Hags888

I found the more interesting part of this article related to more of the "what do we do about it" part. We all know musicians can and do lose their hearing. I found it very interesting that labor laws were trying to either force musicians to wear ear plugs, play softer, or in one drastic example, to simply not play the music.

It was this part of the article that really caught my attention:

I guess that I just disagree. If noise levels continue to go up and up, playing with earplugs may become just another "skill" musicians will have to learn. The reality is, either we don't use earplugs and risk losing our hearing, or we learn to deal with them and potentially save our hearing. The only other option as I see it is to simply play softer or completely redesign our instruments so they don't play as loud...and those two probably aren't going to happen.

brunets

I personnally think that reducing noise level is the way to go. Wearing earplugs makes the experience of playing music less enjoyable because what you hear isn't exactly what is coming out of the instrument. If the feedback of our playing is poor, it will have impact on the way we play.

rowuk

The instruments that work at lower levels ARE there. The Bach/Yamaha Mafia in universities and in orchestras has made the industry blind to choice. Try and get a job with ANY medium bore trumpet! Even Bach used to have a wonderful Vindabona model. Being "non-standard" is a curse instead of a musical blessing.

Hags888

Well, the counter-argument is that the audience doesn't care whether you enjoy playing or not. They are there are to hear the music, and as musicians it is our job to give them our best performance. They don't care if you're sick, if you had a death in the family yesterday, or if you're wearing ear plugs. They only care that you're giving them the best performance possible. Personal enjoyment only factors into the equation a little bit for me when I'm playing a professional gig. More often than not I enjoy what I'm doing, but that doesn't (and shouldn't) determine the performance/musical choices we make, especially about whether or not to wear ear plugs.

The last sentence from brunets, is one that is very similar to what the oboist I quoted from the original article is saying. See, I think it's just another skill musicians may be required to learn in the future, especially if decibel levels continue to go up. While at first, when you begin learning to play with ear plugs it WILL negatively impact your playing, but that is simply because the player hasn't learned how to play with them in yet. It is my opinion that musicians should be able to learn to play just as well with ear plugs as without, but it would just take a different kind of understanding about sound production. At first it may be uncomfortable, annoying or just simply "different". But like all new things, I believe we could begin to appreciate them for the sake of our hearing. As a side note, I currently do not use ear plugs, but I have considered getting custom-made form fitting one for years. And the more experiences I have performing the more I see the need for ear plugs.

Vulgano Brother

The 1st basoon in our orchestra sat directly in front of the second trumpet, and he did go deaf. It was fun at the time, though. We sat in the back row. The year after I left, the conductor moved the trombones behind the trumpets, and my former colleagues did not enjoy the experience. I for one, would rather go deaf than wear earplugs.

stchasking

I purchased a decibel meter at Wal-mart. I found it in the car stereo section. The marketing ploy to sell the meter was to sit in your car and see how loud you could turn up the stereo before causing pain. Check it out. This is the truth.

I use my meter at the rifle range to see/hear how loud adjacent high powered rifles and hand guns are. Most are 96 decibels.

Vulgano Brother

I got mine at Radio Shack. It was useful for getting students to play louder: "C'mon kid, that was only 60 decibels--violas are louder than that!"

Bear

Maybe that's why I don't have a "real" job yet!

HAHAHA

brunets

I know you are kidding man!

Stéphane

cornetguy

actually no i have thought of doing the same thing for a different reason, to get the kids to play something other then mezzo nothing