With football season well underway, it's an important time to re asses the safety of the music students in your life. Does your band kid need ear plugs? How quickly does noise exposure damage a child's hearing? And which band hearing protection is best, anyway?
Which Band Students are at Risk of Hearing Damage?
That depends on which band instruments are the loudest. The drumline might sound like the biggest contender, and for good reason: a snare line can easily sustain an intimidating 100dB of sound output. While it's generally safe for music students to practice for around 2-3 hours a day, at 100dB+ any musician is going to hit the limit of their safe daily sound exposure in under fifteen minutes. After that, hearing damage is imminent. And that damage is also cumulative over time, so it steals a little bit more of your ability to hear every day, week after week, year after year.
But despite their significant volume output, drums actually aren't the loudest standard marching band instrument.
Instead, blame the brass: the trombone and the trumpet are actually the most common offenders. Their volume peaks at around 110dB (trumpet) and an ear-blistering 115dB (trombone)! The pitch and quality of sound matters too, though. With their sharper, brighter sound, the relatively-quieter trumpets are often easier to hear than the trombones. So beware the brass, but also be warned that even quieter instruments can sound extremely loud - especially to the other musicians sitting right next to them and trying to focus.
Fun fact: The loudest instruments in the world aren't found anywhere in a marching band. They aren't even mobile! The carillon, a series of more than 20 bells that can be found in the bell towers of some churches, is an instrument so loud it can be heard over 6.8 miles away.
Do Musicians Suffer from Hearing Loss?
Yes, unfortunately, hearing loss is extremely common among musicians. A huge number of famous musicians from many different backgrounds, including Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, will.i.am, Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Martin, and Danny Eflman, all suffer from hearing loss and/or tinnitus from too much exposure to loud music. In some particularly tragic cases, hearing damage is a literal career-killer. Protecting a music student now will have a profound effect on his or her future.
Hearing protection is also critical for music instructors! Because they will likely have more exposure to dangerously loud sound than most music students, it is critical for these educators to start using hearing protection - and to start right away. The artist Grimes had to cancel an entire European tour due to tinnitus at just 26 years old; it doesn't take a lifetime for the damage to your ears to stack up. This is also exactly why students should start using hearing protection as early as possible.
What are the Best Ear Plugs for School Bands?
Finding the "best" band ear plugs can be tricky, because there are so many kinds of ear plugs available, and because everyone's ears are different. However, there are two good approaches here:
1 - Musician's Ear Plugs: low sound blocking, clear hearing
2 - Foam Ear Plugs: high sound blocking, muffled hearing
Musician's Ear Plugs will allow you to hear everything going on around you, including music. Unlike regular ear plugs, they contain special filters that lower the volume but won't muffle and distort the sound you hear, so music and voices stay clear. This lightweight, hi-fi noise blocking makes musician's earplugs perfect for both loud and quiet instruments, all the way from practice to performance. This is the type of hearing protection professional musicians rely on. So for band kids, music teachers, music students (and for students on the cheer squad or color guard, and for parents and siblings...), musician's ear plugs are the best band earplugs, hands down.
To find the perfect musician's ear plugs, I cannot recommend our School Band Ear Plug Pack highly enough. This assortment pack has six different pairs of ear plugs to try for under $8. The discount is nice (the pack costs 50% less than the plugs would cost individually), but the best part is getting a whole selection of band earplugs to try in one go. It's a big time-saver for busy families. This pack includes three different types of fairly inexpensive musician's ear plug to try out. It also contains three pairs of regular old foam ear plugs so you can try those, too, and compare.
Speaking of foam ear plugs, they are the most likely alternative to work for band kids who need even more hearing protection. Foam plugs muffle sound dramatically, so you won't be able to hear clearly while wearing them, and you will need to take them out to understand voices or have conversations. They will distort the music, blocking some frequencies more than others. However, the noise blocking capabilities of foam ear plugs really can't be beat. So when you need the maximum possible noise blocking, foam plugs are perfect. They are also super cheap and come in a variety of colors. The colors included in the band pack range from hi-viz red to low-profile beige, which could be important for self-conscious kids.
More Sophisticated Options
All of the earplugs recommended so far are quite inexpensive, and will work great for most music students and instructors. However, some musicians may have more exacting needs in terms of the quality of the sound they need to be able to hear while they play.
If fidelity is your primary concern, consider the following musician's plugs instead:
- Etymotic ETY-Plugs Hi-Fi Musician's Ear Plugs - well-known music ear plug from a prominent audio brand, always popular, tried-and-true, reasonably affordable
- Flare ISOLATE Solid Metal - Made of solid aluminum, these hot new concert ear plugs feature a super dense core that sound waves can't penetrate, unique and on-trend
- Crescendo Drummer/Vocals/Woodwind - These high-end musicians ear plugs are each specialized for a specific range and volume of music, for the most precise performance
Need More Info?
Looking for more information about band ear plugs, musician's hearing protection, or anything else hearing-related? We are here to help! Stop by on Facebook, write us at [email protected] with questions any time, or give us a call during business hours. A real person will answer.
Until next time, be safe... and do the right thing.
Tom Bergman, Vice President
Ear Plug Superstore
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