Anonymous

Is this hearing loss related to playing the trumpet? Or the fact that she is playing in ensembles with loud instruments around her? In particular playing into her left ear? I hope people can help you with this!

ddbell

From what we know so far the hearing loss is from blowing the horn. Something to do with her holding her breath. The inner ear is very sensitive to pressure both internal and external, sneezing, sinuses, airpalnes, heights, loud noises etc... The steriods should help, but the question is will it happen again if she starts playing again? Maybe its just because she played so much Monday?


A Trumpet Players Mom

rdt1959

As a few of you know, I am severly hearing impaired having lost better than 50% of my hearing in both ears. I wearing hearing aids in both ears, and have for a number of years. I am two years into the "comeback trail", and hear (pun intended) are my two main thoughts on this subject:

A) Difficulties playing include ntonation, tuning and balancing. Recently when playing with a community band for the first time, I noticed I had REAL problems hearing other sections of the band, and this in turned caused me to play out of tune quite a bit. It also caused me to miss the opening pitch once in a while at first (thankfully, by the time our concert came around I had adjusted to things and didn't embarass myself too bad!). These are very serious musical problems, but NOT insurmountable. I will just have to work very very hard to get around those obstacles if I ever want to do some serious playing (and I do!). (I have also noticed that the smaller the group is, the less severe these problems are).

B) For years some people (including medical specialists, who SHOULD have known better) blamed my hearing loss on my high school and college music "career". But in fact, that had very little to do with it. My entire family for four or five generations back has had hearing problems. Obviously, being sandwiched between the french horns and percussion section didn't help! But had I never played the trumpet, I would still be wearing hearing aids. I guess the point is that, in my experience, people (and yes...some doctors) are just a little too quick to blame hearing loss or other hearing problems on our music.

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Dick Taylor
Georgia
Comeback Player
Benge 65B

JackD

I get that ringing occasionally, and it's irritating more than anything else.

When I played drums I used to use earplugs, but even then I find it cuts you out of the musical situation - it's ok for a rock band where the drummer is in the driving seat, but even then it's not ideal.

As fas as trumpet playing goes, I find it impossible to use ear plugs.

rjzeller

I played a gig last Friday with some strings. I even commented about my performance (not in a good way) in another thread directed to Manny. But as it happens, the lady playing Cello commented that she has suffered partial hearing loss (THAT didn't do much to help encourage me to ignore the fear of playing too loud...but...).

She commented that she tunes and "listens" by feeling the vibrations in the intrument and the room around her (floor, chair, whatever).

Perhaps you could incorporate that into your play. I don't know how feasible that is on trumpet, but who knows....

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who do not.

Meldog

You eventually do get use to the ringing, tinitus(sp?). I have a pretty good hearing loss in my left ear. The clue for me was I was constantly asking people to repeat themselves, basically saying, HUH?, all the time..lol. I also found I relied on a tuner HEAVILY all the time. My right ear is actually way above average which is kind of nice. I was fitted for musicians plugs but due to money I could not get them. Most audiologists now a days should be able to do it. I believe the pair I was going to get were around $125.

Adam W. Metzler

gridjam

From what little I know about the hearing loss issue, we have to be around a loud noise for a long time to lose substantial hearing. I have lost some highs in my right ear from being right next to the drums at Visiones with Maria's band for about 6 years of mondays. ouch. Tinnitus- 36 million Americans have it by the way, is a drag. My husband-drummer- has it, but I have not got it and have been exposed to a lot of loud music. My advice for the young player- get her some high end, custom ear plugs.(did you find them yet?) and also make sure she is not wearing in-ear phones.!!! There are some really bad headphones out there that are ruining young ears. good luck. Ingrid

Brekelefuw

I have tinitus. I have had it for as long as I can remember, so it is kind of normal to me. I have been wearing earplugs much more when doing work in garage's and in the lab at my college, but I am yet to get the good musician's ear earplugs. I think my school is bringing a guy here to fit us all with them. I can't wait.

MFfan

I am almost 65 and my ears have been assaulted for the last 50 yrs, as I have played in mostly large concert bands and marching bands, sitting or standing in front of several groups of offenders, mostly percussion, trombones or baritones! I have had high frequency hearing loss for many years and gradually other parts of the audio spectrum have deteriorated, as my wife has said for years. I have no problem in hearing and playing music, but people's conversations and zeroing in some specific words is not what it used to be. Sometimes that's useful Still aggravates my wife sometimes, who wants me hearing checked. This sort of thing is an occupational hazard, I guess. Other organic causes could , of course, complicated matters, depending on the individual.

Vulgano Brother

For some good information, check out Introduction: Hearing Loss: Merck Manual Professional .

The cheap way to test for short-term hearing loss (which can turn into long-term hearing loss over time) is to tune your car radio (FM) between stations and turn it down to the softest level you can still hear the white noise. When you get in your car after the gig, if you can still hear the white noise, that is a good thing!

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