For modifying or adapting at least one basic hearing aid setting such as volume, low/high frequency balance etc., it is suggested that at particular time intervals at least one current user-selected setting entered on the hearing aid is registered and combined or linked with the existing basic setting in or on the hearing aid by means of a predefined algorithm in order to arrive at a new basic setting and to store same in or on the hearing aid. The current user setting is acquired for instance in sound-specific fashion, i.e. with reference to a specific registered sound category or at least one hearing-related ambient parameter, and is linked with the corresponding, associated sound-specific basic setting in order to arrive at the new sound-specific basic setting.