until his hearing aids were perfectly adjusted.
No question, the audiometrist was annoyed by my father.
Now he hears very well for his age.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll make an appointment next week. In the meantime, do you think you could ask your dad to listen to my latest mix and let me know how aweful it is? I certainly can't really tell.

 

He hears not THAT good. But I can send him to aid you with your audiometrist. In the end, they'll pay you for it if you just take my father back with you.

But fun aside: We are lucky to live today, where medicine is making progress every day. Last year I was diagnosed with a congenital eye disease (cornea guttata) that leads to blindness. But it has been possible to cure it for a few years now. I'm really happy about that.

 

I'm 45 and have tinnitus since I had a diving accident at my 20s, and then since COVID It has worsened into noxacusis. That is sound induced pain. Not cure, no medicine, they don't have a clue about what is causing it and most of the audiologist just shrugg their shoulders and nod their heads. Let's hope by the time I hit 65 some breacktrough has been done, casue this thing only gets worts to the point where people decide remove themselves from existence that to endure the pain that produces the sound of their own voices. Gladly I'm still not there, just some stabbings and burning in the ear when db pass certain threshold. I've move to the forest with my family since then cause the city was a mindfield of dangerous sounds, but now I hate singing birds. Those little fuckers with their naily beaky sounds.

 

wow so many old people it feels like retirement home. am I the only kid here ?

 

I'm 43 and today is my first day wearing hearing aids. I have a reverse curve, so I'm most impaired from 250hz - 2khz. My hearing aids are modified to amplify those ranges, then next week they'll be amplified further as it's a bit of a shock to the system if they immediately amplify them fully.
I can't wait to listen to stuff I've made now that I can hear correctly :/

Definitely go and get tested. The aids are absolutely worth it!

 

I don't know you and wish you no ill, but if you sit on your ass all day, your body will atrophy. We are a collection of muscles that need to be exercised.
This cat started working out at 73, he's 93 and winning world championships. Live and learn.

For lessons on how to age well, we could do worse than turn to Richard Morgan.

At 93, the Irishman is a four-time world champion in indoor rowing, with the aerobic engine of a healthy 30- or 40-year-old and the body-fat percentage of a whippet. He’s also the subject of a new case study, published last month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, that looked at his training, diet and physiology.


Its results suggest that, in many ways, he’s an exemplar of fit, healthy aging — a nonagenarian with the heart, muscles and lungs of someone less than half his age. But in other ways, he’s ordinary: a onetime baker and battery maker with creaky knees who didn’t take up regular exercise until he was in his 70s and who still trains mostly in his backyard shed.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...-his-body-offers-lessons-on-aging/ar-AA1n3CkD

 

you're only young once, but you can remain immature all your life, or at least thats my motto....