Hearing is the Heartbeat of a Musician's Soul
Learn about our unique service for individuals with hearing loss in working the Music industry at our Hamilton Location
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Meet Andrew Lauzon, M.Cl.Sc., reg. CASLPO, Audiologist
I have been obsessed with music since I was 13 years old. For many years, it was all I ever wanted to do and for the better part of my adult life that is exactly what I did. As a Guitarist, Bassist, and background Vocalist I’ve toured throughout the US and Canada, shared bills with major-label artists such as Paramore, Three Days Grace, and Sum 41, travelled to Egypt to entertain our military service women and men, and have played on countless studio recordings. I am also a member of the Grammy-nominated punk/comedy act Green Jelly, have composed music for film and TV, and currently hold the position of head Producer/Engineer at Hamilton’s legendary Grant Avenue Studio.
A few years ago, I started to become interested in acoustics and neuroscience. These newfound passions coupled with a desire to help others, eventually led me back to school to become an audiologist.
I personally have a mild high-frequency hearing loss in my left ear. Most people might not notice something so subtle, but a couple of years ago recordings started to sound a little unbalanced to me. This concerned me greatly. After all, I depended on my hearing to make a living, and mine has always been pristine!! So I had my hearing checked. And checked again. And again. Same results every time. Then it sunk in. I HAVE HEARING LOSS.
It’s probably from standing on the right side of too many drummers and not wearing hearing protection consistently enough throughout my career. Some might scoff at my reaction to such a slight hearing loss in only one ear, but this was a big deal to me. I have since been more protective of my hearing, but the damage is done. So, I understand hearing loss on a technical level, but more importantly from the perspective of someone who values their ability to hear very highly, and relies on it for his livelihood, which has put me in a unique position to develop a hearing treatment and care programme for musicians
I can help you to protect and care for your most precious and delicate asset: your hearing.
Learn more about me, and hear my work here:
www.audiogeek.ca
www.grantavenuestudio.com
Hearing is the heartbeat of a musician's soul. Most of us rely heavily on our sense of hearing to evaluate our compositions and recordings, determine whether or not we are playing in tune, in time, and at an appropriate volume, judge the timbre and articulations, and simply enjoy the music we create. It’s ironic that as musicians, excessive exposure to the sounds we are surrounded by can lead to hearing loss, which ultimately affects our capacity to create and enjoy the music we cherish.
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is permanent. Typically, it appears as a reduction in sensitivity around 4 kHz, referred to as a "notch," though it can take on different forms as well. One of the most alarming features of NIHL is that it develops slowly, often going unnoticed until serious damage has already taken place. Prolonged exposure to loud noises increases the risk, and the louder the noise, the shorter the duration you can safely tolerate it. Check out this video for more info. Educating yourself on the dangers of noise exposure is one of the most important investments you can make in your career.
Personalized Consultation
I want to help you to preserve and protect your hearing so that you can continue to create and enjoy music well into your senior years. Sometimes, I will meet people who have stopped listening to music altogether due to the effects of hearing damage, and it’s honestly heartbreaking. THIS is why I have chosen to combine my two areas of expertise and develop a consultation and treatment programme, specifically catered to musicians.
A typical consultation will include:
- Lifestyle & work evaluation (discussing your regular noise exposure and risks)
- Comprehensive hearing assessment
- Measurement of sound pressure levels at ear level while playing your instrument (if possible)
- Explanation of noise exposure duration and levels, and how to measure noise exposure
- Options & recommendations for routine hearing protection/conservation
We’ll start with an informal interview to discuss your playing and practicing habits, then gather some data, and finally discuss recommendations for the best ways to protect your hearing and treat it if there is some loss.
Extended frequency range testing. Standard hearing tests generally measure thresholds from 250 to 8000 Hz, which are vital for speech comprehension. However, humans can theoretically detect sounds from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, and many musical styles utilize this full range. Traditional tests often miss frequencies below 250 Hz and above 8000 Hz, which are crucial for capturing the harmonic richness of musical instruments. I will assess your hearing with music perception in mind. High frequency testing can also reveal early warning signs of undetected hearing loss which is due to noise exposure, as the highest frequencies are often the first to go.
Custom Musician’s Earplugs
Standard foam and plastic earplugs tend to filter out higher frequencies more than lower ones. This can result in a muffled sound, making it tricky to gauge the timbre of your instrument and how well you’re fitting in with other players. It can also obscure the nuances of your performance, which might lessen the enjoyment of playing music. Because of this, a lot of musicians opt to forgo earplugs, even in environments with potentially harmful sound levels.
Customized earplugs for musicians offer a more balanced sound experience, allowing more high frequencies to come through compared to standard earplugs, while still ensuring adequate protection. After your custom ear molds are made, you can choose from various attenuators that provide protection levels of 9, 15, or 25 dB. While it might seem that more protection is always beneficial, that's not necessarily true. The ideal level of protection really depends on the instrument you play and the types of groups you perform with. I will work with you to determine the most appropriate level of protection based on your individual needs.
Note the steep drop above 2 kHz and bass boost with foam plugs. This results in a muffled sound.
In Ear Monitors. There are multiple benefits to in-ear monitors. First and most obviously, they provide superior fidelity in on-stage monitoring. Wedge monitors are often ineffective, drowned in a sea of bad stage acoustics and constrained by feedback levels. The sound of your monitor mix is also restricted to a particular area of the stage, limiting your ability to move around while playing. Monitor levels can be dangerously loud, causing irreversible hearing damage. In-ear monitors on the other hand act as ear plugs, reducing the overall stage volume, also allowing your monitor mixes to be much quieter, clearer, and sounding the same no matter where you are onstage. Custom-molded in-ear monitors are ideal as they provide a tight acoustic seal in the ear, allowing for lower monitor levels, less hearing damage, and a clearer, cleaner sounding mix.
Hearing Aids. Hearing aids are typically geared towards speech perception. However speech and music are very different, and the techniques that hearing aids use to enhance speech perception can be detrimental to music appreciation. The good news is that hearing aids are capable of providing benefit for music listening if chosen and programmed properly, but a typical fitting may not be optimal. But proper programming also requires an intimate knowledge of how music is created, performed, and perceived. That’s where I come in.
