Saturday 25 June 2011

NCIUA meeting

I had a nice day at the event today the first talk was given by Phil Groomfield and Sue (can't remember her surname) from addenbrooks university in Cambridge

They spoke about how sounds get transmitted from the ear to the brain the sound passes through a series of nerves

Everyone suffers from some kind of Tinnitus and in usually generated from inside the body others are more severely affected than others.

Tinnitus is created by the ear/brain when the brain tries to interpret missing or incomplete information  
This can occur when people suffer a sudden drop in hearing or who have been  deafened in other ways.  The brain is missing the auditory connection between the ear and the brain.

Studies have shown that having external aids such as hearing aids or cochlear Implantation tinnitus in the majority of cases disappear or are suppressed by the sound coming into the brain.  

This talk concluded with hints and tips on how to keep ones tinitus under control as until more resarch is done there is no known cure for tinitus.

The other main highlight was Geoff Plant's presentation and Zach a  mor's performance of DEACON BLUE! This is a musical performance specially created for Cochlear Implant Users.     

Set in the 1800's it tells the story of William Brodie through classical music and song (male vocal)

A short  subtitled. Animation sequence was shown proceeding each  piece of music/vocal to set the scene. Any song lyrics appeared on the screen at the back of the stage making it very easy to follow the songs

How did I find the music/performance as a CI user?

Well overall the performance was good when it boils down to personal musical tastes. The saxophone at times sounded rather harsh compared to the nice melody that the other instruments produced.

At the start of the performance the loud harsh tones of the saxophone drowned out the sounds of the softer sounds coming from the other instruments (note to composer) perhaps bring saxophone part-way in through the piece of music ?)

How did it make me feel? Confused is my initial reaction all my life I never had a liking for classical music and through the implant the music is loud and clear and of fantastic quality and my brain is going "hello hello hello what's all this?

This classical musical experience and the simple pieces that Zach has put together is weird and very clever!

I have a free CD/DVD of the performance and plan to watch again with a patient hearing person to help decipher the complex classical  bits that shouldn't appear in this simple composition of music!

The DEACON BLUE experience has opened up a new chapter for me on my musical journey with my CI I hope Zach will come up with the next chapter in this kind of musical theatre!
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