Marshall Chasin

Marshall Chasin, AuD, is an audiologist and the Director of Auditory Research at the Musicians’ Clinics of Canada, Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto (in Linguistics), Associate Professor in the School of Communication Disorders and Sciences at the Western University. He is the author of over 200 articles and 7 books including Musicians and the Prevention of Hearing Loss. Dr. Chasin has been the recipient of many awards over the years including the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award for service to Canada and the Canada 150 Medal in 2017. He has developed a new TTS app called Temporary Hearing Loss Test app.
Featured image for “Bending it like Beckham”
Jan. 24, 2017

Bending it like Beckham

Marshall Chasin
Have you ever noticed that a trumpet or other horn is not straight, but is bent or has a curl?  A trumpet, if it were a straight tube, would probably need to be resting on the chair in front of the player, and the same would be true for all other brass instruments.  The tuba would need to be anchored
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Jan. 17, 2017

The acoustics of the acoustic pillow

Marshall Chasin
Recently I have become involved in the development of an acoustic pillow.  This is a rather interesting project and here is the story: When people lie down to watch television on the couch, the ear against the pillow is plugged up.  People lose the normal binaural summation- some benefits of two sided hearing- that they were used to experiencing.  Wouldn’t it
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Jan. 10, 2017

Never take pictures in the men’s washroom!

Marshall Chasin
After seeing a movie over the holiday season, I was chased out of the movie theatre…. NEVER TAKE PICTURES IN THE MEN’S WASHROOM! So, here is the story… It was a pretty good movie and I used the washroom facilities afterwards.  While drying my hands I noticed a sign covered in plastic above the hot air blower and that’s when
Jan. 03, 2017

The Largest Musical Instrument in the World

Marshall Chasin
One of my all-time favorite movies is Parent Trap- not the remake but the original starring Brian Keith, Maureen O’Hara and Haley Mills.  In the movie, the very wealthy grandmother of Haley Mills’ character, used one sentence to summarize the extreme wealth of the family and the large size of their house.  She said to a servant “Put both Steinways
Dec. 27, 2016

A musician’s wish list for his hearing aids

Marshall Chasin
Rick Ledbetter is a long time professional bass player and composer with a profound, late onset hearing loss. He has been programming his own aids through several sets, to meet his needs for live performance.  Rick is quite thoughtful about this area.  In April 2016 I had an open letter to hard of hearing musicians, which was repeated last week
Dec. 20, 2016

Best of 2016: An open letter to hard of hearing musicians… again…

Marshall Chasin
  This was the most well-read blog in Hear the Music in 2016.  Not everyone agreed with everything that I had to say, but I guess that is what makes for a great blog!  Read the excerpt and please click the link to above to read it in full while I take some time over the holiday season to spend
Dec. 13, 2016

Conseils brulants sur les appareils auditifs pour les moise chauds part 2

Marshall Chasin
Acouphène : Sensation de bruits divers dans les oreilles. La description de l’acouphène varie de sonnerie à rugissement, cliquetis, ronronnement, bourdonnement, chuintement, froissement, tintement, bruit strident et autres sons familiers. Audiogramme : Test auditif qui permet de mesurer et enregistrer dans quelle mesure vous entendez les sons à diverses fréquences. Audition résiduelle : Quantité d’audition mesurable et utilizable restant à
Featured image for “A Bit of Acoustical Treatment Can Go a Long Way”
Dec. 13, 2016

A Bit of Acoustical Treatment Can Go a Long Way

Marshall Chasin
Reverberation is the great equalizer. It can make great music sound the same as less-stellar counterparts. It can make a great speech in a large hall sound the same as one that is devoid of content, and it can distract anyone from the task at hand. And of course reverberation is like good wine – too much is as bad as too
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Dec. 06, 2016

Today I will be waxing philosophical…

Marshall Chasin
An article in today’s Globe and Mail – one of Canada’s long-standing national newspapers – is about about Lars Ulrich, the drummer with Metallica and includes the quote: “I would get up from my bed in a hotel room to go turn the television off.  But the television wasn’t on. The sound was in my head.” For those readers who have been living
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Nov. 29, 2016

Some Suggestions from Dr. Brian C. Moore

Marshall Chasin
Brian C Moore, PhD from Cambridge in the UK recently had a paper published in the International Journal of Audiology (IJA) with the title “A review of the perceptual effects of hearing loss for frequencies above 3kHz”. The IJA is the official journal of the International Society of Audiology and the Society holds biennial international conventions. The most recent one was