earplugs and hearing loss

[Mitch Kiel]

      I agree with Jeff Stickney's comments that earplugs, as wonderful as they
may be, interfere with hearing the lowest and highest notes. I too have
discovered that taking out the right earplug solves the problem. When I start
having problems hearing a piano's high treble, it's time to remove *both* plugs
in preparation for my second plugless pass. After removing them, I cringe at the
first few normal test blows but, after a while, my ears become acclimated to the
higher sound levels. Hmmm...

      This brings up another point. Someone mentioned a few days ago that he's
never found time to get his hearing professionally tested. If he does (and he
should), he might discover something my good friend Doug Wood, RPT of Seattle (a
monster of a technician) and I have hypothesized from unfortunate personal
experience:

      For piano tuners, hearing loss occurs sooner in the right ear than the
left.

      This makes perfect sense if you think about which ear is closest to the
sound source (assuming you use your right hand on the tuning hammer and play the
notes with your left).
      So get your hearing tested ASAP. (BTW, twelve years ago, Steve Brady, RPT
- RTT back then - required that I get my hearing tested before he'd take me on
as an apprentice.) You may discover, to your chagrin, that your right ear is not
the lean mean tuning machine that your left ear is. Or that you've gotten ten
years older in the past decade.

      Protectively yours,
      Mitch Kiel, RPT