jdane, I am a professional orchestral player, and I don’t wear ear plugs anymore.
A good attitude apparently helps, when it comes to hearing loss.
A German study of hearing loss in orchestra musicians found that if the musician had a negative feeling towards the repertoire being played, more often, than players who liked the repertoire more often, the negative emotion players suffered much greater levels of hearing loss than the positive feelings players.
I imagine it has much to do with stress hormones being produced when in a negative mood, which probably make the ear cells and cilia more brittle and less resilient to sudden transients like timpani blasts, but I am not sure of the details.
A good attitude apparently helps, when it comes to hearing loss.
A German study of hearing loss in orchestra musicians found that if the musician had a negative feeling towards the repertoire being played, more often, than players who liked the repertoire more often, the negative emotion players suffered much greater levels of hearing loss than the positive feelings players.
I imagine it has much to do with stress hormones being produced when in a negative mood, which probably make the ear cells and cilia more brittle and less resilient to sudden transients like timpani blasts, but I am not sure of the details.