Pay More Attention to Your Hearing Health

             Hearing perception

Hearing depends on the sound waves that travel slower than the light waves. Sound waves are created due to vibrating molecules generated due to changes in pressure. The sound waves have an influence on three features of sound pitch, timbre and loudness.

Loudness is dependable on amplitude of sound waves. The more the amplitude is the more will be the sound perceived. Amplitude can be measured in terms of decibels and the loudness is doubled with an increase of 10 decibels each time.

What does hearing perception mean? Hearing perception is present in almost all human being. When a sound is produced a person can perceive the loudness, the pitch, the distance, the direction and recognize whose voice it is. Perception means understanding what is there in the surrounding.

Hearing perception is a very important for a musician but it tends to get damaged due to the exposure to loud music all the time. It is important to be able to hear correctly to be able to communicate effectively.

For the music earplugs is an essential instrument for their talent. If a musician suffers even a minor hearing loss it will surely affect the perception of pitch and tone which is needed to perform. In certain extreme cases it may cause end of a musician’s career due to hearing loss.

If we are exposed to high level of noise throughout the day, it will result in causing fatigue to the ears and we will not be able to discriminate between the sounds which annoy us and the sounds we enjoy. The source could be loud instruments, a blender, jackhammer or a headset, which will have accumulative effect on us.

Eventually the ear will lose the ability to perceive anything and ultimately result to hearing issues.

There is a misconception that the sound goes down when we go through hearing loss. It is not so, hearing loss affects the high frequency range at first. In the beginning it becomes difficult to hear the sound of birds or children. For a musician it will be the sound of piccolo or flute that will be difficult to make out.

Another misconception is that hearing loss is physical nuisance. But it is all the more difficult to communicate which results in social isolation, depression and anxiety.

Musicians are specifically affected and are prone to loss of hearing. There is a long list of ear plugs for musicians who have lost their hearing capacity. The reason why they are affected so much is because:

• They are exposed to high level of noise for long durations.
• The ears get limited time to recover as the time between exposure to high pitched sound is short

Musicians are most affected by a medical condition known as tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a perception of sound in either both or one ear when there is no external sound. In general terms it is referred as ‘ringing in the ears’. People hear different types of sound like roaring, hissing, chirping or whistling. Tinnitus can be constant or intermittent with multiple or single tones and the volume perceived can also vary.