Musician with Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

Hi,
I am brand new to the site and introducing myself. I am an electric bass player. I play mostly jazz and Latin music. I had had mild tinnitus for several years and then experienced a bump in its intensity this spring after a combination of a virus with sinus and ear involvement and an airplane flight with that virus along with the use of progesterone for hormone replacement. I noticed that each time I used the progesterone, the tinnitus would get louder and started doing some research on the effects of progesterone on tinnitus and hearing loss. It appears that there is a correlation. So I've stopped the progesterone. But the tinnitus is still at the same bumped up frequency.

I got a hearing test I have high frequency hearing loss in both ears, moderate. I am experiencing a lot of anxiety and depression over this hearing test result as well as the tinnitus. The biggest thing I'm anxious about is how to have a relationship with music and being a musician.

Anyway, mainly just wanted to reach out because I'm feeling so down but also wondering if anybody knows about either hormones and hearing loss/tinnitus or bass guitar and hearing loss/tinnitus.
Thanks so much.

 

Hi there,

welcome to this wonderful forum. Many people over here can share their experiences with you. Tinnitus is horrible and having anxiety and depression is also natural, it takes time but you can cope and adapt.

I don't play music instruments, but if i did...i'd for sure make sure my ears are protected.

Hope you feel better

 

Not a bass player, but a drummer. I have hearing loss and T. Ironically, it's not from the drums.
I keep playing, but I am very cautious about the volume I use (I have an e-kit). Playing is possibly the only activity that gets my mind off T.

 

@HM in California
Welcome to the forum. It is quite common for musicians to have tinnitus, as a google search of that will yield you a long list of familiar names. On this forum we also have many people involved with music to varying degree. One notable member @I who love music has had intrusive tinnitus for 40 years but he wrote the most read success story 'Back to silence' on our forum. You can read up his story to learn a simple method to help tame T. Many people have been benefited by this so give it a good read. Take care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/

Not all musicians/singers with T have to stop their career. Some do manage to thrive on their career after tinnitus. One such example is the pretty jazz singer Melody Gardot who have thrived after T with a booming singing career doing shows all over the world. She often has to wear ear protection due to tinnitus and also hyperacusis. Here is a video of her doing a beautiful song in a show with David Letterman who himself has a 2 toned tinnitus 7/24. I also include the link to a show done by David Letterman talking about his T with William Shatner (Star Trek Captain Kirk) who also has had bad T due to an unexpected explosion while filming an episode of Star Trek.

Melody Gardot: Who Will Comfort Me? on David...

David Letterman with William Shatner - March,...

 

Welcome to TT.com. I'm a guitarist and a singer who has tinnitus. I have ultra high frequency hearing loss after a concert and T which is only remedied by music (ironically). It sucks that our passion can cause us this much discomfort. There many resources that you can use at your disposal, like the TT Audio Player (it's saved me on multiple occasions).

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know know.