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I
get an email every now and then from someone asking me about their
ears ringing after a good workout on the banjo and some folks were
worried about hearing damage. Thanks for asking, it's pretty
relevant in the banjo world as they are one of the loudest
acoustical instruments around. In both the U.S. and Canada the
government folks who look after safety in the work place compel
employers to make employees wear hearing protection when sound
levels exceed 85 dBA - a volume many high end banjos can beat pants
down, so let's keep that number in mind and take a closer look. Oh,
this 85 dBA number is a number "they" have picked as a "safe" volume
level - there are those who disagree...
Some
of the "better" banjos can produce some pretty impressive sound
volumes - while laying into the strings real good, I've clocked some
of them at around 93~94 dBA when I got all wound up. The loudest
I've ever heard was an archtop cranking out an incredible 98 dBA.
Keep in mind, the decibel numbers are supposed to be measured at a
distance of 1 meter (a smidgen over 3 feet) from the sound source,
using the A weighted scale. In other words, the sound level meter is
pointed towards the banjo and therefore measures the sound that is
projected away from the banjo.
All
in all, your ears might be doing some serious overtime while playing
banjo. Sometimes, when things get too much, your ears could be
ringing for a while. If it fades away when you're done playing,
whether after a few minutes or after an hour or two, then it is not
permanent. It's actually quite common and there's even a proper
medical name for it: disco tinnitus (yeah, really eh...). If this
applies to you then you might wanna take your time reading this
article and maybe take some of my ramblings to heart - they're on a
for-what-ever-it's-worth basis. One thing to keep in mind though:
continued over-exposure to loud sounds is accumulative as far as
hearing damage is concerned.
It
isn't very common to have anyone sit only one meter away from you to
listen to you play so for practical purposes, what we need to
consider is the player's banjo-to-ear distance. For most banjoeys
this is approximately 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 feet) - considerably
closer than the 1 meter standard measuring distance. Fortunately of
course, most of the sound is directed away from the banjo player
because of the resonator (if your banjo has one) directs the sound
away from you and/or is partially absorbed by clothing (and/or beer
bellies...) so not all of the decibels reach your ear. Or do
they..?
So
how many decibels could you expect to actually reach your ear? Time
to put a fresh battery into Mr. Soundlevel Meter and find out. For
the first reading the meter at mid-banjo level, pointing it straight
at the banjo, "facing" at a measured distance of one meter. For the
second number set the meter was still at 1 meter distance, but spun
around and ponting AWAY from the banjo. The third number set was at
ear level making sure the microphone pointed horizontally so it
could pick up the sound at approximately the same angle your ears
would, banjo to ear ("B2E"). Using the A weighting and slow response
settings for 'average' volume levels at a distance of 1 meter, here
are the numbers I came up with while picking a tune at a comfortable
pace, kinda leaning the strings using one of my favourite bridges
and waddaya know, I even wore my finger picks (for a change...) for
this special occasion:
|
Banjo |
Peak
facing |
Average
facing |
Peak
Away |
Average
Away |
Peak
B2E |
Average
B2E |
|
Fender
Leo |
94 |
83 |
89 |
80 |
97 |
84 |
|
Ode,
model D |
97 |
85 |
92 |
82 |
96 |
86 |
Means
to me, hmmm, something to be said for not going full throttle all
the time, certainly a greater number of decibels reaching my ears
than I had expected... Sure showed me that a sufficient number of
decibels survived clothing absorption etc. Keep in mind, coming up
with these numbers didn't require a great deal of experimenting and
the results can easily be duplicated by anyone who knows how to work
the on/off switch of a sound level meter.
A
couple of things I'd be concerned about and you should take care to
avoid: at a sit-down jam when there aren't not enough chairs, some
players stand directly behind the musicians sitting down and play
their instrument right into their ears. This is not only really
annoying for the folks in front of you but potentially dangerous,
especially when the weapon of choice is a banjo. Another one to keep
your eye on is when you're doing your stuff to entertain kids.
Imagine a nice picturesque Norman Rockwell kinda scene: a dad
sitting in his favourite ugly chair, the kiddies at his feet asking
"play us a nice song daddy please." Dad gleefully agrees and kicks
off a full-throttle 95+ dBA version of the FMB straight into their
tiny still-developing ears. You do the math...
When
are you at [potential] risk? A good clue is when your ears ring for
a while after a hot and heavy picking session. If/when this happens,
as it does to a lot of musicians, it's time to put the banjo down
for a while and go have yourself a coffee or something - give your
ears a bit of rest. When you resume playing, scale down on the
volume. Don't pick as hard, turf the picks,
whatever.
Immediate
danger to a banjoey's ear? Maybe. Maybe not. Be sure to keep an eye
on common sense but do realize that the effects of over-exposure to
loud sounds are accumulative and the potential for hearing loss
could become more than simply a possibility. As well, when your ears
ring for a while after playing, the chance of tinnitus ("ringing in
the ears") becoming a regular guest in your life dramatically
increases. In the tinnitus world, the standard answer to the
question "when is loud too loud?" is: when you have to raise your
voice to be heard - this simply is a good rule of thumb to be
applied by anybody, anytime, anywhere.
What
if you have or you are worried that you might get, hearing loss,
recruitment and/or tinnitus and you are concerned about your banjo
playing? This is something you should be discussing with a qualified
professional - talk to your family doctor, look up an audiologist,
call your local hearing society in order to get some straight
answers that apply
to YOU for YOUR case.
If
you don't have hearing loss and your ears don't ring, should you
still be concerned about it? Hmmm, as long as you keep using common
sense there really isn't a whole lot to worry about as the human ear
is designed to handle a huge dynamic range of sound and volume.
Still though, it sure wouldn't hurt to not always lean on one of
them kick-butt banjos too heavily - your ears, and your fellow
pickers will appreciate it and if you're still, even in the
slightest bit, somewhere in the back of your mind, wondering about
it: re-read this paragraph.
Just
a few words for those of you who have tinnitus,
and especially for those of you who
have hyperacusis and/or recruitment,
if playing the banjo is a problem for you right now rest assured
that you do not need to stop playing banjo - there are plenty of
ways to make banjoing hearing-friendly. If you're stuck on being a
max-volume Earl-wannabe and nothing else will do, yeah, I can see
you might have a problem. However, if you love music, and you have
an open mind, you have several options to please your
hearing:
- loose
the finger picks and use your bare fingers
instead
- ease
up on the head and/or tailpiece tension a
bit
- use
a mute
- put
a rubber band under the strings on top the
bridge
- stuff
socks, towels, whatever in the resonator
- play
less loud
- use
earplugs
- order
custom fit musicians earplugs from any audiologist (a must for
pro-musicians)
- change
your repertoire - play melodious stuff instead of
FMB
- learn
clawhammer/frailing
- play
whatever soft-spoken banjo
- start
composing
- start
tabbing your own arrangements
Anyway,
summing it up: based on the volume levels recorded during this
simple test I can only conclude that you should wear hearing
protection while playing loudly on loud
banjos.
Added
January 2022:
So
what's up with them decibel numbers anyways? The volume level cuts
down to half with the dB level goes down by 3 dB and doubles with
every 3 dB gain. Example: when the volume level increases from 85 dB
to 94 dB then the volume becomes 8 times as
loud.
Hearing
and aging:
For many people, the hearing gets a bit less as they age,
it's a pretty normal thing. In particular, the high audio
frequency range might diminish, figure from age 50~60 or so. For others,
high pitch sounds- think banjo-can become a bit bothersome.
For
the folks wearing hearing aids: do take your banjo with you when you
see an audiologist so they can find the most suitable program
setting for your hearing aids and your ears.
Basically:
hearing loss is when you hear too little while with recruitment you
might hear too much.
Oh,
tinnitus could be an issue at any age so some folks might have that
from childhood already.
A trend
I've noticed during the many
years that I've made banjo bridges is that quite a few people, as
they got older, wanted/needed to tame the typical glorious banjo sound.
If this describes you then look at the suggestions above. To me,
not really a new direction or musical style of playing but simply a
way of keeping "seasoned" banjoey ears
happy.
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