Hear The Music

Now, I realize that Vincent Van Gogh was not a musician… well, maybe he was, but alas we will never know for sure.  Some recent research has been uncovered in some writings from the physician that treated him after his self-inflicted ear-adectomy.  I am sure that if I had listened better to my undergraduate Latin and classics professors I would

In parts one and two of this blog series, the creation of a vent-associated resonance, called an inertance, was discussed. Venting can reduce the echoey, back pressure sensation with hearing protection for musicians, especially for brass players, some reeded woodwinds, and for vocalists.  However, the mass of air in the vent can oscillate and create a potentially unwanted low frequency

In part one of this blog series, the benefits of having a small 1.4 mm (1/16”) vent drilled into a musicians’ earplug were discussed. Apparently this question was first addressed by Shakespeare himself, but later addressed by more modern Bards.  In the original form, he wrote “To vent, or not to vent/That is the question…”, but of course his editor

I have it on good authority that before Shakespeare became a writer, he enrolled in one of the fist Audiology programs in England- Audiology on Avon. And one of his university papers was entitled, “To vent or not to vent”.  Of course, everyone knows that Shakespeare flunked out and became the Bard we know and love.  He used his audiology

Tony Laviola is a well respected hard of hearing bass player who sees no problems wearing hearing aids… as long as they work! Italian born Toronto bass player Tony Laviola has played almost all styles of music since 1966 . R&B, rock , blues, country, jazz, showbands, tribute artists and singer-song-writers including Marc Jordan and Ron Nigrini. Debbie Bechamp, “Stix

When I first started as a young audiologist in 1981, custom hearing aids were not yet being marketed and all that was available were rather large sized BTE aids, eyeglass aids, and even body aids. I recall that there was an Oticon P11P and a Wilco H37D body aid.  The Wilco H37D came with either a red or a yellow dot

Years ago I wrote an article called “My wrist sings the blues”. I think it may have been in the now defunct journal Hearing Instruments which was the predecessor of Hearing Review.  This was a long time ago when the alphabet only had 24 letters and pi only had 7 decimal places. The idea behind the article is that non-hearing

I was asked a question recently about the fabled Walls of Jericho that came tumbling down in biblical times. This person wanted to know the acoustics of such an event and whether it could have actually happened.  After all, we know the acoustics of soprano singers being able to break high quality crystal glasses. The short answer is “no- this

I recall doing some media events as far back as the 1980s, usually in conjunction with a professional musician, about the importance of protecting your hearing. If it was a phone-in show, the musician handled 90% of the calls and I was given 1 or 2.  Similarly over the years, if I did a media event alone, there was little

There is a 3 year old Russian drummer who seems to be defying the rules of neuroanatomy. There just isn’t enough neural maturation to be able to play this well, and he appeared equally able to hit with his right hand as his left hand- except for dropping the drum stick on one occasion.  Even young Mozart was 5 when