Musical Ear Syndrome? (2025)

Hi Jim:

You do not have to be hard of hearing, or old in order to hear the various Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) sounds. In fact, there are quite a number of people who have experiences like you. The reason why hearing loss and age were considered factors was that initial research found Musical Ear Syndrome predominantly in older, hard of hearing people who also had tinnitus and tended to be either anxious, stressed, or depressed.

I have been doing much more research on this syndrome and now have close to 1,000 "stories" of people hearing phantom musical sounds. When I analyze them, I'll be looking for commonalities in the various "kinds" of MES scenarios reported. Yours will be one of those kinds.

When you say you hear these sounds in specific places in your house, exactly what are those places? For example, a number of people hear such sounds when they are close to a furnace or air conditioning vent and the furnace or A/C is on. Their phantom music stops as soon as the furnace or A/C goes off. Other people hear their phantom music when they are close to a fan running--which in some cases is the fan in the fridge--so they only hear their phantom music when they are in the kitchen, others hear the fan in their computer or other device and this triggers the phantom music.

For some reason the constant background drone of the fan causes your brain to modulate this sound and the result is the phantom music you hear. Does the above fit what you experience?

People that hear this kind of phantom music typically do NOT have any hearing loss (or very little loss), nor do they have to be elderly--their ages range from teens to seniors--so obviously age isn't a factor in this kind of MES.

When you hear MES only in one place--like your home--and no where else, and only in certain places in your home, I immediately suspect something like the "furnace vents" or something similar.

Regards

Neil

Musical Ear Syndrome

I don't have an answer. However I have a story. MES started l/16. I am 70 years old and hard of hearing but how dare it grab at Seniors and ill persons. I have MS, Lupus, Myasthenia Gravis, chronic acid reflus and

thyroiditis. How dare it try to drive me nuts. I have several issues ahead of it. Take a number in the Bakery.

The musical ear started a few days after I had stomach surgery and does not want to leave. It is very hard to cope with all of this. I have found that when I can't take it, if I think the word Lower, the music does go down =

however, you have to say Lower over and over.as it will rise shortly. I change tunes by thinking another one

and it automatically changes. I would love to find a support group on Long Island.

Yes, I've not only heard of it, but I've personally experienced it. Back in the early 80s I had a strep throat infection, but didn't have healthcare insurance or the money to go to a doctor. So I was trying to use OTC medicines to relieve the symptoms. One day, as I lay on the couch in the living room, suffering, I began to hear music, country and western style music. My husband was in the bathroom, showering and shaving, and getting ready to go to work. I knew he would sometimes take a radio in there with him so I assumed that was what I was hearing. After he left for work I could still hear the music and I was really angry with him since he knew how bad I was feeling and knowing I would have to get up to turn the radio off. But when I reached the bathroom I found no radio in it. So I assumed the music must be coming from somewhere outside the house. I opened a door and stuck my head outside to see if I could tell from which direction the music was coming. That's when I became aware that the music was not coming from outside me but was within my own head. I struggled back to the couch feeling so bad I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the rest of the day. That's when I began to remember hearing someone say that sometimes, just before a person died, they would begin to hear "heavenly music." "Could this be what I'm hearing?" I wondered to myself. Well, just as I was about to really panic the thought occurred to me that heavenly music probably wouldn't be played by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (because that's what the music sounded like). Well, as you can see, I did make it past that day. Some weeks after that time I happened across an article in a magazine (can't recall name) that talked about this same thing. It said many people had heard music after taking too much aspirin and I remembered that I had taken a lot of it trying to ease my throat pain. So it sounds like it may not be so uncommon after all.

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RE:

Musical Ear Syndrome?

That HAS to be what I've got. BUT - I'm not old and my hearing is acute - not going deaf. I share a lot of other people's symptoms I read on the internet like sometimes the music sounds like a chorus of people singing, and other times a duet or just one person, and the same chorus...

I developed MES a couple years ago and all I could hear was God Bless America and America the Beautiful over and over and over. I saw a neurologist and was given Seroquel 25mg. This worked for 2 years. It has returned with an unknown tune and I can hear it above the TV playing. It never stops. I am still taking the Seroquel, but it has not helped this time. It does not keep me awake at night, but then again, I take 2 Benadryl to help me sleep.

I've had MES for a couple months now. I hear it mostly in the late afternoon and all evening. I have about 5 or 6 songs that play, sometimes just orchestral and sometimes with a male choir singing but without words. Some of the songs that I hear are Sunrise, Sunset, from Fiddler on the Roof, which morphs into the Anniversary Waltz. Also, Autumn Leaves, Hava Nagila, and Unchained Melody. I hear "Look down, look down" from Les Miserables and that one can get really irritating hearing it over and over. There are other songs that play the last three or four notes over and over. I am 78 years old and have worn hearing aids for the last five years. I also have tinnitus which I have had for at least ten years. I'm not depressed and I don't have anxiety or much stress. I was relieved to read Dr. Neal's book which reassured me that I wasn't crazy or getting Alzheimers. I listen to my mp3 player for music and books when I want to block out the music in my head. And yes, it's totally different from just having a song running through your head over and over.

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Has anyone tried hypnotism to relieve MES? We have tried several meds prescribed by our neurologist but nothing seems to work for many length of time.