hearing protection

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Greetings all!

Fresh back from our monthly chapter meeting, and looking forward to next
month's. Today we had a very brief discussion on earplugs, etc. as a
precursor to next meeting tech, when we will have a doctor come across the
street from Mayo .

several weeks ago I saw a reference to "road-warrior"? and another on
earplugs.

After seeing references like that, I decided to experiment during a "bulk
tuning" period, getting ready for second sem. On the whole I was encouraged.
I found that I wasn't aurally burnt out at the end of the day(important to
moonlighting), and some pianos sounded better than they had for a while.

the ones which seemed better were 243's in small practice rooms, and oriental
grands in prac rooms which aren't that much bigger.

Contrary to one comment, I found that i could hear allthe beats I needed to
tune the tempreament . The cleaned tunings I feel resulted from a couple of
factors. (should read cleaner.)

1. The small room and ultra bright pianos contributed to sensory overload,
and the volumne attenuation allowed me to concentrate on what i needed to
hear. The upper treble octaves were easier to hear, and less high harmonics
helped me do those 2:1 things. Unisons ,especially w/false beats were free
of multiple false beating harmonics..

2. The softer sounds just plain made me concentrate more. My speed didn't
suffer, however.

Those who may be practicing safe hearing;

What form of protection do you find works best, cotton balls, rubber plugs,
wax plugs, muff-type external, or something else entirely?
I tried rubber plugs, but I removed that cute orange tether since I wasn't
too woried about hunters.

Conrad Hoffsommer