Hearing Loss and Piano Tuning

[DIANE HOFSTETTER]

Andrew Anderson said:

>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.


Hi Andrew, glad you like the earplugs.  An interesting idea one of my 
customers, a sound engineer and performer from Emu Systems had.

He was on tour in Holland when a (former) assistent attached the cables 
wrong.  The feedback was so bad, that it threw him on the floor, in pain.  
He couldn't hear well for about two weeks after.  Now he has his hearing 
insured with Lloyds of London!

Diane









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