Does anyone here suffer from tinnitus or intolerance of noise ('hyperacusis')? I found out some very interesting, and probably life-altering, information about those phenomena the other day. I have a hunch that musicians a) suffer those conditions proportionately more than non-musicians, and b) notice them more acutely - because they are paying more attention to what they hear. Which is why I thought I'd share some of this info with you all, even though it's nowt to do with The Music specifically.
One of the interesting things is that the a) and b) listed above turn out to be the same thing - as these are phenomena of perception, and not really the ear's responsibility at all, but the brain's. The good news is that you can apparently re-train your neural pathways and overcome them; the bad news is that to do that properly and with assistance probably costs truckloads. However, I think just reading the information is helpful. I'm now determined to 're-train' away my near-psychotic hatred of certain sounds, and give up ear-plugs. Except for when I go to see Motorhead...
So, here's a link for info - read the stuff on hyperacusis, if you have trouble dealing with intrusive noise in your life. I'd never heard of it before and it was a revelation to me. http://www.tinnitus.org
If you don't have tinnitus yourself, you're bound to know someone that does.
Helen, nothing to do with earache, just wondering if you were the Helen Roche who sang that lovely version of 'You Rambling Boys of Pleasure' at the session in the Herschell Arms last night!! If not, you have a namesake who is singing at sessions in England at the moment.
Well, I'm glad it didn't make your ears bleed! Yes, that was me. Which one were you? That was my first visit to the Herschel, I was stunned by the hospitality I must say. It was a lovely session all round, I was just sorry I had to leave so early to get my train back to London. If you're a regular there, please tell Mr Tom King how much I appreciated his kindness.
Not exactly tinnitus, but I'm just after a dose of otitis media, but which gave me tinnitus as a side effect. That's a middle ear infection if you're not a doctor or a Roman.
Or not necessarily an infection but gunk going from the nose (post-viral infection) to the middle ear along the Eustachian tube.
That was for nearly five weeks and was really horrible, especially going to sessions, although I was told it didn't affect my playing.
Actually, maybe this post should go in that worst compliments page....
Anyway, it's near enough gone now, so I've got no excuse for not practicing.
Not really tinnitus, but possibly a related phenomenon. Came back from a holiday in Hungary yesterday and after my flight from Munich landed at Bristol in the late afternoon I went completely deaf in my left ear for several hours, presumably due to pressure changes during the descent. This was quite unexpected since it's never happened to me before with air travel and I'm not suffering from a cold or its aftermath. Thankfully, after a good night's rest everything's back to normal and I was able to play cello in an orchestra rehearsal this evening (Tuesday) with no problems, but I certainly wouldn't have been able to play cello or fiddle on the Monday evening.
I do have a certain amount of age-related high-frequency hearing loss - I can no longer hear bats, for example This, however, has its compensations: I don't have to spend a small fortune on audio equipment to hear those ultra-high frequencies which the sales person in the audio store assures me are absolutely essential to the enjoyment and appreciation of music. In fact, signal-to-noise ratio is usually far more important than frequency response per se, and the brain can provide the missing frequencies, both high and low, if required.
Helen, thank you so much for drawing attention to the tinnitus site. It's fascinating and useful reading - although I don't have a level of tinnitus that disturbs me in any way.
Not really connected but occasionally when I get a build up of wax (I think) in my right ear, I get a buzzing sound in my ear when I play the B note (on the e string) on my fiddle. It's usually B or very close. It's quite irritating, must wash my ears out more often!
Helen, my girlfriend and I were standing behind you at the bar; my cousin Paul was playing the banjo two seats up to your right. We left the bar just as Tom was driving you to the railway station. He is most certainly The Host With The Most.
i was about 40% deaf as a child, and as a result of treatment on my ears, i now have tinnitus. sometimes its deafening and i cant sleep or think properly. i didnt realise it was such a big problem for people as it is, thanks helen for the information.
Paul, see you at the Herschel again sometime! I remember you and your girlfriend, you said 'bye' as I was getting in the car. And it was your cousin that sang the 'Bomb Iraq' song?
*note to everybody else: it was satirical...
Actually, as an afterthought, maybe it can be applied to us: grumpy session leaders not wanting to tolerate the noise of 10 guitars, 5 bodhrans, saxes, recorders, bongos, eggs & spoons....
I suppose, Cuch, that someone who is engaged in thought is more likely to object to distracting clamour, whereas someone who doesn't have a train of thought is less likely to mind. And I can see how this would relate to someone's 'level of intelligence', by any common definition of intelligence...
But in spite of my irrationally extreme loathing of sounds like rustling crisp packets/bleeping microwaves/sirens/dodgy brakes, there is also a dufus-brained teenager lurking within, who loves LOUD ROCK'N'ROLL! I wasn't joking about Motorhead, I think they're great live... so this is obviously a highly selective thing.
Many years ago, when I was sitting some important exams in London I was unfortunate to be in a large room immediately above a hall being used on that day for rehearsals by the London Symphony Orchestra. I have never experienced anything so distracting, before or since. If there had been noisy building works going on outside that wouldn't have bothered me at all, neither would the sound of heavy traffic (and there was that anyway). But music, of all things!
Generally, I cannot tolerate background music, of any sort, if I need to concentrate hard (eg on studying, drafting a document, etc). I suppose this must be a specific instance of hyperacusis. Do other musicians experience this as well?
Like Trevor, I hate to have music on while trying to do anything else with my brain. At work though, I've sometimes found the noise and chatter in the office so distracting that I've had to listen to music in order to blot it out, and *then* have the extra strain of working with about a quarter of my brain disabled by the music. I found that the best ploy was to have a few CDs that I used for this purpose so that they became so familiar that I could half ignore them. They also have to have quite a consistant, rich sound-texture (i.e. no gaps or quiet bits) and a driving pace - and definately no singing in English, or my concentration goes kaput instantly. Recent favourites for this purpose were a Khaled CD, all the fast tunes from the Long Grazing Acre, and The Given Note by Liam O'Flynn (minus the songs). I used to work next to a talkative dragon with a very shrill voice... pipes plus instrumentation were the ideal combination for drowning her out.
But I always felt like saying 'sorry Paddy... sorry Liam...' when I used them for aural wallpaper.
Danny, Hitler didn't hijack 'em, just hitched a ride. And even the devil can quote the scriptures...
Aural wallpaper -- I like that. In fact, I'm going to borrow the phrase, Helen, and when people tell me it's clever, I'm going to say, "Thank you!"
You guys wait till you've got an eleven-year-old pre-teen daughter, now an authority on all sorts of - I don't know - do they call it pop nowadays? Grungies and Townies stuff....
Then again, she (pretends to) hate The Music.
Handy on the piano, though...
Well, I will graciously allow you to use it, then, Cuch. If I can borrow 'even the Devil can quote the scriptures', since it's such a convenient all-purpose repost.
I have tinnitus and trace it back to working under massive banks of flourecent lighting and the white
noise leaving a brain imprint. So i function well in shopping centers and silence is not golden it
wont kill me, but penny whistles might.
Helen, thanks for the link. I suffer a quadrouple whammy: high-frequency hearing loss, autophony, tinnitus, and patulous eustacean tubes. I've abandoned all the explanations of "why" I've inherited these problems. Now I focus on "How do I learn to have some victory over them?" The worst is waking each day ... the still dawn is lorded over by the incessant ring ...
Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Does anyone here suffer from tinnitus or intolerance of noise ('hyperacusis')? I found out some very interesting, and probably life-altering, information about those phenomena the other day. I have a hunch that musicians a) suffer those conditions proportionately more than non-musicians, and b) notice them more acutely - because they are paying more attention to what they hear. Which is why I thought I'd share some of this info with you all, even though it's nowt to do with The Music specifically.
One of the interesting things is that the a) and b) listed above turn out to be the same thing - as these are phenomena of perception, and not really the ear's responsibility at all, but the brain's. The good news is that you can apparently re-train your neural pathways and overcome them; the bad news is that to do that properly and with assistance probably costs truckloads. However, I think just reading the information is helpful. I'm now determined to 're-train' away my near-psychotic hatred of certain sounds, and give up ear-plugs. Except for when I go to see Motorhead...
So, here's a link for info - read the stuff on hyperacusis, if you have trouble dealing with intrusive noise in your life. I'd never heard of it before and it was a revelation to me.
http://www.tinnitus.org
If you don't have tinnitus yourself, you're bound to know someone that does.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Helen, nothing to do with earache, just wondering if you were the Helen Roche who sang that lovely version of 'You Rambling Boys of Pleasure' at the session in the Herschell Arms last night!! If not, you have a namesake who is singing at sessions in England at the moment.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by sergeant fox
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Well, I'm glad it didn't make your ears bleed! Yes, that was me. Which one were you? That was my first visit to the Herschel, I was stunned by the hospitality I must say. It was a lovely session all round, I was just sorry I had to leave so early to get my train back to London. If you're a regular there, please tell Mr Tom King how much I appreciated his kindness.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Not exactly tinnitus, but I'm just after a dose of otitis media, but which gave me tinnitus as a side effect. That's a middle ear infection if you're not a doctor or a Roman.
Or not necessarily an infection but gunk going from the nose (post-viral infection) to the middle ear along the Eustachian tube.
That was for nearly five weeks and was really horrible, especially going to sessions, although I was told it didn't affect my playing.
Actually, maybe this post should go in that worst compliments page....
Anyway, it's near enough gone now, so I've got no excuse for not practicing.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Not really tinnitus, but possibly a related phenomenon. Came back from a holiday in Hungary yesterday and after my flight from Munich landed at Bristol in the late afternoon I went completely deaf in my left ear for several hours, presumably due to pressure changes during the descent. This was quite unexpected since it's never happened to me before with air travel and I'm not suffering from a cold or its aftermath. Thankfully, after a good night's rest everything's back to normal and I was able to play cello in an orchestra rehearsal this evening (Tuesday) with no problems, but I certainly wouldn't have been able to play cello or fiddle on the Monday evening.
This, however, has its compensations: I don't have to spend a small fortune on audio equipment to hear those ultra-high frequencies which the sales person in the audio store assures me are absolutely essential to the enjoyment and appreciation of music. In fact, signal-to-noise ratio is usually far more important than frequency response per se, and the brain can provide the missing frequencies, both high and low, if required.
I do have a certain amount of age-related high-frequency hearing loss - I can no longer hear bats, for example
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
I didn't think anyone could hear bats much past their early teenage years. Well, except maybe fruit bats... I expect they're fairly noisy...
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Helen, my punctuation after "for example" is relevant!
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Helen, thank you so much for drawing attention to the tinnitus site. It's fascinating and useful reading - although I don't have a level of tinnitus that disturbs me in any way.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Not really connected but occasionally when I get a build up of wax (I think) in my right ear, I get a buzzing sound in my ear when I play the B note (on the e string) on my fiddle. It's usually B or very close. It's quite irritating, must wash my ears out more often!
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Daver
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Helen, my girlfriend and I were standing behind you at the bar; my cousin Paul was playing the banjo two seats up to your right. We left the bar just as Tom was driving you to the railway station. He is most certainly The Host With The Most.
Hope to see you there again sometime.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by sergeant fox
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
i was about 40% deaf as a child, and as a result of treatment on my ears, i now have tinnitus. sometimes its deafening and i cant sleep or think properly. i didnt realise it was such a big problem for people as it is, thanks helen for the information.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by bunyip
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Paul, see you at the Herschel again sometime! I remember you and your girlfriend, you said 'bye' as I was getting in the car. And it was your cousin that sang the 'Bomb Iraq' song?
*note to everybody else: it was satirical...
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Was it Nietzsche who said a person's level of intelligence is in inverse proportion to his/her ability to tolerate noise?
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by cuchulain54
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
I feel tempted to agree with you Cuch, but didn't Adolf Hitler hijack Nietzche's ideas about a small number of superior types leading the masses?
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Actually, as an afterthought, maybe it can be applied to us: grumpy session leaders not wanting to tolerate the noise of 10 guitars, 5 bodhrans, saxes, recorders, bongos, eggs & spoons....
Hell. I'm jumping threads again.
Bad habit to get into.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
I suppose, Cuch, that someone who is engaged in thought is more likely to object to distracting clamour, whereas someone who doesn't have a train of thought is less likely to mind. And I can see how this would relate to someone's 'level of intelligence', by any common definition of intelligence...
But in spite of my irrationally extreme loathing of sounds like rustling crisp packets/bleeping microwaves/sirens/dodgy brakes, there is also a dufus-brained teenager lurking within, who loves LOUD ROCK'N'ROLL! I wasn't joking about Motorhead, I think they're great live... so this is obviously a highly selective thing.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Many years ago, when I was sitting some important exams in London I was unfortunate to be in a large room immediately above a hall being used on that day for rehearsals by the London Symphony Orchestra. I have never experienced anything so distracting, before or since. If there had been noisy building works going on outside that wouldn't have bothered me at all, neither would the sound of heavy traffic (and there was that anyway). But music, of all things!
Generally, I cannot tolerate background music, of any sort, if I need to concentrate hard (eg on studying, drafting a document, etc). I suppose this must be a specific instance of hyperacusis. Do other musicians experience this as well?
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Like Trevor, I hate to have music on while trying to do anything else with my brain. At work though, I've sometimes found the noise and chatter in the office so distracting that I've had to listen to music in order to blot it out, and *then* have the extra strain of working with about a quarter of my brain disabled by the music. I found that the best ploy was to have a few CDs that I used for this purpose so that they became so familiar that I could half ignore them. They also have to have quite a consistant, rich sound-texture (i.e. no gaps or quiet bits) and a driving pace - and definately no singing in English, or my concentration goes kaput instantly. Recent favourites for this purpose were a Khaled CD, all the fast tunes from the Long Grazing Acre, and The Given Note by Liam O'Flynn (minus the songs). I used to work next to a talkative dragon with a very shrill voice... pipes plus instrumentation were the ideal combination for drowning her out.
But I always felt like saying 'sorry Paddy... sorry Liam...' when I used them for aural wallpaper.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Danny, Hitler didn't hijack 'em, just hitched a ride. And even the devil can quote the scriptures...
Aural wallpaper -- I like that. In fact, I'm going to borrow the phrase, Helen, and when people tell me it's clever, I'm going to say, "Thank you!"
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by cuchulain54
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
You guys wait till you've got an eleven-year-old pre-teen daughter, now an authority on all sorts of - I don't know - do they call it pop nowadays? Grungies and Townies stuff....
Then again, she (pretends to) hate The Music.
Handy on the piano, though...
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Well, I will graciously allow you to use it, then, Cuch. If I can borrow 'even the Devil can quote the scriptures', since it's such a convenient all-purpose repost.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Nell
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Alas, mine's not original.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by cuchulain54
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
I have tinnitus and trace it back to working under massive banks of flourecent lighting and the white
noise leaving a brain imprint. So i function well in shopping centers and silence is not golden it
wont kill me, but penny whistles might.
# Posted on March 15th 2003 by Bryan
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Helen, thanks for the link. I suffer a quadrouple whammy: high-frequency hearing loss, autophony, tinnitus, and patulous eustacean tubes. I've abandoned all the explanations of "why" I've inherited these problems. Now I focus on "How do I learn to have some victory over them?" The worst is waking each day ... the still dawn is lorded over by the incessant ring ...
# Posted on March 26th 2003 by CharlesEHunt
Re: Tinnitus and low tolerance of noise
Folks,
Here are 2 links of tinnitus therapies :
<http://www.toolsforwellness.com/ce301.html>;
<http://www.toolsforwellness.com/index.html?gclid=CPbN1fzGy5ICFRr7lgodXDsbbA>;
# Posted on April 8th 2008 by Pete Goehring