If so, you might want to think about protecting your hearing. A research study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene has found that only 18% of people that play the French horn actually wear hearing protection. Furthermore, of all the orchestral musicians, it is the French horn players that are at the most risk for noise-induced hearing loss.
The 18% of musicians that said they wore hearing protection admitted to only wearing it “sometimes”.
“Even mild hearing loss can result in difficulties discriminating pitch, abnormal loudness growth and tinnitus, all of which can affect a musician’s ability to perform, subsequently jeopardizing his or her livelihood,” said study researcher, Ian O’Brien, MPhil, MAudSA, CCP.