Klarinet Archive - Posting 000789.txt from 2002/10

From: "DEREK JONES (08)8343-4918" <jones.derek@-----.au>
Subj: [kl] (kl) Sound Sensitivity
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 19:18:54 -0500

Dear People,

Just a few words by way of preamble, then
my questions. This is not meant to be a sob
story but rather a sincere search for an answer.

I've been playing the clarinet, as an amateur,
for about 40 years....the usual things, concert
band, pit orchestras, larger orchestras but now,
purely chamber music.

During all those years of playing, I never once
thought of using earplugs. Nobody I knew here
in Adelaide, outside of the pro orchs, seemed
to use them either. On top of this, my job is
to sit and listen to CDs for eight hours a day
for a Radio Station....(a tough job but someone's
got to do it!!!).

My hearing has suddenly taken a dive with a
constant whistle or ringing in one ear, and now
there's a sensitivity to certain frequencies from
horns and bassoons etc. I've bought a pair of
earplugs (40 years too late) off the shelf and
they cut out about 12db but the vibrations that
seem to emanate from within the head sure are
distracting (look out! here comes that Dsharp
again, etc).
Even playing in a room on my own is uncomfortable.
I guess I have tinnitus, which I can cope with,
but now sound sensitivity, is making playing
a bit of an endurance test
.
I'm under an ENT specialist and following a course
of nasal sprays (which has not had any effect), he
will make a tiny hole in the eardrum by way of a
test to see if it's any good fitting a new tube...
something about pressure.. If the first test proves
negative....there's nothing more he can do. I'm in
my early 60s

At last, my questions

Has anyone else experienced this malfunction
and come up with an answer, or at least a clue?

I have found out there's a course called
Sound Therapy (developed, I believe, in Canada
and quite expensive in terms of cash and time)
which re-tunes the ear. The cost is about $A500
for tapes with cassette player and takes around
300 hours of listening.
Can anyone offer advice on this method...?

Thanks for your time

dj

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