Given Marshall Chasin’s international reputation in the field of music and hearing aids, this book will come with high expectations. As an often-challenging clinical scenario for practising audiologists, and with no other dedicated books on the market, this text has potential to become a staple book in the audiologist’s library.
The preface provides the perfect pep talk to the hopeful audiologists encountering clients who wish to listen to or play music whilst using amplifications – essentially, it’s a ‘you’ve got this guys’, but the pep talk isn’t empty words; it’s the warm-up exercises before the big show.
The text is concise; five chapters and three appendices provide the ensemble – rather than a grand orchestra, expect a harmonious big band approach. Chapters one and two provide the background information; this is where that pep talk turns into understanding why music and musical instruments behave how they do and why we need to understand. It draws on what we already understand as audiologists: speech, acoustics, and dynamics. It’s these building blocks that allow musicians, musical appreciators, and audiologists to understand each other’s language. Chapter three draws together and critiques the known literature. Chapter four provides the clinical approach on a very practical level, with chapter five summarising the future thoughts, whilst leaning on a more successful past. The text is accompanied by sound files to allow a multimedia approach to learning. Very generously, Marshall also provides 11 future research projects that would lend to our understanding – these are a gift for students looking for projects, or practising audiologists with research time.
The book is very up to date ensuring it covers accessories, smartphones and PSAPs as part of the approach.
In summary, whilst this is a very concise text, I would highly recommend to audiologists even if their contact with musicians is low. It will be rare to meet someone who doesn’t wish to enjoy music through their hearing aids on some level and this book will enable you to meet that challenge.
