[MrYman]

Hirsh, I think the method you describe you train your "mind" not your "ears", so, yes, your mind "hears" better, I'd prefer to say "understands" music better. But with cleaning ears with water spray now and then one can improve hearing for real and for good! Sure, for some it would be a great difference for some a bit less, but I think everyone would profit from it... and this method is very easy and cheap, but I'd recommend you to go to the doctor and not DIY

 

[HiWire]

I would agree with the "train the brain" school of thought. Your hearing may decline with age and exposure to loud sounds (e.g. abuse

), but your interpretation of the available sensations is certainly provable by widely-held anecdotal evidence.

On a slightly off-topic note - this seems to coincide perfectly with a book I am reading - House Atreides in one of the "newer" Dune series. Control of perception, thought, behavior, etc. are all discussed in a science fiction manner through the Bene Gesserit (witches' Voice), Mentats (human computers), Suk (medical knowledge) and physical abilities (e.g. martial arts) schools of training.

I have a Bachelor's in Psychology

Much good it does me in my new field of book publishing...

 

[plainsong]

But why talk about hearing things that are physically beyond the realm of the human ear...when you can train them more productively to hear chords, detect modulations, hear the intervals between notes, be able to say what mode and what key it is.. you can train your ears to do that, it comes more easily for some than others. There may be a point where you plateau, but everyone can improve from their starting point.

And if you can hear those things, hearing flaws in your system becomes the easy bit.

 

[rsaavedra]

You can learn to better understand and appreciate visual arts for instance, but you can't learn to "see" infrared, or ultraviolet.