Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning

[DIANE HOFSTETTER]

>From: "Robert Finley" <rfinley at rcn.com>

>I have been wondering whether musicians could also suffer hearing loss and 
>what the difference is >between tuning a piano (where the notes are played 
>loudly to set the strings) and playing  music t>hat has loud passages in it 
>such as a Liszt's Transcendental Etude 'Mazeppa" or Rachmaninoff's >Prelude 
>in G minor Opus 23  and practising pieces like that for several hours a 
>day.



According to one study:

90% of musicians exhibit the initial stages of a hearing loss.
52% of classical musicians have a permanent hearing loss
30% of rock/pop musicians also possess an irreversible hearing loss


The official theory as to why classical musicians tend to suffer from 
hearing loss more than rock musicians is amount of exposure; rock musicians 
tend to listen on weekends and classical musicians practice, teach and have 
rehersals throughout the week.  ( The IPods will probably change all that.)



Savy orchestras are starting to wear earplugs!

Diane