Hearing speech in noise

[DIANE HOFSTETTER]

John said:

>Yes, I know what you're talking about. I don't think I'm losing the ability
>to hear things, but sometimes it's hard to distinguish words if there's a
>lot of other noise. It's like I hear everything going on in the room at the
>same time, but it's sometimes hard to focus on conversational speech unless
>I really work at it. Like less of a hearing thing, and more of a filtering
>thing.


When we start having difficulty hearing the "high frequencies" (to an 
audiologist, anything above 1000Hz), consonants, which are the sounds that 
distinguish words from one another, are lost first. The vowels, at much 
lower frequencies, are easy to hear and give the speech its loudness.  Thus 
we perceive that we hear just fine, it's just that people mumble and don't 
pronounce their words clearly.

Another strange phenomenon is that, not only do we start to lose the ability 
to hear soft, high frequency sounds, but also that loud sounds start to get 
too loud.  This is called a reduced dynamic range.  It's this phenomenon 
that convinces people (wrongly) that their hearing is just fine.  They 
reason that other people have the music turned up because they can't hear 
it, when, in reality, they simply aren't irritated by loud sounds because 
they have a normal dynamic range.




>>I've been using hearing protection since then, so hope things are OK 
>>there.


There are many causes of hearing deterioration. Noise is just the one that's 
easiest for us to do something about.  Some other causes are presbycusis 
(loss some people have simply from getting older); ototoxity (chemicals such 
as tolulene, zylene (strippers), medications such as quinine (long list); 
injuries as a result of strokes, etc.; genetics.............



>I know you and I are not the only ones with this, because some instructors
>at conventions are obviously having trouble hearing people in the class ask
>questions. Yet it's obvious they can hear well on the piano.

>John Formsma

I started studying audiology because YOU ARE NOT  "the only ones with this". 
  When I started selling the earplugs at conventions, so many techs came to 
me with hearing problems, that I realized that someone had better find a way 
to answer some of these questions for them.

One of the most interesting things I discovered, was that it was generally 
the best techs who came to me with hearing problems.  I don't know whether 
it was because they were the ones under the most stress and pressure, had 
the heaviest tuning loads, or because they simply felt more self-assured 
about their abilities and therefore less worried about admitting to problems 
with hearing.

Diane



   _____

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Lawson
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:44 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Hearing



John, I am very interested to read about the hearing factor and particularly
this new idea re the hammer shank. Don't quite understand the method
however. Can you please give us some more in depth detail, as stability in
tuning has always been a major problem with most tuners. I, like most of us,
am a forced to hit hard, particularly for recital stuff, and I am getting
too old for that rubbish!!!

The other matter that could be of interest is the that quite strange
peculiarity of being able to hear your tuning very well, however when in a
noisy room, can't hear what people are saying to you.

Am I the only one who has this experience? I bet I'm not.

Love this facility, it is great.

Regards,

David Lawson    Wangaratta Australia