Hearing Matters Podcast

How Hearing Aids Changed a Musician's Life

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Ralph Brote's journey from struggling to hear to rediscovering connection offers powerful insights for musicians and anyone facing hearing challenges. Growing up in the family-owned Nazareth Music Store—a fixture in Pennsylvania for 60 years—Ralph's life has been steeped in sound. As a professional trumpet player and music teacher, his hearing gradually deteriorated from years of exposure to loud instruments, work in an iron foundry, and genetic predisposition.

The turning point came when everyday conversations became increasingly difficult. Ralph found himself withdrawing during family gatherings, afraid to speak up after missing parts of conversations. At work, interactions with customers became stressful as he struggled to understand soft-spoken patrons. Like most people experiencing hearing loss, Ralph waited nearly a decade before seeking help—a delay that affected his personal relationships and professional confidence.

What makes Ralph's story particularly fascinating is how his musician's brain required specialized hearing solutions. While standard hearing aid settings worked perfectly for conversation, they created problems when he played his trumpet. His audiologist created custom programs for different listening environments: everyday conversation, performing music, and listening to music. The emotional impact became clear when his wife witnessed him hearing soft speech clearly for the first time with his new technology—a moment that brought her to tears.

Ralph's experience offers valuable advice for fellow musicians: "Don't go cheap, get the best you can, because as a musician, you won't regret it." He emphasizes the importance of early intervention and regular hearing checks for those exposed to loud sounds. His powerful parting message resonates beyond musicians: "Don't put it off, because your life really can be better sooner than later." Have you noticed changes in your hearing? Taking that first step toward better hearing could transform your relationships and reconnect you with the sounds that matter most.

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Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Thank you. And a growing national epidemic hearing loss. On today's episode we have a very special guest and professional musician. His name is Mr Ralph Brote and he is a Nazareth native. Mr Brote, welcome to the show, thank you.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

It's so wonderful to have you Now. We're just going to dive right in because you have such a unique and interesting story to share with our listeners. Your family owns the Nazareth Music Store here in Nazareth, pennsylvania, and you have for going on 60 years. Share with us your background, being a musician, growing up in music and growing up and owning a business in Nazareth.

Ralph Brodt:

Well, I was born and raised here in Nazareth and, same as my father and my mother, my father bought the Nazareth Music Center in 1960 from Wilson Zellner, another man born and raised here in Nazareth, and most people around here are a little more familiar with his daughter, more familiar with his daughter, sandra of Sandra's Bridal's. Also, her brother, bob, was my father's best man at his wedding and he was his best man at his wedding. They traded back and forth. So my father knew of the business and he actually worked for Wilson as a teacher at the store. And in 1959, wilson got a job as a road salesman with Martin Guitar and sold the business to my father. One of the reasons he sold it to my father and not his daughter or son was because he didn't want to play favorites with his own children but instead decided to solve the problem by selling it to my father, their best friend. So, anyway, and it worked out nicely because Sandra's Bridles, we all know, was a very successful business and Bob became a wonderful, incredible band director at East Stroudsburg High School and then Gettysburg College and was known nationally as a guest conductor for district and regional and state bands all over the country. Wilson also had a great career with Martin Guitar. He was their first road salesman and within six months of being on the road put the company three years behind in production. Again, he is the living example of the man who can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. He was great at it.

Ralph Brodt:

But anyway, my father took over the business and we actually grew up there. We lived above the business. The home is large and we grew up on Thup. The store was on the bottom. We expanded the business out to the barn and included that. In 1981, I believe my brother started working at the store as a repairman and he eventually became the CEO In 1992,. I was a teacher at Allentown Central Catholic High School, a band director and having a fine career there. I love teaching. I have a teaching degree from Moravian College. I've always been a teacher. I've always loved teaching. I started teaching when I was 15 years old. My father would take my brother and I to Catholic school band rehearsals that he taught over at Central Catholic too, and I started my teaching career then when I was 15 years old.

Ralph Brodt:

So I've always loved teaching. I was at Central Catholic in 1992. I started there in 1980. And my brother called me up and said Ralph, the store is getting bigger and I can't handle it all by myself anymore. I am going to have to hire someone new in addition to myself. I would prefer to have another family member, I'd prefer to have you, but if you're not interested, if you want to stay in teaching, I understand, I'll simply hire someone else.

Ralph Brodt:

I went home, talked it over with my wife. Did I want to do a career change at that point in my life and wasn't relishing the fact that I wanted to leave teaching? But we agreed that it would be different opportunities for me and that I could do one of the things that I wanted to do more. Being a high school band director is not an eight to three job, not if you want to be good at it. I never went home before five o'clock and, with football games and concerts and shows and responsibilities at school, I found that I didn't have enough time to play jobs that I wanted to play.

Ralph Brodt:

I'm a musician, I like being a musician, you want to perform. I wanted to perform more. I thought that working at the store would allow me to do that and it has, and I'm glad I made that decision in 1992 to go to the store and work for my brother. He's a very kind boss. He lets me off, which is why I'm here this morning. He pretty much lets me off whenever I want to to do the things I want to do, to play, to perform, and he's a very good boss. I've been blessed with good bosses my entire life. I really have. The principal at Central Catholic was a great man and I loved working for him.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

So your family has owned a business in Nazareth for 60 years. Our family's practice has been here in Nazareth for this location a little over 11 years, so you have a couple years on us. But what's so amazing, mr Brote, is that our paths crossed about 18 months ago Now. You've been a musician for your entire life. You've been exposed to music and to sound and to noise for your entire life. You also play trumpet, which is a loud instrument, correct? Yes, so you are also a hearing instrument user. Can you tell us, you know, was there a specific incident that prompted you to pursue hearing aids, and what was that tipping point?

Ralph Brodt:

I'd say a lot of it was probably my family, brother, mother, lot of it was probably my family brother, mother and especially my wife. It was just a buildup of complaints and also working in the store dealing with. When you're dealing with customers and the public, some people are very soft-spoken and I was having a hard time dealing with them in the store, understanding what they wanted, understanding if I had to take down a phone number or information, personal information from them when they're filling out a contract to rent an instrument, and it was becoming annoying. And also talking to people on the phone it was becoming obvious to me that I had problems and I saw your ad and I came over here to the office and had a session with your father and I was very, very impressed with what he did in testing my ears and coming up with a.

Ralph Brodt:

In testing my ears and coming up with a I guess you would call it a diagnosis that my real trouble was in hearing consonants, which didn't surprise me a whole lot because it made so much sense, because that's I had a hard time understanding people. But as a musician I really didn't have a hard time hearing music or playing in tune with my fellow musicians At least I didn't have any huge complaints in that area. But that's a pure sound that has. You don't need consonants for that, but you need consonants for understanding people speaking and it just made so much sense to me that and I was so very impressed with your methods and your test and your conclusions.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Thank you, we are very passionate about what we do here and it's essential to note too that when we talk about you know the consonants, what they do is they carry meaning into conversation. And I remember when we first met each other, and meeting your wife as well, because we always tell our patients you cannot see the picture when you're in the frame. So well, yes, you knew that. You know I'm really presenting with difficulty, especially in speech and noise, in those complex listening situations.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

But your wife your wife, mrs Breaux, was like he really struggles in A, b, c, d, e, f and G. It's really empowering to see. You know the two of you work as a team and she is such a great accountability buddy for you to say you know what. Ralph, please take the next step towards better hearing, because when we talk about especially auditory memory, you had made the connection of you know I can still hear the music, but it was the speech. That to me is the most difficult situation to understand, and whether it be one-on-one or in complex listening situations, dr Delfino, can you touch a little bit upon because we've seen this time and time again with our musicians they sort of have that auditory memory. Mr Brote has grown up playing instruments and he sort of has that auditory memory. Can you sort of dovetail off that concept?

Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A:

We actually refer to it as an echoic memory and it is that part of the auditory cortex which remembers sounds, words that we've heard and files them away, and it also is a way in which we judge the way in which we hear things. Music and tones don't carry any linguistic information, so that a tone we can increase the volume and still hear it, but there's no again cognitive imposition of understanding the meaning of that tone, whereas with speech, understanding the meaning of that tone, whereas with speech with consonant sounds, there's auditory decoding, auditory memory. All play a part in understanding, recognizing what's being said and then responding appropriately.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Mr Breaux, you are a professional musician. What challenges did you experience during performances prying to wearing hearing technology?

Ralph Brodt:

Actually, playing, I didn't have too much problem. I could hear myself, I could hear other musicians, I could distinguish tones, I could play in tune and, being a trombone player also, everybody expects you to play very loud. Sure, one concert when I was backing up Bobby Vinton, I was the only trombone player in the backup band and we were playing an arrangement of Chattanooga Choo Choo, glenn Miller's arrangement, chattanooga Choo Choo, which has a real big trombone part in a bum, bum, bum. And I was the only trombone and normally it's played by four trombones and he just stopped the rehearsal and said I need more trombone. That was some of the very few times I was ever asked that I wasn't loud enough, but anyway, the worst part was at a rehearsal.

Ralph Brodt:

Yes, tell us more. Listening to instructions from the conductor. Okay, stop at letter A, let's start again. I want this, I want that. Half the time I would have to turn to the French horn player, the trumpet player, another trombone player sitting next to me. What'd he say? What'd he say, where are we starting? And I'm sure some of the people sitting next to me that bothered them a little bit. I never really got any complaints unless they told other people about me.

Ralph Brodt:

But it never got back to me, but it did make me. That was the worst part Not actually playing but listening to instructions, especially, again, from a soft-spoken conductor. Sure, that was getting very bad and unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I got these just before the pandemic started. Yes, I've not had a chance to test them in that sort of situation. Now you remember you had to make adjustments for me for playing. Now you remember you had to make adjustments for me for playing the normal setting that you set up for me. It was just absolutely perfect for conversations and also even in noisy rooms that it's solved that way. But when I played my horn I heard this. I don't know what it was.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Modulation Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa it was going back and forth and I said, oh my.

Ralph Brodt:

So the first couple of times I just simply removed them and then practiced or played. But then I came back to you, explained the problem, and I don't know how you solve the problem, but you solve the problem With my hearing aids. I have different settings, programs and programs. That's correct.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

So there are many audiologists and hearing healthcare professionals that do tune into the Hearing Matters podcast, so we'll preface it with this. You do wear musician earplugs custom earplugs that we fit for you. We also recommended, when you are playing the trumpet, not to have the instruments on full-on volume. Yes, the hearing aids have compression, but we of course, counseled you on utilizing that volume control because we never want to over-amplify and the hearing instruments, because of the compression they have, they won't do that. But what Mr Broad is referring to and any other horn players out there, we have what's called the adaptive feedback manager. So the instruments were picking up your output of the trumpet and saying, nope, that's going to cause feedback, that's going to cause feedback. So we actually disengaged that adaptive feedback management system. But when we did that, there was so much gain because of your type and degree of hearing sensitivity, we sort of had to bring down the overall gain through real ear measurement, but we solved the problem. After that you were just like this is how it should sound.

Ralph Brodt:

And again, I don't even have to adjust the volume on it, I just simply go to my P2 setting On the cell phone On my cell phone and plug it in, and it's great. And then you even gave me a third one for listening to music. Yes, and I like that one. So I actually have three settings the first setting I use for conversation and normal use, and then P2 I use for playing, and then P3 I use for listening to music. So you custom designed them for me and for all the situations that I find myself in, and it's so easy to go back and forth with just my phone.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

With regard to your connectivity options having the hearing instruments connected to your iPhone. How have the hearing instruments positively influenced your interpersonal relationships, because you have the power to change programs depending on the situation with which you're in, whether you're in a simple listening situation or a complex listening situation. I'd love to learn more, and we'd love to learn more how the hearing instruments have positively affected your interpersonal relationships family, friends, even customers, and communicating with students. Tell us a little bit about that.

Ralph Brodt:

I guess the biggest one is family. Sitting at a table with the family I can. Now they used to know that I would sit there and be quiet, and I would not engage in many of the conversations because I was always afraid of saying something wrong, because I didn't hear what they had said or I get said, well, so-and-so just said that, and so my solution was to simply keep my mouth shut.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

And that's socially so. That's one of the common signs of hearing loss is socially withdrawing. Yes, and it's interesting because some individuals will socially withdraw and they won't communicate or really provide much communication effort in that situation or the individual will dominate the conversation.

Ralph Brodt:

Oh, the other way, or the other way.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

So you were experiencing that social withdrawal? Yes, tell me about some of the feelings that you carried with that social withdrawal.

Ralph Brodt:

Oh, it doesn't make you feel good. But you know what, as human beings now, we're used to learning maths we get used to situations. Sure, and maybe they aren't. That's not always the best thing, because being withdrawn isn't good. In fact, I'm now listening to an audio book on Beethoven and I'm getting to the chapters where he went through his deafness and he did the same thing withdrew, stopped talking to people, his family even, and I well, I didn't get as bad as that, but you know, that's what it does to you, and then that becomes your norm, that becomes your normal behavior, and my family didn't like that as nearly as I think they were bothered by it more than me and also customers at the store.

Ralph Brodt:

It's nice to be able to communicate.

Ralph Brodt:

I still had trouble with phone calls at the store because hearing aids don't help a standard phone much.

Ralph Brodt:

But just last week I decided to call the gentleman who installed our phones and ask him, because I heard something on a commercial someplace that people could forward calls to your cell phone and I'm thinking, well, if he could, they can do that. And I called him up and asked him if the clerks up in the store, when they transfer calls down to my desk, my workbench, if they could transfer it directly to my iPhone, which would then go directly to my hearing aids and I wouldn't have to use my phone, my desk phone, anymore. And he said, sure, no problem. He said what extension are you at? He took my phone number and 10 minutes later he called me up on it using the system just, and he had done it that, just like that. So now I don't even have to worry about phone calls anymore. They come right through my iPhone so that I can understand people perfectly, because when it comes right into my hearing devices it's crystal clear and I never have to say what.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

And you know You're hearing through both ears, right and left. Dr Delfino, why do most patients prefer to hear phone conversations through their right and left hearing instrument opposed to holding up the phone to their ear, having that auto phone program on? Why do most patients want to hear through their hearing aids, right and left, when they do have a phone call come in?

Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A:

I think part of the reason for preferences in the past this is what I've heard patients tell me about is that they use the right ear or the left ear, possibly their better ear or their worse ear. But it also has to do with when they're going to write something down. If they're holding the phone on one side, they need the other hand to write things down. So that in and of itself created a preference. But because we understand and hear better with both ears, this binaural summation, both ears, this binaural summation, both ears are getting an auditory stimulus. It is then going up to the auditory cortex where that neural code is deciphered and we're better able to hear and understand what's being said when we're using both ears. And again, mr Brown, as you say, it's coming in both ears. Now you have total hands-free operation. You can write or do something else while you're listening on the phone.

Ralph Brodt:

Yes, I don't even have to hold my phone. I just lay my phone on the desk and, yes, it really is so much easier, isn't?

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Bluetooth amazing.

Ralph Brodt:

It really is.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Mr Brote, we didn't touch upon this yet. I met your mother and I started working with your mother before we started working together, and she is one of the nicest human beings I think I've ever met in my life. She is the kindest woman and it's interesting because she also presents with a decrease in hearing sensitivity. And you also work in a family business. So, number one, working in a family business can be quite difficult because you're with your family all of the time and learning how to effectively communicate with family members can be sometimes difficult when you're working with them. But if you throw a hearing loss on top of that, tell us and bring us through what your experience was like working with your mother, who presented with the hearing loss and then decided to take the next step in treating her hearing loss with hearing aids.

Ralph Brodt:

It was a big improvement, although, when it comes right down to it, my family, my brothers and sisters, grew up with two grandmothers on both sides who both also had problems. So there's that genetic factor as well Our family has had for generations. My uncle also has problems, and actually my father was not, but both his mother and my mother's mother. So we kind of grew up learning to say everything twice Became behavioral learning to say everything.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

twice it became behavioral.

Ralph Brodt:

Yes, it became behavioral and when it came to mom we just sort of started doing it with mom. But when she did get the hearing aids it really was much more pleasant. We didn't have to talk as loud and she actually had gotten some from someone else. You people here fixed them for her and adjusted them correctly, and she has nothing but praise for you. But if you want to know her bad side, just drop one of her vases when you're four years old Now, of course, being fit with the hearing technology and improving your overall communication.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Because you are a business owner, your family's owned Nazareth Music for 60 years, as previously there. That first day of I was just fit with my hearing instruments. It might have been a little overwhelming with all of the new sounds you're hearing. How much of an improvement have the hearing aids made with communicating with your customers and your patrons?

Ralph Brodt:

That's been huge, but again not as big as with my wife, If you remember when my wife was sitting right here in the office next to you, If you remember when my wife was sitting right here in the office next to you. You put them in my ears for the first time, and then you turned away from me and spoke very softly. Yes, I understood every word you said and my wife started crying if you remember Yep she immediately. Now she is an emotional person.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

I think I did too.

Ralph Brodt:

But as she could not believe that, I actually heard what you said when you were facing away from me and talking softly, when you were facing away from me and talking softly. So I think my biggest fan is my wife. But in the store too, it's made a big difference. I'm not afraid of dealing with customers anymore and being embarrassed by asking what or what was that number, or excuse me, and I don't have to do that anymore. And that's been a big, a big boost.

Ralph Brodt:

I don't know if customers appreciate it nearly as much as I do, because customers are always new. I'm sure I have many of old friends who are glad, but again, many of them as musicians I haven't been with again because of the pandemic. So that's still one area where I'm waiting to experience sitting in a pit orchestra or an orchestra or any kind of large rehearsal, where I don't have to ask the neighbor sitting next to me where we're starting what the conductor just said. Are we supposed to play this louder or softer, or did we do something wrong or am I in tune? I can be the musician. I was 30, or at least the polite musician I was 30 or 40 years ago.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

And that's to us. We take that very seriously because for us to positively influence you on and throughout your journey to better hearing and we do call it a journey because we've been able to assist you in reconnecting you to family, friends, patrons, bandmates, things of that nature because we know that there are comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss, which we talked about at your initial appointment, of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, being at an increased risk of falling, things of that nature, and you were ready to take that step towards better hearing. It's interesting because statistics say that individuals will wait 10 years before they do something about their hearing loss, about treating their hearing loss. And, dr Delfino, you've been an audiologist for over 35 years. How true is that?

Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A:

statement. Unfortunately, it's all too true. Waiting doesn't make it better. It's not going to get better, as Mr Broadhead said. It is going to get worse and unfortunately it's a tipping point where there is some incident or some point of their life where their hearing loss has impacted them in such a way that they feel compelled now to go ahead and do something. Our hope is that, certainly by having mediums like Hearing Matters Podcast, letting people know what's available, that we can hopefully reduce that amount of time.

Ralph Brodt:

You're absolutely correct. In my case, too, I would probably say I struggled with this at least 10 years before I decided to get something done. And I also would like to say that one of my musician friends, when I talked to them about it, the only advice out of their mouths were don't go cheap, get the best you can, because as a musician, you won't regret it and I have not absolutely, and that would be my exact same advice to another musician. Now, I'm not saying that people who are not musicians don't need help and shouldn't get good hearing aids, but if you are a musician, I am very, very glad I got the best I could get.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Again, it goes back to that echoic memory, dr Delfino, and your brain. The way that you process sound. You've been around all of these different sounds your whole life. The way that you process sound you've been around all of these different sounds your whole life. And you want to hear the nuances in the music. Mr Brote, how important is it for musicians to get their hearing tested on an annual basis?

Ralph Brodt:

It's a lot more important than I think I gave it. Growing up my wife had given me. My wife is a nurse, a school nurse, and years ago she brought home the little device that they use in the nurse's office to test me because, again, she had mentioned this many years before and even with her little scope, she said you've lost all your high partials. Are you sure you can't hear this? And she's pushing the button. I said no, I don't hear anything. And she said you need to get you know. And again, I probably did put it off for 10 years and that was too long. I could have made my life better sooner. Made my life better sooner, wow. And my hearing problem was a result, as you had said, that it was probably a combination of my heritage and also spending a few years working in an iron foundry and I did serve in the services and I also play electric guitar and a loud rock and roll band.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

You were around a lot of noise. Yes, I was.

Ralph Brodt:

I grew up with a lot of noise and, in fact, the iron foundry that I worked in for a while about three months maybe before I left OSHA came in and said the sound around here is no good. All your people should be wearing hearing aids. Well, I had already been there for two years, but you know that was a time when OSHA was just starting to do these sorts of things.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

Making it mandatory to wear hearing protection Right.

Ralph Brodt:

Absolutely correct, and that's all good too. Companies like that coming in and doing that because no one knew you know, you didn't know the effects of noise and untreated hearing loss.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

So, mr Brote, what would you tell individuals who are experiencing hearing loss but they're unsure, as if they should do something about it? What would you tell those individuals listening right now?

Ralph Brodt:

Don't hesitate If your family, friends, whatever are complaining about your hearing and there is a wide range of types and prices in the hearing devices. You're bound to fit something that will fit your budget. Don't put it off, because your life really can be better sooner than later. I love that Absolutely.

Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A:

Well said.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS:

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters podcast with Dr Gregory Delfino, M Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. Today we had special guest, Mr Ralph Brote from the Nazareth Music Store. Join us today. Until next time, hear life's story.

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