A trained violinist and teacher, Elizabeth Elliott’s life is full of music. Her husband and eldest daughter are professional cellists, and their home in the Welsh countryside overflows with much loved and well-worn sheet music. Thirty years ago, at the age of twenty-five, Elizabeth lost her hearing. She tells of how having a cochlear implant has changed her life, and how persistence is the key.

When did you first notice that something wasn’t right?

When I started to go deaf, I lost the ability to hear whether I was playing in tune on the very high notes of my violin. High-tone loss came first and hearing aids could not correct this. Next I found I couldn’t hear music on the radio or recordings. After a while I went completely deaf and there was complete silence.

Can you describe how your memory of being able to hear has changed over time?

My memory of how instruments and speech sound gradually came back after having a cochlear implant. Even six years after having had the implant, the brain is still trying to remember how things sounded. So sounds become more natural over time. Directly after the operation people talking sounded like ducks quacking. Music was just a noise – anything musical was like a chainsaw – but gradually it became more natural. The brain, if you let it, and keep trying to listen, will gradually remember. Now, especially with a loop, I can pick up speech and even distinguish between instruments which is great. I can listen to recorded poetry. I plug the output directly into my implant and, if there’s no background noise and it’s read slowly, I can hear crystal clear.

In Garret Keizer’s book The Unwanted Sound Of Everything We Want, he describes a view of noise as being representative of development and therefore, in many people’s opinions, a positive thing. What is your experience of noise?

When I first had the implant I was shocked to hear what a lot of unwanted racket goes on. But this is part of life and we can’t ignore it. For someone with an implant, background noise will usually be louder than the voice of someone you’re talking to, so that can be confusing and tiring. If I walk into a room and somebody has music on, to me it’s just a noise that I have to try and hear above – it’s not pleasurable.

Without my implant all is silent, but with it you hear more noise than a hearing person would. I think a hearing person has a sort of shield that protects from very loud sounds, whereas if you have a hearing aid or an implant, you get blasted because you have to have the volume loud to communicate with people.

Which sound do you find most calming?

The cello. Even before I went deaf it was my favourite instrument. Also unaccompanied tenor voice, harp and guitar. Another thing I love is to be able to hear the birds again – a blackbird singing is wonderful. I didn’t hear the birds singing for many many years. A year after my implant was put in I still couldn’t hear them, but gradually I began to. It’s like the part of your brain that remembered those sounds has almost died off because it hasn’t been getting messages; it needs reminding.

What sort of music do you find easiest to hear?

The only time I can really hear music is when people just sing one melody without any accompaniment, for example traditional folk songs. A single line sung in the tenor range is the easiest and loveliest to hear for me. Cello music is pretty good, particularly slow movements, for example Vivaldi’s sonatas. Small choirs with organ and church music.. choristers, because I can see them and what they’re singing, which helps. I concentrate on one of them – I choose the one who’s mouthing most clearly! A symphony orchestra is impossible to follow, but still I can pick up an atmosphere.

If I were to play four notes next to each other on the piano, all at once and with the same volume, that sort of blending – is that comparable to how you hear a melody?

Yes, every tone played is sort of merging into the next one, so it’s blurred. If you compared it to sight, I suppose it’d be like trying to see through misted glass.

Did losing your hearing affect you socially?

Going deaf can make a person quite shy and turn them in on themselves. You can become self-conscious because you’re not sure when you’re going to say the wrong thing. But an implant helps to bring out your personality again.

I do prefer the quiet, but wearing an implant isn’t quiet. Some people who lose their hearing don’t want an implant – they’re happy in their deaf world, they’re happy signing. But I wouldn’t want to be that way. I’m so glad I have a cochlear implant, it’s changed my life for the better. I get so much from it. It helps with music only in the simplest form, but I can still find enjoyment, just in a different way. I wouldn’t want to be in a silent world.

Listen to a simulation of what speech and music sound like through a cochlear implant at auditoryneuroscience.com