Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

Robert,
The plugs from "DIANE HOFSTETTER" <dianepianotuner at msn.com> actually 
make focusing in on the partials easier as they subdue a lot of the 
attack phase noise.  I take them with me when I go to services at 
some churches and concerts that I'm not sure of.  When your ears are 
your living you become sensitive to these things.  Some people are a 
little too proud of their sound reinforcement systems.

Andrew Anderson

At 08:54 AM 5/5/2006, you wrote:
>I have been reading the interesting article about tinnitus and 
>hearing loss in the Piano Technician's Journal. This is something 
>that concerns me since I am just starting out as a piano technician, 
>and I am also a classical musician (concert pianist) who gives 
>frequent recitals and plays in competitions.
>
>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 that 
>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. In a large 
>symphony orchestra for example, the sound level must be quite 
>intense at times (such as the finale of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony), 
>although there are large dynamic variations from pianissimo to 
>fortissimo depending on the piece being played, and the sound level 
>would not be not constantly very loud. Would the conductor and 
>orchestral players ever have problems with tinnitus and hearing loss?
>
>Do the ear plugs that piano technicians use make it more difficult 
>to hear the beats, or do they make it easier? I guess they attenuate 
>the sound level of the notes and the beats as well, but maybe the 
>attenuation of the lower frequencies is less so the beats can still 
>be heard. Where can one get suitable ear plugs for piano tuning use? 
>Thank you for your comments.
>
>Robert Finley

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