Can You Hear Me Now?

It was probably the scariest story I have ever heard as a drummer.  It came from an elder statesman in our craft, and it changed his life forever.

It took just one rim shot and the ringing in his ears started almost instantly and never went away.  Eventually the tinnitus took over his life.  He had trouble sleeping at night with that constant humming in his ear.  He went to countless doctors and eventually had surgery to remove the bone that protects his eardrum, the root of his problem.  Now he has to wear hearing aids constantly.  He almost lost his ability to hear and with that his ability to play drums, all because he didn’t wear earplugs.

Immediately after learning his tale I have taken ear protection on the gig, in the practice room, and behind the kit much more seriously.  I think we all should because hearing isn’t like other things in our life were you loose it for a little bit, retrain yourself and get it back.  Once you loose your hearing, any part of your hearing, it is gone forever.  Have you ever been at a loud rock concert and left with that ringing in your ear?  That is a sign of permanent hearing loss.  And if you don’t think playing drums is just as loud as a rock concert, have I got a wake-up call for you.  That China cymbal you bang away on alone is louder than a passenger jet taking off, and like my buddy it only takes on hit to change your life forever.

There are many types of hearing protection on the market.  You can use the disposable gummies you roll up with your finger and insert into the ear canal that cost a couple bucks.  There are the orange hard rubber ones that you twist in that you can buy at Wal*Mart for under ten bucks.  Finally for you serious folk there are the custom molded plugs that come with a choice of noise reduction, they call it attenuation, and I use a 15 reduction in my left (hi-hat ear) and 10 in my right.  This is what I use every time I sit behind the kit, or at a loud show.  

(Picture from http://hearnet.com/) 

Getting this protection was easy and pretty cheap.  I think I paid under $150 and they have lasted me for four years now of constant road use.   I visited a local audiologist who specialized in hearing aids; got a mold made and sent it into Westone http://www.westone.com/ and they did the rest.  At the same time I also purchased a set of their dual driver In-Ear Monitors, but that is a whole other post.

 

To learn more about hearing loss visit this great website on the subject.  http://hearnet.com/ , Westone has a wealth of information at http://www.westone.com/hearing/hearing-and-your-ears. I encourage all you serious drummers out there to start protecting your greatest asset today.  Before it’s too late.