Klarinet Archive - Posting 001153.txt from 1998/07

From: Floyd Williams <f.williams@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Loud Brass
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 01:24:49 -0400

Anna,
Here is the information that I mentioned in recent post:

Audiometric evaluation of an orchestra revealed a hearing loss in 7.3
percent of string players, 20 percent of wind players, and 28 percent of
brass players. ALL percussionists had some degree of hearing loss.
In another survey, out of 250 professional musicians who were evaluated
at a clinic for non-hearing related injuries, 89% had some noise/music
exposure as evidenced by an audiometric notch in the 3,000 to 6,000 Hz
region. Although a hearing loss at 3, 000, 4,000 or 6,000Hz with
preservation of lower frequencies may not pose a problem for a boiler
maker, it may be a serious problem for a musician. Under certain
circumstances, such a hearing loss may even be disabling.

It came from a post from WWINDQUINTET@-----. As you
can see, I forgot the exact percentages re brass players.

Regards,
Dodgshun family wrote:
>
> At 03:37 AM 27/07/98 +1000, <f.williams@-----.au> wrote:
>
> >I don't remember the exact percentages, but in some survey I read
> >recently re this problem in orchestras, it found that c.8-10 per cent of
> >string players, 20-25 per cent of wind players,50-60 per cent of brass
> >players, and 100 per cent of percussionists suffered from hearing
> >loss(for their age).
>
> Where was this survey done? Here in NZ, we're pretty careful about hearing.
> All our percussionists learning from recognised teachers (ie, all the good
> percussionists) wear musician's earplugs when playing cymbals, bass drum,
> timp, drum kit, gong etc etc (OK, marimba and glockenspiel don't really need
> it!) and from what I can gather, very few of them have serious hearing
> problems. Second violins I can understand - piccolo right there! We always
> use soundshields between brass and wind, and often between percussion and
> brass. Brass players I see wearing earplugs sometimes too. I would say
> that down here, the percentages are far smaller. Bands are not quite as
> careful, but our band drummer ALWAYS has his earplugs in, no exceptions, and
> the bassist usually wears them too (I'm talking big bands here). My
> brother's a bassist, and no matter whether he's playing with his high school
> big band or the rock band he's in, he never goes near rehearsal without his
> earplugs. One of the guys in his year has been playing with a band for
> three weeks, and he reckons that 25% of his hearing is already gone.
> Apparently this band is painful to listen to OUTSIDE a soundproofed band
> room. Mind you, my brother and I are very conscious of it because our
> father's a sound engineer, and is always warning us about the danger.
> People here, particularly of the student age, are very aware of the danger,
> and usually act on it. We've all seen too many players with wrecked hearing
> to not do anything about it.
>
> Anna
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Floyd Williams
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
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Please note new email address
f.williams@-----.au
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