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Re: Earplugs for loud band music

Author: Roxann
Date: 2015-03-01 02:45

Yes! My band director started talking to me today, one-on-one, before practice and I had to stop and remove my earplugs. He said, very quietly, "Are the trumpets too loud?" I smiled and said, "Yes!" He proceeded to tell me that he lost the hearing in one of his ears while playing in our local philharmonic because the trumpet player behind him played so loudly. So, for the rest of today's practice, he made the trumpets play very quietly...and they could do it!!! And we sounded SO much better. There was a post on BBoards a couple of weeks ago about earplugs. I bought two pair that were highly recommended, both from earplugstore.com I bought the ETY plugs from Etymotic Research ("standard fit") and Earasers ("small fit"). The ETY are too big even though they're the smaller of the two sizes available (they shut out 12dB) and the Earasers are JUST RIGHT (they shut out 19dB). The Earasers have no hard plastic in them so are extremely comfortable and can be pushed quite a ways down into my ears. I can still hear the conductor speak when I have them in when he's talking to the entire band. I LOVE them. However, I'm still very reliant on my tuner to know whether or not I'm playing in tune because I'm not sure if the auditory feedback I'm getting from myself is accurate. They'll take some getting used to to know when I'm in tune. I have no good ideas on how to approach your band director let him/her know that the trumpets are hurting your ears. Luckily, my band director knew from personal experience that it can happen...and the long-term effect is deafness. I figure a $30 pair of earplugs beats a $6000 pair of hearing aids (although I do have both).

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