Music and Singing — Musicians Please Help!

Hi,

I’m a twenty year old student, I’m happy to give up clubbing and parties and whatever that’s fine with me - but I’m also in a band as a singer, and it means so much to me. I haven’t been able to do any rehearsals or recordings or anything since tinnitus onset 2 months ago (not long in the big scheme of things I know) and I don’t know what to do. I

can sing alone in my room as long as I don’t go full volume, but there’s no way I could do it into a mic with speakers etc or surrounded by instruments...

I’ve been told that my tinnitus will go away by five different doctors and one ENT but the ENT was the only one who actually took an interest. He told me I didn’t need to worry about loud noise or anything but I think he meant like traffic noise tc not music, because I didn’t specify.

Any musicians out there found a way to keep singing/recording (clearly can’t perform) without making things worse?

 

I keep playing my drums but I'm mindful of the volume that goes into my headphones. I avoid loud sounds and you probably should too.

 

Ask yourself what having loud tinnitus for the rest of your life would mean to you.

 

Bill, your comment hardly qualifies as advice - it just simply would cause someone to have a lot of despair thinking that they now have to give up completely their hobbies and interests that mean a lot to them.

I understand where you're coming from, but in my humble opinion you really need to rephrase your responses to this sort of thing - fearmongering without explanation does nobody any good.

 

I would say that you do need to be careful with loud sounds from here onwards, but don't let it completely stop you from doing what you love.

I got tinnitus from clubbing at uni last year and it felt like my life was over because I didn't go clubbing any more. But I still went (and go) to parties where there is loud music - I just wear earplugs if it gets too loud and take breaks away from the music.

In regards to your rehearsals and recordings, it might be worth investing in a good set of musicians' earplugs (so it doesn't affect how you hear your voice when you sing) and see how your ears hold up.

Then just make a decision from there about whether you want to continue with all your band activities, as you'll have a better idea about how your ears have responded after wearing the earplugs.

In case you aren't aware, tinnitus is extremely common for musicians and the vast majority continue their careers and continue performing even with the condition - people like Chris Martin, Plan B. I'm not saying you should go and do tons and tons of gigs at the frequency they would be doing gigs, but just thought I'd let you know that a lot of people continue to perform even with tinnitus.

 

If they don't want to listen to louder tinnitus for the rest of their lives (as payment for a couple of hours (less?!) of mild fun), then that is what I suggest they do. I have certainly done it, and intend to continue doing it. I began doing it a month in, I WISH someone were to tell me to do it when I first got tinnitus.

The way I see it, YOUR suggestion to act recklessly Hardly qualifies as advice.

In another thread, I provided GeorgiaRose with a bunch of links to horror stories of people acting recklessly and regretting it. So there is evidence that one might live to regret acting recklessly. I suggested that she weighs the potential cost and the certain benefit of acting recklessly and then acts accordingly. What part of this argument wasn't good enough, in your opinion?

 

Thanks for the advice yeah I don’t mind about clubs and parties and stuff I can easily live with that to be honest.... that’s interesting to know about those musicians though. I’ll have to weigh up whether I think it’s worth it or not...... I will definitely look into getting musicians ear plugs but I’m worri d about how expensive that can get

 

Stay away from loud noises, especially playing in bands with other musicians, use ear protection, but also see if you have some issues with stress in your life, as this is for me the major onset for T, not just noise. Tons of good vibes, Hans

 

A few hunderd euro's/pounds/dollars/oranges is dirt cheap if they can protect your ears.
I would give ten's of thousands to get back to my old ears, possible even more.

Even if you are a student, I'd eat dry bread for a month just to buy them.
But you get my point.

 

Haha I have to agree it’s worth it to be honest, dry bread it is

 

I have had an insanely emotionally stressful year and generally quite stressful so maybe I’ll ditch all the music and loud stuff for now and just focus on sorting my life out... thank you <3 xx

 

Hi Georgina,

Please try not to listen too much to what people have to say on this forum, for every good bit of advice there is 100 bits of bad advice. Im not saying anyone is right or wrong just everyone has different backgrounds, different beliefs and different way of coping with tinnitus. I decided to stop taking advice from this forum and instead have been a bit more selective with who i listen to, i only come on here from time to time to read the success stories.

Here are some great books im going through;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Tinnitus-Hyperacusis-David-Baguley/dp/B00RVNODSE

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tinnitus-R...8699&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=tinnitus+retraning

Check out the British tinnitus association website, give them a call anytime, the work they do is incredible.

https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/

I have also attended an information day organised by the British tinnitus association where presentation were given by a leading ENT specialist talking about the biology of tinnitus and psychiatrist Laurence McKenna (the guy who wrote one of the above book) on the psychological effects of tinnitus and how they can be overcome with TRT therapy. I recorded this on my phone and have the transcript if you would like it.

Im a gigging musician in my spare time, 33 and from a similar neck of the woods as you (Dorset) and here's the advice i currently give myself to live a normal life based upon the above;

• Relax have fun carry on doing all the things you did before but take precautions. Just be sensible around loud noises, if you think its loud use hearing protection, or leave the situation, i use;(https://www.bootshearingcareshop.com/PRODUCT/ACS_PRO27_HEARING_PROTECTOR_PAIR). ..Keys , wallet, phone ....ear plugs lol. I also wear them when i do my acoustic gigs, have been to a festival with them and attended a club.
• Soooooo many successful musicians , DJ's have tinnitus and have overcome it and still gig and love it, i dont see any reason why you or i shouldn't
• Just because we have tinnitus it doesn't mean we are more susceptible to damage from sound exposure than someone who hasn't, I asked this as a question at the information day and both leading experts confirmed this was true. When ever i stress i have overexposed my ears to normal situations that appear louder i ask myself "would that sound have bothered me before i experienced tinnitus" and the answer is no.
  
• I went through a phase of thinking my tinnitus must be louder than someone who isn't bothered by it, this doesn't seem to be the case. See quote from transcript "Patients say those who dont suffer must have easier tinnitus, better frequency, which is an appealing argument. That should be true. But it aint! The science doesn't support it. It would be easier if it did, but it doesn't. The relationship between any way of measuring tinnitus is difficult anyway, and whether people are distressed by it, it just doesn't work. What happens? The answer seems to lie in the field of psychology rather than field of biology".
• Lastly this is a great interview with a DJ i read it time and time again, it was written in 2008 but i think you will find if you google his FB he is currently on a world tour. https://www.trackitdown.net/news/show/102489.html

Ultimately whatever you do comes down to whatever you feel comfortable with and will give you peace of mind, but i think you will find the more you carry on doing what you were doing taking precautions with the correct knowledge the happier you will be. Hope that was helpful

Mark

 

Hi Georgina

It might be worth getting checked out by ENT and getting a baseline hearing test. The only problem is that standard clinical tests only test the speech frequency range (up to 8kHz).

Do you still have T?

You need to consider ear protection now whilst you are still young. Please look into getting some professional musician ear plugs made (e.g. at least with ER10 or ER15 protection) They reduce high frequency sounds (the most damaging) by 10-15dB. Harley Street Hearing in London do them for £100 (not sure if each, or a pair) but you may find somewhere more local to you.

Well worth the investment (and living on bread or baked beans) if you want to continue singing

 

Well, they don't have a clue do they.