Last night I went to my local choir’s first rehearsal of the new season. I wore two high-tech hearing aids, which I have on long-term loan from a private healthcare provider. The left one addresses mild hearing loss, the right; mild to moderate.

I put these hearing aids on each morning before I put in my contact lenses or make coffee. With them I can hear birdsong, the crackling of paper, and conversations with one or two people when they’re facing me in a quiet room. Last night however, in the large vaulted hall where the choir rehearsal was held, I could follow most of the melody lines as the choirmaster, Joe, played them on the piano, but I couldn’t make out his instructions.

At the end of the rehearsal Joe explained that he’d be away in a few weeks. I could now hear him, but the joke he made when he lowered his voice, to which everyone else laughed, was lost on me.

Joe is a singer so he’s a good articulator too, so I’m sure it wasn’t his fault. During the evening I pushed the various settings endlessly on my aids, wondering if the amplification for distance, or altering to a setting for watching television, might help, to no avail.

Is my hearing just too bad, I wondered? My hearing has recently been evaluated, and it hasn’t worsened. Perhaps these state-of-the-art hearing aids are not good enough?

Audiologists always tell me that hearing aids are really only made for detecting speech in conversation, which this wasn’t. So perhaps I should just cut my losses and give up choir? Or make the choir take the slack