Music

The Lord definitely works in goofy and ironic ways, sometimes! :O) ... I talked with Pattie on Tues. about my love for music, and my hope that it eventually will sound more natural to me, again. She took me down to her basement, where she has an electronic organ, and we played around with listening to different notes and note combinations. She told me I can come over whenever I want and play around with it! ... Then we went back upstairs, and she opened a drawer in a big chest and brought out six recorders (flutes) – two big ones and four smaller ones! They were her mother’s, she said, and she and her children had all played them when they were kids. We sat on the couch and she showed me how to hold them and place my fingers to play them, and we tried out different notes. Then she gave me two of the smaller soprano ones (a wooden one and a plastic one), and told me I could take them home with me and practice with them! ... I didn’t get the chance to try them at home, though, until Thurs. morning before going back over to Pattie’s. I sat down on the floor with Jenda and started playing some notes – and she just loved it! She kept rubbing up against it and turning around and rubbing up against it some more! ... I told her I wished I knew how to really play it so I could play her some songs – but I’ve never learned to play any instruments (beyond the very beginning steps of the harmonica and piano), and know very little about reading music! :O( ... When I told Pattie how much Jenda enjoyed the recorder, she went back into the drawer and brought out some lesson books for learning to play them – one of which she sent home with me! And we’re going to incorporate them into my hearing practice sessions with her! ... So, I’m amazed! Not only have I been blessed with a wonderful retired teacher to help me practice my hearing – but I’m going to get to learn more about music and how to play a recorder! :O) ... Jenda will need to be my gauge, though, on whether it sounds good – for now, anyway. I can hear the notes, but have a LITTLE challenge determining whether some are higher or lower pitched than others – and whether they sound the way they’re supposed to. The soprano recorders sound more like tenor or alto to me!

My mapping with Jennifer1 on Wed. went really well! ... My hearing test was slightly worse on a couple of the tones than last time, but it was most likely because I was really tired from not getting much sleep the night before and the long drive and wait before the session. Not to worry. :O) ... She tested me with the letter sounds and the individual words, and adjusted my programs on my processor. With Pattie’s help, I’d determined which of the three programs I liked best for understanding speech, and Jennifer1 gave me THAT program (with a few tweaks) as Program #1. ... For Program #2, she gave me a background-noise reduction program – which gets 70% sound from the accessory mic and 30% from the headpiece mic. I can experiment with that vs. the 50:50 ratio I still get with the accessory mic plugged into Program #1. ... Program #3 is a slightly louder version of Program #1 – I may not need to use it at all, but it’s there in case Program #1 gets too soft for me during the three months before my next mapping!

Yesterday’s rehab with Jennifer2 went really well, too! ... I did a little better with the s/sh sounds, only needing her to repeat "sh" once! ... On the common sentences, I got 9/10 – and I did REALLY well with the paragraph, understanding all of the questions and almost all of the words the first time around! (She made a note to give me a tougher paragraph next time!) ... I’m still struggling with the vowels, especially, on the individual words – but I got 12/25 correct this time with no repetition, and an additional 9 with just one repetition! ... Then, after a bit of shifting the telephone handset around on my headpiece to find the best place to hold it, I was able to get 100% of the practice words/phrases Jennifer2 spoke to me! :O)

I expressed to both Jennifers my frustration that I do SO WELL when I’m there in the little rooms at the hospital with THEM – but immediately when I step out the door and into the outside world, my abilities seem to plunge – everything is more distorted and SO much more difficult to understand! :O( ... They both told me that’s normal, and assured me it will get better with time and practice. I do better with them because they’re both professionally trained and communicate with deaf/hoh people on a daily basis – and the rooms are small and have no background noise. When I leave, I’m in more widely-open spaces with background noise, different people’s speech patterns/accents/tones/speeds, and etc. ... so, it WILL be more difficult for me – as it is for ANYONE, with or without hearing challenges! ... And I KNOW all of this ... but it’s still frustrating ... so I felt better after having it confirmed by them ... THEY tell me I’m doing really well! :O)

Next week I’ll be visiting my parents, so I won’t see Jennifer2 until Aug. 11th. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of practice opportunities with my parents, so I’ll write for sure on Thurs. while I’m there.