[Harp-L] Hearing Protection (was: Loud amp for loud band)
Dear List,
When I read the statement below, I saw the argument for choice. To rephrase, "if it's too spicey, don't order it" or "don't have sex with people you don't trust" I see it as an argument for "environmental controls" vs. personal protective equipment. I generally agree. For example: If you don't like your local "shock jock" just turn the dial.
Unfortunately, you can't always just opt out of the danger. I work in a lab where there are some dangerous chemicals I come into contact with. I wear gloves and use fume hoods to ensure a high level of personal safety. I don't think I can opt out of using chemicals without quitting, and starting from zero in a new career.
The same sort of difficulty faces many harpers. We often begin and/or continue our musical lives as sidemen. We often begin when we're young and ignorant of our own mortality. We often live in a world seeminly devoid of like-minded safety-conscious, ego-neutral band-mates.
I agree that one shouldn't have to compromise one's hearing for others. Unfortunately, many growing harpers don't ever reach "leader" status in their respective musical "organizations" (read: bands). Most harp players I've met are pretty reasonable team players who just want to make good music. "Not playing" is a hard choice for someone who loves making music.
Just as I must compromise at work by wearing gloves to handle chemicals, I don't see any problem with a harper wearing earplugs. Or, to put it another way, I encourage young harp players to wear earplugs until that harper develops the maturity or confidence to change the band, or opt out.
I wear earplugs to the movies, concerts, when mowing the lawn, and anytime I am dragged to a "thump thump" club by my wife. Plenty of life-long musicians choose to wear nothing. It is, ultimately their choice. I just want to give more guys/girls some of the up-front information I never considered when I was younger.
It's worth a few more internet-discussions to me if even one harper chooses ear protection early-on and avoids hearing "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" in a perfectly quiet room.
Dan G.
Rick Dempster <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Seems to me wearing earplugs on stage 'cause the band is too loud is a bit like going to a restaurant and wearing a dental rubber dam 'cause the food's too spicy. Or having a shower with a raincoat on...? now where have I heard that before?
RD
>>> Special20 13/11/2007 16:05 >>>
Vince-
Geez, what are you so angry about? If you read my first post on this
topic, you will see I wrote "I'd quit the band," as in ME! It is what
*I* would do. I also recommended ear plugs or in-ear montors. I
don't understand your over-the top resentment at my post. I may be a
very persuasive guy, but I have not forced you or anybody to do
anything.
Dave Grohl clearly regrets his hearing loss, and I'm certain he would
suggest that young players not make the mistakes he did. That may
mean changing bands, or it may mean ear plugs. Or it may mean making
the affirmative decision to tolerate the risk of hearing loss, as you
have done.
As I said before, life is too much fun to be crippled with hearing
loss or tintinitis. If your bandmates won't lower the stage volume,
I'd quit the band. You can still have a high FOH SPL, but you don't
have to ruin your own ears to sound good.
-Spec20.
On Nov 12, 2007 6:21 PM, Vince Meghrouni wrote:
> Well, since you brought it up, why don't you just glibly tell Dave
> Grohl to quit what he's doing.
>
> Do you think it is big news that people go deaf playing loud music?
> The article didn't say Grohl has quit playing loud music, did it?
> No, it didn't. So your point is, what, that loud music adversely
> effects hearing? Well then, you are right. But yes, to advise
> quitting a band or changing it out or whatever automatically because
> it is loud is glib and facile, regardless of your ability to find a
> snippet of an interview saying that Grohl has to have his wife repeat
> herself.
>
> Coincidentally, I happened to play drums for a couple tours in a band
> whose drum chair the prior tour was occupied by Grohl. It was a very
> loud couple of tours. The drum monitors were as loud as some loud
> bands I've played in. It was after that tour that my lifetime
> relationship with tinnitus first began. But I got the chance to work
> with some artists that I consider it to have been worth it to have
> worked in those circumstances.
>
> Maybe you would not work in extremely loud situations no matter what,
> and I think it's wonderful if you've managed to preserve your hearing
> through that policy. I certainly would not recommend that anyone
> work in an extremely loud circumstance without considering the very
> real repercussions. But for some, the particulars of the artistic
> aspect of the situation are not so easy to turn down and I personally
> wouldn't have had it any other way, and feel the same way about the
> loud situation that I am currently playing harp/sax in. Sometime to
> do the thing itself is worth what it takes in order to do it.
>
> And of course, there are always earplugs.
>
>
> On Nov 12, 2007, at 5:00 PM, Special20 wrote:
>
> > Ask Dave Grohl if I am being facile or glib:
> >
> > http://www.deafness-and-hearingaids.net/2007/09/21/dave-grohl-talks-
> > about-his-hearing-loss/
> >
> >
> >
> > On Nov 12, 2007 5:38 PM, Vince Meghrouni
> > wrote:
> >> It's easy to say "If your bandmates won't lower the stage volume, I'd
> >> quit the band", without hearing the band.
> >>
> >> I play in (among others) a very loud band with extremely creative
> >> musicians writing unique music I dig. It's not just a matter of
> >> "remove harmonica-player unit from music machine A and place in music
> >> machine B which features all attributes of machine A except for
> >> volume aspect".
> >>
> >> Sometimes you accept the negatives of a situation for the positives
> >> inherent within it. To say "find a new band" or "I'd quit" is
> >> facile. It's glib. Easy to say if you don't know the particulars.
> >>
> >> Hendrix played real loud. If he'd asked you in the band, would you
> >> have turned him down because it was too loud? Maybe you would.
> >>
> >> Rex "T for 'Tempest in a teapot" Tobago
> >>
> >>
> >> On Nov 12, 2007, at 4:01 PM, Special20 wrote:
> >>
> >>> Earplugs? In-ear monitors?
> >>>
> >>> Life is too much fun to be crippled with hearing loss or tintinitis.
> >>> If your bandmates won't lower the stage volume, I'd quit the band.
> >>> You can still have a high FOH SPL, but you don't have to ruin
> >>> your own
> >>> ears to sound good.
> >>>
> >>> -Spec20
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> >>> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> >>> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> >>
> >> Vince Meghrouni
> >> http://www.myspace.com/fiendhorn
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> >> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> >> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> > Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> > http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>
> Vince Meghrouni
> http://www.myspace.com/fiendhorn
>
>
>
>
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