# Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf

http://www.health24.com/Medical/Hearing-management/News/Musicians-risk-hearing-loss-20140805

I wonder what the risk is to classical musicians. Symphony orchestras can be very loud. Perhaps it's safer to take up lute or clavichord...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

brianvds said:


> Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf
> 
> http://www.health24.com/Medical/Hearing-management/News/Musicians-risk-hearing-loss-20140805
> 
> I wonder what the risk is to classical musicians. Symphony orchestras can be very loud. *Perhaps it's safer to take up lute or clavichord... *


... or to spend an inordinate amount of time listening to a certain infamous piece by John Cage, instead of, say, Mahler, Stravinsky, or Strauss.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

brianvds said:


> Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf
> 
> http://www.health24.com/Medical/Hearing-management/News/Musicians-risk-hearing-loss-20140805
> 
> I wonder what the risk is to classical musicians. Symphony orchestras can be very loud. Perhaps it's safer to take up lute or clavichord...


Tinnitus and/or hearing loss is more widespread among symphonic players than anyone would care to admit. Year in, year out, the woodwinds sitting in front of the brass often are the group to likely get some hearing problem as the years go on.

There was, at some "gear show convention," in the states (I've forgotten the Acronym for the organization) -- i.e. all the tech stuff in and around recording and amplified recording -- a free hearing test made available, the participants guaranteed anonymity.

Many of those participants were either pop performers, studio engineers, many in and around popular genres of music. The results were a little scary, with a fairly high number of those who took the test showing significant hearing loss, _including those pros who sit in the recording studio collecting fees for recording and engineering your demo / recording!_ That was enough to frighten me as a musician thinking of walking into a studio, with the meter running, kaching, kaching, paying a hearing-impaired engineer to record my music.

Classical, large ensembles, or any genre, regular and frequent exposure to prolonged sound, some of it at a hefty decibel level, will do your hearing harm.

FACTOID: _Every time your ears are ringing after some sound event, that means some portion of your hearing is already forever lost!_


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Some orchestras with whose backstage doings I am familiar have unlimited supplies of ear plugs (little foamies) on hand, dispensed like candy from a bowl, and the smart players, especially those right in front of the brass, make use of them.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

My wife sometimes complains I play my classical music too loud (which I don't), without realizing that the majority of even orchestral pieces (or Wagnerian opera) are not fortissimo tuttis, and not understanding recording compression, which makes even Josh Grobin ballads take up more sensory space in your brain than most of most classical pieces.

On the other hand, my 30-year old son already has hearing loss from attending too many Phish concerts.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf
> 
> http://www.health24.com/Medical/Hearing-management/News/Musicians-risk-hearing-loss-20140805
> 
> I wonder what the risk is to classical musicians. Symphony orchestras can be very loud. Perhaps it's safer to take up lute or clavichord...


I haven't seen any classical musicians retiring early due to hearing loss. When I subscribed to the NY Philharmonic, an opening might happen in the winds maybe once every twenty to thirty years and those guys were playing directly in front of the brass and percussion sections. Didn't seem to be a problem.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Tinnitus and/or hearing loss is more widespread among symphonic players than anyone would care to admit. Year in, year out, the woodwinds sitting in front of the brass often are the group to likely get some hearing problem as the years go on.


I often think about how woodwind players endure this (of course extreme volumes are experienced by all players in an orchestra) day-in, day-out for years.

I have sat in the first couple of rows at a concert before, and there were many moments of big brass and percussion that I found uncomfortably loud, so much so that it actually made the performance a somewhat unpleasant experience at times. I don't sit so close in anymore!

Of course, there is no such solution for musicians and conductors even though knowledge is pretty widespread these days about the harmful effects of repeated exposure to loud noise. One wonders if anything could (or would) be done in the future -- probably not, I guess.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf
> 
> I wonder what the risk is to classical musicians. Symphony orchestras can be very loud. Perhaps it's safer to take up lute or clavichord...


Further news - Queen Anne is dead!

Dave Swarbrick  fiddler with Fairport Convention had problems in the 1970s. We had this on TC - http://www.talkclassical.com/21453-earplugs-violin-practice.html with links to Horn Matters. Sound exposures and hearing thresholds of symphony orchestra musicians(pdf) from 1990 is a study of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It's a well known problem but much ignored.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

hpowders said:


> I haven't seen any classical musicians retiring early due to hearing loss. When I subscribed to the NY Philharmonic, an opening might happen in the winds maybe once every twenty to thirty years and those guys were playing directly in front of the brass and percussion sections. Didn't seem to be a problem.


On second thought, perhaps some of the NY Philharmonic wind players simply didn't hear Boulez screaming at them to "Get Out!!"


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

brianvds said:


> Pop stars and musicians more likely to go deaf


Pardon

( the old ones are always the best )


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

Today there are quality hearing protection devices that greatly reduce the risk of hearing loss and any musician classical or otherwise who performs on a frequent basis and does not use such devices is a fool. To lose your hearing because of a genetic defect is one thing but to lose your hearing when it can be prevented is insanity. Especially for a musician!

Kevin


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

I think hearing loss comes from health problems there are those who go deaf without loud noises.Guitar players of electric guitars has hearing loss.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

GGluek said:


> On the other hand, my 30-year old son already has hearing loss from attending too many Phish concerts.


Not to mention his lungs inhaling all that pot.

My friend dragged me to a Phish Concert last year at Madison Square Garden. He warned me that EVERYONE will be smoking pot (because he knows I don't). So, I brought two things: My earplugs and my cigars. I must say, although the music was sub-par, I can't tell you what a JOY it was to light up a cigar (smoked two actually) right in the middle of MSG with no one batting an eye.

That and a million glow sticks flying everywhere in the stadium constantly was pretty fun.

V


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I suffer from episodic tinnitus. Once every three of four days I'll have tinnitus that lasts all day. It usually turns on while I sleep and I wake up with it. It goes all day in my left ear only. I go to sleep and the next day it's gone. I play the violin on my left shoulder in the normal way, and my tinnitus is in my left ear. Coincidence? Probably not. Though I'm not a professional playing all day, I'm an amateur who is lucky to play one hour a day, two hours on Saturday and two hours on Sunday. And I started later in life. 

I had my hearing checked and there is some hearing loss at high frequencies in my left ear. 

Those musicians who play more each day and for more of their life will go deaf.


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