If you’ve ever studied Beethoven you might wonder how he was able to conduct a single note even though he was notoriously deaf. This type of ironic twist of fate has been shown in many movies and even been spoofed a time or two just to poke fun at it. Because really, how could a musician become anything if they were unable to hear their own songs? It turns out that the process of bone conduction is nothing new, as Beethoven was known to use in the conducting of his own songs in an effort to ‘hear’ what he was singing through the vibrations and sounds that were conducted through his skull and directly into his brain.
It’s not new technology, but the devices that have been used to complete this process over the years is steadily being upgraded to comply with road restrictions on hearing devices and has come a long way in terms of providing a chance for those who are partially or completely deaf to enjoy listening to music. For Beethoven a metal bar clamped between his teeth did the trick. The bar was connected to his piano and allowed him to hear the notes inside his head. The sound might have been distorted slightly but not nearly enough to throw him off of his game.
Bone conduction is very real and if you’ve ever heard someone say that they can ‘feel it in their bones’ when it comes to music then you might want to listen because it’s not just clever hyperbole. Every noise that is made is in a sense a vibration that is created when two objects meet and the resulting contact creates a vibration that is translated into sound waves that are then stacked closer and closer together depending on the distance one is from the affected area. In terms of music the sound waves tend to be stacked very closely together and are therefore often detected as a long, continuous sound that goes on for as long as it can be sustained.
Bone conduction when it comes to sound waves is used by placing a device against the skull and then allowing the sound waves to pass directly into the cochlea and then into the brain, bypassing the ear drum and outer ear altogether. This is great for those that have experienced hearing trauma since these are typically the areas that are affected and thus negate any chance of the individual hearing anything that is not distorted or otherwise dulled to such a degree that it becomes hard to understand.
How Beethoven came upon this knowledge is up for debate as such things usually are among scholars but the fact is that he did hear his music in a way, it simply wasn’t the traditional manner that people tend to think of when it comes to music. In a way bone conduction is almost like hearing a voice in your head, or so it’s been said by those that have tried it.
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