Cargando…

Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs

Professional musicians are often exposed to high noise levels and thus face the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. Yet, adoption rates for hearing protection among musicians are low. Previous surveys indicate that the chief concern is the effect of hearing protection use on performance. However, fe...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Boissinot, Elie, Bogdanovitch, Sarah, Bocksteal, Annelies, Guastavino, Catherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903731
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886861
_version_ 1784754542138621952
author Boissinot, Elie
Bogdanovitch, Sarah
Bocksteal, Annelies
Guastavino, Catherine
author_facet Boissinot, Elie
Bogdanovitch, Sarah
Bocksteal, Annelies
Guastavino, Catherine
author_sort Boissinot, Elie
collection PubMed
description Professional musicians are often exposed to high noise levels and thus face the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. Yet, adoption rates for hearing protection among musicians are low. Previous surveys indicate that the chief concern is the effect of hearing protection use on performance. However, few studies have investigated actual changes in performance when wearing hearing protection. We report an experiment investigating differences in pianists’ performance and experience with and without hearing protection. We compare the effect of foam earplugs and musician earplugs, designed to preserve sound quality with a flat frequency response. The analysis revealed that participants performed overall more loudly with the foam earplugs than with the musician earplugs, and in turn performances with the musician earplugs were louder than the open condition, indicating a compensatory effect. However, this effect was stronger for novel excerpts than for familiar excerpts. No effect was observed on dynamic range. Furthermore, we observed an acclimatization effect, whereby the effect of hearing protection use, observed on the first performance, decreased on the second performance. In terms of experience, participants reported changes in coloration, difficulties gauging dynamics and articulation, and increased effort required when performing with hearing protection. These effects were more pronounced when wearing the foam earplugs, and the participants reported finding the musician earplugs more comfortable to wear and play with. In conclusion, hearing protection use affects pianists’ performance particularly in terms of dynamics and their experience more so in terms of coloration. But the effects are less marked for familiar pieces and after repetition, suggesting that pianists can quickly adjust their playing when playing familiar pieces with hearing protection.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9315358
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93153582022-07-27 Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs Boissinot, Elie Bogdanovitch, Sarah Bocksteal, Annelies Guastavino, Catherine Front Psychol Psychology Professional musicians are often exposed to high noise levels and thus face the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. Yet, adoption rates for hearing protection among musicians are low. Previous surveys indicate that the chief concern is the effect of hearing protection use on performance. However, few studies have investigated actual changes in performance when wearing hearing protection. We report an experiment investigating differences in pianists’ performance and experience with and without hearing protection. We compare the effect of foam earplugs and musician earplugs, designed to preserve sound quality with a flat frequency response. The analysis revealed that participants performed overall more loudly with the foam earplugs than with the musician earplugs, and in turn performances with the musician earplugs were louder than the open condition, indicating a compensatory effect. However, this effect was stronger for novel excerpts than for familiar excerpts. No effect was observed on dynamic range. Furthermore, we observed an acclimatization effect, whereby the effect of hearing protection use, observed on the first performance, decreased on the second performance. In terms of experience, participants reported changes in coloration, difficulties gauging dynamics and articulation, and increased effort required when performing with hearing protection. These effects were more pronounced when wearing the foam earplugs, and the participants reported finding the musician earplugs more comfortable to wear and play with. In conclusion, hearing protection use affects pianists’ performance particularly in terms of dynamics and their experience more so in terms of coloration. But the effects are less marked for familiar pieces and after repetition, suggesting that pianists can quickly adjust their playing when playing familiar pieces with hearing protection. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9315358/ /pubmed/35903731 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886861 Text en Copyright © 2022 Boissinot, Bogdanovitch, Bocksteal and Guastavino. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Boissinot, Elie
Bogdanovitch, Sarah
Bocksteal, Annelies
Guastavino, Catherine
Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title_full Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title_fullStr Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title_full_unstemmed Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title_short Effect of Hearing Protection Use on Pianists’ Performance and Experience: Comparing Foam and Musician Earplugs
title_sort effect of hearing protection use on pianists’ performance and experience: comparing foam and musician earplugs
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903731
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886861
work_keys_str_mv AT boissinotelie effectofhearingprotectionuseonpianistsperformanceandexperiencecomparingfoamandmusicianearplugs
AT bogdanovitchsarah effectofhearingprotectionuseonpianistsperformanceandexperiencecomparingfoamandmusicianearplugs
AT bockstealannelies effectofhearingprotectionuseonpianistsperformanceandexperiencecomparingfoamandmusicianearplugs
AT guastavinocatherine effectofhearingprotectionuseonpianistsperformanceandexperiencecomparingfoamandmusicianearplugs