Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum tinnitus, oh the joy for a music lover...

Very interesting info above..... does make sense with my brain focusing on the sound.... im wearing earplugs throughout the day at work (plumber) and it has definately got more pronounced day by day...

I think my occasional deafness in left ear, followed by ringing... is seperate to this issue as that is still happening same as always...

This new problem is a constant high pitched whine, with me every waking moment and now is prominent even when i am in conversation. Pretty rubbish but putting things into perspective...

When i registered with the docs on monday, the receptionist had two tiny hands with no fingers and little stumps for thumbs... lovely woman but made me thinkfor a second about the magnitude of my issue....


I am going to enjoy every second i can play the piano and not pay too much heed to how long i can enjoy my hobby...

It's got me too. For years I've had occasional periods where the ringing would get loud enough to catch my attention and annoy but it would always fade inside of a day. About 5-6 weeks ago, out of the blue, it became constant. There was nothing I could point blame to; it just started. Since before Christmas I have listened to a constant, high-pitched whine in both ears, though stronger in the left. I plan on consulting with a doc once the current outbreak of stomach bugs and flu subsides as I don't want to sit in a room with that right now. It is irritating, but I find that playing the piano is actually respite, because if there's noise that interests me I can forget about the ringing for a few minutes. Best wishes to other sufferers.

Fordsnack, you put that info very well, thank you. I've had tinnitus for 5 years, and eventually habituated to it quite well. It has periods when it's lower volume, and (more often) long stretches when it's high and loud, but at no time do I have no tinnitus at all. The first few months before getting some CBT help in coping were a nightmare.

Did the piano ramp up your tinnitus? Were you afraid to play it? I ask because 5 years ago I was on long hiatus from piano for other reasons, but 8 months ago I began to play again. There didn't seem to be a change in the tinnitus until a week ago when we bought a new (used) piano, which I LOVE. But the tinnitus seems at a new level, and I'm becoming afraid to play. Do you have any tips from your own experience? I can't believe it's the piano itself--the room is very well padded for acoustics, the lid is closed, and the experience of playing now is probably less loud than our old upright was in a small harsh room.

How long did you stay away from piano? Do you still have tinnitus while playing now but able to let it fall into the background?

Hi Scout,
When the tinnitus got really loud I made some drastic changes in my life, but playing piano was never usually an issue. Only sometimes would I stop playing out of frustration when playing a particularly soft and expressive passage of music. All I would be able to focus on was the white noise and ringing.
I found when teaching in school, having a fair few heavy handed pupils, it would drive me mad and I did wonder whether I would be able to continue teaching. Luckily I managed to organise an electric piano which is not ideal but seemed like the best solution.

This is all before I started the tinnitus therapy and my feelings toward loud noises has changed somewhat. The london underground trains often reach levels way over a hundred decibels (think pneumatic drill) and yet people don't seem to be going deaf left right and centre. The reason has been suggested, that because the trains pull into stations very frequently, the ears have time to recover. So in theory, as long as you are not playing piano at fortissimo, continuously for hours on end, your ears should recover just fine.

I was afraid to play, and afraid of police sirens and loud pubs. This unfortunately can lead to hyperacusis which is hyper sensitivity to loud noises and I was actively avoiding loud environments. This creates further negative thoughts about tinnitus which in turn strengthens the neural path ways and the brain becomes even more efficient at noticing tinnitus.

After some TRT (I am still going through therapy) I began to not block my ears when I heard a police siren, not put in ear plugs at the first sign of loud noise in a pub when they put the music on. And my hearing did not get worse when I had my hearing tests. Sometimes the tinnitus would be loud, but gradually it has calmed down, and now I play piano and tinnitus doesn't really cross my mind.

As for tips, I would suggest going to see a tinnitus specialist if you have that option. And try and notice your thoughts when you are having a bad tinnitus experience. Most negative thoughts we have are falsifiable when challenged. Such as: "I am going to completely deaf" or "I cannot enjoy the piano anymore". These are 'all or nothing thoughts' which, for me are untrue. Negative thought patterns like these can be rather pernicious if left unchecked.

Thanks for all you wrote, Fordsnack. I'm glad for you that you're back to playing piano and have made so much progress with TRT. That is heartening to hear.

Even though I had learned to put the tinnitus on the back burner, other things you describe have still been familiar all along, such as being afraid of sirens and other loud but normal sounds; the kettle whistle going off is a really big one for me. I know I should not keep on that path of being overprotective. (I don't have a specialist, but my excellent primary-care doctor has checked my hearing and monitored the situation all along--I have no hearing loss, amazingly.)

You are so right about those (globalizing) negative thoughts! Even after learning to cope with them, now with the new piano and ramped-up tinnitus I find myself thinking Oh we shouldn't have bought it, Oh I won't be able to play it anymore, Oh it will always make the tinnitus louder. Thank you for the reminder that these things don't have to be true; you've made my day.

If this new difficulty continues I will look for a TRT specialist. Best of luck to you in completing the therapy, and ...

... good luck everyone!

Thanks, im glad I could have been of some help. All the best!

>The london underground trains often reach levels way over a hundred decibels (think pneumatic drill) and yet people don't seem to be going deaf left right and centre. The reason has been suggested, that because the trains pull into stations very frequently, the ears have time to recover. So in theory, as long as you are not playing piano at fortissimo, continuously for hours on end, your ears should recover just fine.

I think not. 100+dB really IS dangerous for ears and max exposure is 15 minutes per day. Furthermore, high frequency sounds are more damaging. Piano fortissimo can go up to 103dB. Actually I read somewhere at DPA microphones that at 10cm from the sound board levels can go up to a staggering 130dB. Anything above 112dB is instantaneous damaging I think.

check this

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

Just had my docs appointment...

Both ears very clean, no wax or inflamation. Unfortunately there is nothing she can do... refered me to the british tinitus website... said it may go or not...


And asked if i had been stressed lately.... " yes, by my hearing".....

Looks like no quick fixes.

Paul, interesting. My doctor on the other hand was much more concerned with why the sporatic hearing loss than my tinnitus. Probably because I've lived with the noise for so long I'm just used to it. As I said earlier, she prescribed a ten day course of prednisone in case of Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (did you google that?) . I'm also scheduled for an MRI tomorrow to rule out a tumor.

Too bad you don't have Doc Martin near by... He would figure it all out in a heartbeat.

Her attitude was to leave it and i said if it contues i will return... ill give it another week or if it gets worse then i will kick up a fuss... she glazed over my comment about the intermittent deafness... will make more of a point next time. The joys of life eh! :-)

I've sufered it on and off for years. My sympathies, hope this gives you more info and best wishes

http://www.nhs.uk/Search/Pages/Results.aspx?___JSSniffer=true&q=tinnitus

My sympathy is with you, too. I've never suffered it, so cannot possibly know how frustrating it must be. Does it make appreciating your own playing very difficult?

Currently no... i have a tv going in the background and can hear it over a loud tv whilst i type this, quite clearly.... at the mo, once i concentrate on playing i dont notice it... however it has grown in volume over the nine days. I dont know if it will overpower my concentration at some point... then i will probably get very grumpy. I am more than a little concerned.

I have it occasionally. Sometimes it heralds the vertigo of Meniere's.
It was a problem with the piano, but not in the last two years.

wouter79 I will have to take my Db metre next time I jump on the tube. I am just relaying what my TRT guy told me, though I did dig out this. (a slightly fear mongering article maybe but interesting none the less)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3895769.stm

The point I was trying to make though was that that you could play fortissimo for an hour (going on that chart you linked) with no problems, unless you insist on having your head 10cm from the sound board...

The thing is the tube is all low bass loud sounds so you don't tend to notice it as much when mixed in with everyday sounds.

Like the anti youth loitering device which sends out 120Db of annoying sounds to youths.

Although older people apparently can't hear it (I can and I'm 34) it can still be loud enough to cause hearing damage.

Fordsnack, I think you looked in the OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure. I'm going with the NIOSH Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure, and that makes a lot of difference. Check again. I'm not sure which one is the definite answer but I prefer to be on the safe side.

My husband had a sudden loss of hearing in his left ear a couple of years ago followed by almost unbearable vertigo and nausea. Gradually that subsided but the hearing loss is permanent. He describes the tinnitus as a soprano singing a high A ALL the time. He has gradually adapted and returned to work but when he's tired that soprano is working overtime. He calls her "Judy". The brain certainly adapts and learns to background the tinnitus but still a lifelong situation to deal with. I hope yours resolves and you return to optimal hearing. I imagine that concentrating on piano does help your brain put the tinnitus in the background. Best wishes to any of you who deal with this challenge.

Yea, it's interesting but my online research with Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss it is almost always the left ear. Without immidiate treatment the deafness can stay leaving only tinitus. I think had I known this 15 years ago I would not have lost so much hearing. That's why I'm on top of it this time.

For me the old familiar whine is not "Judy" but rather southern chicadas. But after years of it you really do adapt.

Wouter, with a bit of reading I found OSHA is the regulation noise limits, and NIOSH seems to be the recommended. So yes, to be on the safe side it might be best to go along with NIOSH. But one should still not worry about playing piano even then. As the piano fortissimo, according to that link is 84-103db, I would think it is unlikely that one would sustain fortissimo at its peak 103d. So that is according to NIOSH between 8 hours a day at its quietest fortissimo and somewhere under 25 minutes at its loudest fortissimo. If I remember to take my db metre into school on saturday I will have a look.

From my experience with tinnitus, worrying about how loud things are, and actively avoiding them leads to increased perception of tinnitus and the onset of hyperacusis. This knowledge teemed with a bit of common sense I was able to sustain a healthy relationship with the piano, and I believe others can too.