Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning

[Simone Tucci Piano Tuner-Technician]

Hi List:

A while back I had Marshall Chasin who is a leading audiologist here in 
Canada do a presentation about piano tuning and hearing protection. It was 
very interesting to see what the results were. One of the demonstrations was 
a measurement of the db level in a C7 holding the meter at ear level in a 
piano tuners position at the piano playing at a forte blow. The results were 
stunning....way over 95db. So, think about subjecting yourself to years of 
piano tuning, tuning pure frequencies over a large frequencies 
range....there is going to be some damage to hearing.

Marshall authored a book called "Hear The Music" Hearing Loss Prevention For 
Musicians. I own a copy of this book and found it to be very educational. I 
highly recommended to anyone and everyone involved in the music industry.

I myself have been using ER-15 plugs for a number of years and I have no 
problem hearing what I need to hear. As a matter of fact using the plugs 
makes tuning much easier for me, allowing background noise to be filtered 
out. The ER-15/25 follows the natural hearing response curve that the open 
ear does. Therefore allowing you to hear accurately throughout the ear's 
frequencies range. I believe that musicians/piano tuners (tuning only) 
should only be using this type of plug.

-simone

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SIMONE TUCCI
Piano Tuner-Technician
Registered Craftsman Member of
O.G.P.T. Inc & C.A.P.T./A.C.A.P
PTG Associate Member
416.993.6332
tuccisimone at rogers.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Finley" <rfinley at rcn.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning


> That's very interesting Diane. I wonder where this study can be found? I 
> remember when I was a student at university going into the student's union 
> building during a rock concert, and I couldn't stand the noise. It was so 
> deafening that I couldn't speak to the lady I was with without shouting 
> and making my voice go hoarse, and we had to leave because it was painful. 
> I did have a ringing in my ears and didn't go to any concerts like that 
> again. I guess that the players in the band gradually go deaf, and to 
> compensate they turn the volume higher and higher.
>
> As far as a symphony orchestra is concerned, in some pieces, the volume is 
> loud during the fortissimo passes even at the back of the auditorium, so I 
> wonder what it must be like for an orchestral player or the conductor in 
> the middle of all of that. For a busy orchestra that plays almost every 
> night, rehearses and goes on tour, I wonder what the effect is on the 
> conductor and the players. I have never heard of a conductor going deaf 
> (except Beethoven, but I think that was due to an illness) or members of 
> an orchestra retiring due to hearing loss, but I wonder. As far as I know 
> I haven't heard whether any of the famous pianists such as Vladimir 
> Horowitz ever had tinnitus or other hearing problems. He played some 
> thunderously loud pieces. I guess some people are more vulnerable to this 
> than others.
>
> Robert Finley
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "DIANE HOFSTETTER" <dianepianotuner at msn.com>
> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 1:53 PM
> Subject: RE: Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>>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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>