OT: Tinnitus! AAAAGGHH!

[adouglas]

Wow. 6 tones.. that would be hard to ignore.

Even worse if they're at annoying (atonal, dissonant) intervals. Eek.

No wonder you've been driven to display questionable photographs of yourself!



Mine's cranking right along at the moment. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Psycho Ward]

This is an honest question. Why couldn't you continue to play the sax while wearing ear protection?

Wow. 6 tones.. that would be hard to ignore.

I tried that for years and discovered two major problems.

First was the nuance of the tonal character of the sax, when playing the sax the most subtle changes in your embouchure changes the tone produced dramatically. This is a real time control that a sax player must develop in order to produce a good and controlled tone. The slightest change in the lip and oral cavity will cause a big difference in tone. With ear plugs I lost that connection, I tried practicing with ear plugs and recording the practice, that proved to me that I was unable to keep that tight connection and my sound suffered… a lot!

The second problem has to do with the very nature of playing the sax. The mouthpiece and reed is basically an oscillator and the sax body is a filter. The mouthpiece (oscillator) must rest directly on the upper teeth. The reed vibrations transmit directly to your teeth, then the scull, which actually acts as an acoustic amplifier, there is no way to reduce the vibrations or the volume of the mouthpiece… and still sound like a sax. The easiest way I can explain this effect is to have you stick your fingers in your ears and then talk. Notice how your own voice seems louder; it’s the same with a sax, except way louder.

It came down to if I couldn’t sound my best, I couldn’t play it anymore.

Luckily, there are wind based controllers that work very well thru MIDI and I had already been using those since 1982, so my sax training, plus my synth programming allowed me to switch to that full time with pretty good results.

 

[SteveB]

Thanks for the details, Chuck. I'm glad you've got MIDI wind controllers as some small consolation for all your years of training.

 

[Bill]

I'm only 31 and I've had it for years and years. I blame listening to loud metal music in my sony walkman back in the day. Ring ring ring, it just doesn't stop. Eventually you'll learn to ignore it. Now, I have some hearing loss in my right ear due to a not-so-nice drummer "playing a joke on me" and really cracking his snare drum just has I bent down to pick up some stuff next to his kit. Instant pop in my ear, and I have never heard the same since...

I can really only hear the ringing if I concentrate on it, or if the room is dead quiet, like I am trying to sleep at night. Otherwise, it's covered by background noise. My ringing is pretty high pitched, almost like that ringing you can hear from turning on a TV.

That being said, many things can cause tinnitus including stress and poor diet. Get healthy, if you are not already so, and you might find that it will go away or at least not be as noticable. Also, I've noticed mine is worse if I don't get enough sleep..

This sounds a lot like me. I'm only 30 & I've had the ringing for as long as I can remember. I used to think it was normal. I have a hearing loss in my left ear & I've had it since childhood, years before I began playing a musical instrument. I'm planning on going to an audiologist sometime this year to get my hearing checked (haven't had a test since I was a teenager), and I need to get some good earplugs for the stage. It's gotten to the point now that after even my Cajun music gigs (as opposed to my rock gigs) my ears will ring (more than normal) for up to 3 days after!

 

[adouglas]

I'm planning on going to an audiologist sometime this year to get my hearing checked (haven't had a test since I was a teenager), and I need to get some good earplugs for the stage.

And you're delaying taking action on both of these because....... ???

I can think of no good reason not to pick up the phone right now and make that appointment.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Bill]

I know, I suck...I'm a procrastinator! I'm going to do this as soon as possible.