I Want to Play Gigs Again

This is a question I'm abit weary of asking on here . At what point do I give up playing live music for this sound in my head. I have taken time off playing gigs about 6 months to be honest . My T isn't from acoustic trauma or playing music to loud it's from cipro both ENTS I have been to have assured me it is . My audiologist has told me he can't see why I can't keep playing . I have no hearing damage through normals 8k and down I can hear to about 17000 hz both ears I have a small drop around the 14000 but I dunno if i have always had that . I would say the t I have is loud I here it all day . But fuck do I just stop making excuses onwhy I can't play gigs and just play them with ear protection .

 

This is a question im asking myself... All my friends want to jam again with me and im fuckin scared... My T is like the point where its gone where before i would hear eeeee when i put my head on the pillow and past few months it faded more and i barely hear it now.. Still there cause when i wear earplugs it sounds like a hum but otherwise for example the crickets outside my window mask it when im in a silent room... Now do i take my chance wearin earplugs or no? Idk what to tell you but since yours wasnt noise induced you atleast have that goin for you... And alot of famous people with T continue to play.. Afterall i have a feeling were all gona get treated/cured sooner then later so why not. If you feel ready then try it a few times.. If you feel comfortable then continue. I just cant seem to get myself in a room with a plugged in guitar and amp.. Just thinkin bout it gives me anxiety (thats how i got the T) but thats me. I dont know if thats a phobia but for some reason when im on klonopin it changes my neggative thinking to positive and i feel like i could play while on that.. First time i do i will have to take a couple...(with earplugs and ear muffs ofcorse)

 

I have thousands of dollars worth of gear and it sitting there makes me sad sure I still play acoustically sometimes but gahhhhh I think you should just get some muso ear plugs and play grace . Or the fact that yours is going away hold off on the electric jams abit longer . Unfortunately I hear it non stop both ears right more than all day everyday

 

I do not want to be a downer but about a month ago I got two awesome weeks (which obviously is nothing) and I decided to pay a live set since I was getting so much better ( yes, i am stupid and in a hurry to get back to my former life). I was wearing earplugs but still had a major relapse and a few exruciating days after that , still recovering actually. I personally have decided to stop playing live , for quite while at least if not for good.
It sucks , but it was not worth it by a longshot.

Especially try and give it more time if you are in fact getting better..thats my advice.

 

Wow it's great to hear how quiet your T has gotten!

 

I miss playing gigs and jamming too but I'm staying away from it for a good while before I see where I stand with T. I'd advise to continue playing acoustically for the moment.

 

The issue is with that about the whole habituation thing if you continue to keep you from
Doing shit it always will . Look at Paul tobey that guy has chronic tinnitus and he still plays concerts

 

Hmmm it is definitely an interesting thing as I know 2 very good friends of mine that both have tinnitus one due to ototoxic medication from when he was a kid and noise damage.from playing drums and industrial damage and the other just industrial
Damage and they still play .

 

I still play, i got an electronic drumset so it definally satisfies me lol but you know its the peer pressure from friends cause they have NO FUCKIN idea what T is or that it stays permanent once you get it. They wanna plug that shit in to an amp and plug in a guitar so we can jam and honestly if i was in a bigass concert spot i would but the room where i got my T is tiny and not worth it. I like controllin the volume and still bang the shit outta it i dont need it loud cause ive learned my lesson.

 

Hell yeah, tons of people play... The difference between them and us is that we care and have anxiety over it and they just dont care and continue on... Idk whats better though cause i feel it will cause a spike for them eventually.. Maybe not (chris martin from coldplay says his hasnt got worse in the ten years hes had it with protecting his ears) but we think bout it gettin worse, and they dont or dont as often. No one knows what will happen, i try and think i live one life and i wanna live it freely and happy but this really does cause the most anxiety ive ever had in my life cause it can effect almost everything. Then again i have horrible anxiety and thats why i think like that. I try and be optimistic that this will be cured soon cause it looks really like were really headed in a good direction cure/treatment-wise

 

Yeah it was quiet to begin with--after the two days of hell with loud T--- but ive been monitorin it since then and its mostly just gone at this point i really only hear it if its like dead silence in the car in the morning and its stil just a high hiss. I change my opinion on the sounds so much cause i cant hear it so when i put earplugs in i hear it then and its a tv hum with crickets and jingle bells but i know theres deff 3 sounds in there. And i know its not going away it never will.. This is the best it will get i know that and im perfectly fine with it cause its practically gone, but im just so worried about the future still cause once you have T, its there for good although if most peoples dropped down to mine they would think its cured but i know its not and im at least gonna be smart in not abusing music to loud again.

 

I play guitar at home. I don't know why you can't continue to enjoy your music.

I'd like to believe better musicians don't need to blast it.
Music can be about expression, dynamics, articulation, execution, performance, style, etc.
I just don’t need to blast it anymore, and I still enjoy all types of music, new and old.

 

I

is your T noise induced?

 

In reply @Grace. Yes, a lifetime of noise and age were probably big factors to my Tinnitus.
Maybe other factors too. Perhaps stress as my ENT mentioned. To this day, I can't pinpoint the cause.

 

I just wanna play gigs don't care how loud

 

Then go for it!! Try one gig and see how you feel

 

If you want to play gigs, then do it. It's important to be happy and not let tinnitus get the way of your passion.

You have to be smart about it though, always take precautions and take things very slowly. Start with one gig and see how you feel, then move on from there.

Always wear your ear plugs (or use in ear monitors) when performing live, if you're on a live PA then make sure you have at least -25db of attenuation. If you're doing smaller acoustic type gigs then adjust. Position yourself away from monitors and the drums as best possible. Take breaks if you can. Don't run your gear into the red and distort it to shit like 90% of most musicians and sound engineers tend to do, dynamics are important for music and important for our hearing.

You can also take other precautions and begin to supplement with things like NAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine), magnesium, B12 and melatonin - there's a bunch more that you can do research into. I would highly recommend using at least NAC and magnesium (avoid the oxide form due to very limited bio-availability) before and after gigs because there's significant clinical data showing that they are very effective at reducing hearing damage. Make sure you have a healthy diet and that you're getting plenty of exercise and sleep. It sounds silly but all these things play a role in how well your body recovers when exposed to loud noise.

If something unfortunate happens (eg. amp explodes or something) and you're exposed to noise that you know has done a very significant amount of damage to your hearing (increased tinnitus, ear pain, hearing loss) - get on an oral course of a corticosteroid like prednisolone as soon as possible. My doctor is pretty trusting of me and I have a script handy if there is ever a huge emergency, definitely helped me out of a couple jams the past couple of years.

I would only really advise against playing a gig if you currently have hyperacusis, take a break until it resolves. It's very rarely chronic and goes away with time, but it's important not to over work your ears because that will prolong it, this is coming from my own experience with it.

Good luck, take things slow and have fun!

 

Rationally speaking even if you didn't have tinnitus right now playing loud music still damages your ears so most likely you would develop hearing loss anyway. Given that you have tinnitus I believe it would get louder eventually too. However I agree with the above mentioned that playing doesn't mean deafening music - you could play at reasonable levels. I would still advise you to get custom made plugs and find filters as strong as possible.
And about your doctor - when I asked my doctor (he is around 70 I think) whether I should wear plugs to for example the opera he said no. However I have been to the opera post-tinnitus and without plugs I think it would have been too loud. So doctors are not always that familiar with noise levels and protection.

 

I stopped riding my bike after I got tinnitus. Scared to make it worse. The next season I riding again. first for 15 minutes, than half hours etc etc. I experimented with different types of helmets, earplugs and windscreens. I bought an in helmet audio system so I can listen to music. I use the music volume as a noise reference level. In this way I could easily get assurance that if I can hear/understand the voices the noise in the helmet is not to loud, simply because I adjust the music volume at zero speed (e.g. no wind noise).

My advice....start experimenting. Be prepared to invest in earplugs. Have something around that U can use to judge the noise levels you experiencing. Be careful with alcohol, it will cloud your judgement and you might end up make very stupid mistakes! Be prepared to leave if it is to loud (with social pressure this might actually be difficult).

Other than that....just start playing!

 

Get a good set of musicians ear plugs if you really want to start playing again. Look at the amount of musicians that have been playing for years and don't have tinnitus due to the fact they protect their hearing correctly. It's expensive but a good investment if you want to pursue music!

 

I would wait . You can frame it like this " I want play live again" or .. you could frame it like this .
"I want to stand between two speakers on full blast for 40 minutes with my sore ears that have been ruining my life"

I made this mistake so..

 

What kind of plugs were you using when you had your gig and spike there after?

 

Thanks mate that's the one I'm looking for

 

Andrew, I agree with @yonkapin, I play gigs every weekend that are 4 hours long and the mean DB(A) rating for our pop sets is 95-101 Db. I use the musician plugs which attenuate a MINIMUM of 20 db and are overall a 25b NR. They're the ER25 filters and I also use a compressor on my bass and try not to stand in the way of the drums (if i can). Don't give up playing gigs, you're be fine with good CUSTOM plugs. Just feel it out man. You'll be ok either way.

 

Thanks guys

 

I've been a professional musician since the age of 19. I'm now 62. The entire music industry is a different animal these days with gigs about as abundant as rich people. There simply aren't that many these days following the housing bubble and market downturn. Businesses are struggling to survive. But, for me, I'm finding work outside the usual club settings. Restaurants have been using my brother and me for the past five years now, and we like that we aren't any longer around noise, either the kind that comes from full bands or patrons. The venues we now play are quiet and, as I see it, demand more from us in regard to melodic ability rather than the use of sound effects which we never quite liked in the first place. About all we use these days are reverb and some delay. The old unit Chet Atkins played through called an Echoplex would be ideal for our sound, but finding one in the best condition is not easy, and at an affordable price.

These days, we play a restaurant with the intent of increasing their patronage, but because they are too limiting in their use of us during only the slowest nights, we haven't been able to increase their numbers like we would if they would allow us to play during their busiest time, Sundays after churches are closed. Giving that crowd a taste of what we do would bring them out in the middle of the week, I'm certain of it, but they don't want to give up the four to six chairs they would lose to give us space to set up. Truth is, we need so little space since all we take inside are a Phil Jones Briefcase bass amp, my bass, and a Cube amp for Denny's Guild guitar through which he plays his melodic leads. We sing, but without a PA system, which we like best. Carrying in a full PA system isn't something we enjoy anymore.

For several restaurants, the moment we began to pack their dining halls with patrons, they said they now wanted those six chairs back so more tips could be made. Use and abuse is about they way of it. But for this present business where we play, if they don't do more advertising, I think they'll lose us and the increased patronage they could have had had they listened to me.

Our music is so low key we don't worry at all about using earplugs. It's only when we performed in full bands, when monitors were in your faces, that we used them, which took away all the excitement. Plugs practically destroy the feel of the evening, with vocals resounding in one's head and little attachment to the rest of the group exists. And yet, the plugs are necessary.

 

If I were you I wouldn't do it... my tinnitus is basically cured and I will never go to another live concert ever again; this "keep living your life" idea expoused by all tinnitus therapy clinicians is dangerous when applied to musicians (even when plugging up)... its great advice for 99% of life activities, but not for playing live music

 

If your t was caused by cipro and you sustained no hearing loss or hyperacusis (sound sensitivity), there is no reason you shouldn't start playing again with musicians' earplugs. As others have said - try one gig. You may be pleasantly surprised. If, for some reason, your t is aggravated, start acoustic and work your way forward.
Many many musicians with t continue on with their music.
The greatest therapy - music and distraction.

 

I play gigs, my tinnitus have not got any worse or better. I use custom earplugs with 25 dB filters because my threshold of pain has reduced to 90 dBA. Do some experimenting, start slowly, you will find your way.

All the best,
-J

 

When your an actual musician which basically means its your life, its hard to tell someone to quit that forever. Theres no reason anyone has to quit playing music. Tons with T play. Ozzy ozbourne is basically deaf cause he says his T is soo loud yet continues to play.. Tons others. Its basically a self choice. I will tell you one thing tho.. My T is basically cured like yours except i didnt take meds it just naturally faded away gone mostly and i sit here day by day worrying about a noise that could return/or my current unaudible noise could ramp up but the difference is now and before is i wear ear protection, and i didnt before so if anyone with T wants to start to play again then take it slow find whats confortable for you and take it from there. Im gonna start with a quiet jam session when im ready.