THE steel drum is the latest instrument shown to damage the hearing of musicians.
Solaiman Juman at the University of West Indies at St Augustine in Trinidad is the first to compare 鈥減annists鈥�, as they are called, with a control group of non-players. His team found that 29 pannists needed louder tones to hear notes above a frequency of 2000 hertz (around three octaves above middle C on a piano) than the control group of 30 players. And the longer the musicians had been playing, the worse their hearing loss (Otolaryngology 鈥� Head and Neck Surgery, vol 131, p 461).
Juman says the finding is not surprising because players in the middle of a band are exposed to loud sounds for long periods, comparable to people sitting in the front row at a rock concert. 鈥淭he intensity is very similar to a jumbo jet taking off,鈥� he told New 杏吧原创. Other studies suggest that even orchestral musicians can suffer hearing loss.
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Pannists could protect themselves by wearing earplugs during rehearsals, but Juman is pessimistic about the chance of players heeding his warnings. 鈥淚n Trinidad especially, steel bands have a macho culture,鈥� he says, 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to appear to be wimpish.鈥�