Decibel Levels...interesting!!

[TomPeashey]

before anyone goes crazy with this whole thread...  hearing aides are quite common among us old timers...  but it's generally not because of db's...  rather due to some variation of "trumpeter's ear" which is a loss in hearing caused by playing with excessive pressure...  I plead guilty and now sport two wonderful and very expensive new hearing aides.  But you know what?  I wouldn't change a thing.  Have no regrets.

[RenegadeBaritone]

Decible measuring is silly. Playing is a musical art and it is musical contrast that is important.

Musicality gets points. Loud gets standing ovations.

Isn't that so true? The entertainment matters to the fan. If points ever matter, they matter to the corps and that's about it but I must say I can't remember a single score my corps took during any part of the season...

[swhornchic]

I read an article the other day talking about hearing loss, and I don't know how much of it can be helped. The article said that 2 hours on the phone would have an effect on your hearing as would 15 minutes of practicing trumpet at a mf/f level. I think the effect was minimal, but the articles point was that it all adds up. I wish I could remember where I saw that.

[kalijah]

but if Wayne says it's true, it is.

Truth is a matter of opinion here, especially if you are playing B flats.

Musicality gets points. Loud gets standing ovations.

If that loud playing is in contrast, appropriate, and in musical taste, not sacrificing quality, then standing ovations are in order and certainly will occur, hail, I'll be the first one standing. If you think a drum corps crowd are such baffoons to care about pure loudness and not musicianship, you may be wrong.

I would also say that most standing Os are becase the crowd got the point.

[OldManAlto]

Louis- We hit 115 during all-days last summer so I'm sure it was higher than 120 when we achieved White Heat in Houston

[Guest sburstall]

A friend of mine sent me this article, I thought you guys might be interested in it....

THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 24, 2002

No More Fortissimo? Europe Wants a Little Quiet

By BERNARD HOLLAND

The bill calls for a workplace decibel limit of 85 without

earplugs, 87 with them. Some members of the parliament, Helle

Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark among them, think the directive

doesn't go far enough. He is looking for an amendment to lower

the level to 83.

European musicians are not happy. They say that noise in a

factory and the noise of a Bruckner finale are not the same

thing. (Biased listeners might argue the point.) The Times

quotes Libby MacNamara, the director of the Association of

British Orchestras: "It will virtually stop us playing any

loud repertoire whatsoever." The European Union, however, seems

to be closing ranks. The culture secretary will defer to the

health and safety executive, whose office sympathizes with

musicians, but adds: "Noise is noise. It doesn't matter whether

it's Tchaikovsky or a power drill." (And veteran concertgoers

will remember performances in which distinguishing between the

two was not that easy.)

You got to love politicians without any musical talent. They think that decibles = loudness. They need to take a physics class. Decibles = loudness at a distance. These people can complain about the levels of jet, IF I was a few feet from it. Given a half-mile. It would barely register.

What are they going to do if you whisper sweet nothings into your sweetheart's ear? Odds are we're talking a whisper at couple centimeter to the ear drum. I seem to remember that that registered around to 70-80 decible levels.

If they stuck with OSHA levels (or the ECE equivalent) they all will be happy (I hope )