Our ears are as equally precious as our hands – so why do we often overlook the damage we may incur on them? John Thwaites tells us to be cautious
Some years ago, Steven Osborne talked about living with 20 years of tinnitus, blaming it on ‘playing loud pianos in small rooms.’ Alfred Brendel was well on the way to deafness by his mid-50s. And Sviatoslav Richter eventually lost his ability to determine pitch. I know many pianists who suffer from some hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and/or hyperacusis (oversensitivity) – including myself. In the UK one in six people have some hearing loss, and it is expected that this will rise to one in five by 2031.
We know that brass and percussion can be dangerous to ears, but the dangers from pianos are underestimated, even though they are percussive and have a huge pitch range. Pianists are their own worst enemies since they are attracted to bigger pianos offering more tonal variety and interpretative flexibility. We want to teach on a piano designed for a small concert hall, and then have one at home too!
As with most health issues, undue worrying isn’t going to help. But the fact that most people’s hearing is robust, and that ears have considerable resilience, should not lead to complacency. If we consistently expose ourselves to dangerous levels of sound, then in every likelihood there will be a price to pay. And once the tiny hairs of the inner ear are damaged and ‘die’, there is no way to repair them, and they never recover. One of the most quoted aphorisms in this field is that ‘Noise induced hearing loss is 100% irreversible but is 100% preventable’ (Paul Checkley, Musicians’ Hearing Services). The moment one has noticeable on-going symptoms, then it is already too late. Prevention is better than cure – because there is no cure.
Measuring noise
Because this is a Health and Safety issue, there is legislation (The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005/8) which can help us to understand the risks. We have to think about the daily ‘dose’ of sound, which is both the amount of sound and for how long we are exposed to it. Sound is measured using the Decibel Scale (dB), and dB(A) gives a frequency weighted figure. Differing levels of risk are expressed by different Exposure Action Values (EAV), and each apply over an eight-hour period. The Lower EAV is 80 dB(A), the Upper EAV 85 dB(A), and the Exposure Limit Value 87 dB(A). There was a degree of pragmatism in the establishing of these values as evidence indicates that a prolonged exposure to 75 dB(A) may result in auditory injury. The
