Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner I saved myself $50k by getting tinnitus

For 25 years, it has been my dream to buy a grand piano. Seiler has always been my favorite, and I was getting closer every year to feeling OK about spending that much money on one.

Then a couple months ago I blew my nose while my sinuses were stuffed up, and somehow my right ear made a huge pop and started a loud high-pitched ring.

It's been ringing ever since. It goes away occasionally, but as soon as I play a key above C5 then my ear will ring for the rest of the day.

An audiologist said it might get better someday, but it'll probably stay like this forever. So unless it goes away miraculously, I think my wishing-for-grand-piano days are over. I can barely stand to play my piano now unless I wear headphones and only listen with my left ear.

I'd still play piano for money, but I think the enjoyment days are over. Guitar sounds don't seem to aggravate it as much, so maybe I'll switch to guitar instead.

Had no idea that was even a thing. Imagine you didn't either. Sorry to read this. Hoping for a breathrough for you.

My tinnitus has gotten better, gradually, since I started wearing hearing aids. At least that is my totally unscientific opinion. I'm guessing that the hearing aids are boosting the high frequencies that I have been missing. But it has taken a couple of years to notice any difference. Of course, your mileage my vary, as they used to say...

Sam

Oh, my, how sad! It's one thing to give up buying a new piano, but to experience pain and discomfort when listening, that hurts (pun intended). I hope your ear heals, and soon.

Very sorry to read this. But don't give up, keep searching for ways to improve your condition or at least to make it less disturbing. My best wishes to you!

I hope it's just temporary. Last year I got water into my right ear when showering, and unlike normal situation, this time the water managed to get deep inside and I couldn't get it out. The fluid must have created contact between my arteries and the ear drum because I could hear every heartbeat in my ear, really loud. The problem persisted for awhile and it may even resulted in low-level infection, but just when I decided it's time to visit the doctor, the problem resolved itself.

Wow, I am so sad for you. It's like my grandma always told me..."life is what happens while you're making other plans".

Oddly enough, I'm in the opposite boat from you. A neck injury messed up my left hand, effectively ending my (bass) guitar career. Like you, I could probably still do it for money, but having another lucrative career, I don't need that. I had been playing for enjoyment, which is now gone.

So due to the particulars of my situation, I think piano is more doable.

These things are all one of those "think i'll laugh so I don't cry" situations.

You're not alone, and I hope it works out for you.

How are you doing? I would say; play below C5. It’s 30 years after I started hearing sssssssss. It was a robbery. Luckily it became better. Hope you will too.

Have you tried wearing musician’s earplugs when you play? I developed Ménière’s disease during my pregnancy 25 years ago, after a serious car crash in which I broke my neck in two places. I lost some hearing in my left ear and I have constant tinnitus (which I’m totally used to, it doesn’t bother me at all). Sometimes when I play, it does get a bit louder, so then I put in my ear plugs and it’s much, much better. Musician’s earplugs only filter out certain sound waves. You can hear normal, quieter sounds perfectly fine, but they are great for something like this. Highly recommend them, go buy your grand! And a couple pairs like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015WJQ7A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

"go buy the grand"!

I lost the hearing in one ear, probably from a virus, and used the event as my excuse / reason to buy the grand I'd always wanted.

I did have to use an ear plug in the bad ear for quite a while - my best explanation was that the bad ear had developed a sensitivity that it needed to recover from - and the ringing/ whisling/ hissing did indeed die down after a few months. Today I am very careful with loud noises in both ears though - don't want to lose the remaining good ear, and don't want to go back to the bad old days of ringing in the bad ear.

I wear ear protection now for the same reason! Vacuuming, food processor, loud music, etc. I actually love it, I dislike loud, jarring noise anyway. 🙂👍

I’m so happy you got your grand! I got mine, too, lol! 😍

Hi Sam. I started a sound therapy for my tinnitus. I have hearing devices, but they don't boost sound levels. The devices emit a low hissing sound that is supposed to train your brain to ignore the ringing, like if you have a grandfather clock in your home and don't really hear it any longer when it chimes. The audiologist explained that our brain ignores bodily function sounds, such as breathing and heartbeat. Sometimes if we overexert ourselves we can hear our breathing or heartbeat. It's similar to that. I've been wearing them for a year and so far not much difference, but I'm not giving up. I also sleep with rain/ water sounds from a sound machine. The audiologist recommended this be used all night. Last sound before sleep and first sound waking up. Sad to hear how this is affecting others. I guess we just have to hang in and hope for the best.

I have tinnitus as well, and I find high notes are definitely more uncomfortable, but thankfully not intense enough to not want to play. That's really a bummer! Mine did get less noticeable over time. I'm not sure if I've gotten used to it, or it is actually getting better. Certain foods seem to make it worse, like sugar, but especially corn syrup. I feel like I have a corn syrup detector in my ears. lol

My tinnitus is caused by too much listening to too loud music, sometimes with ear phones. It doesn't matter what I'm eating, how I'm sleeping etc., for me it's very simple: loud noise = more tinnitus, no noise = fewer tinnitus. Piano playing is ok, not more than a couple of hours. It doesn't harm as much as other noisy things, like building sites and motor trucks.

I got my hearing aids at Costco. Good product at a reasonable price.

My last piano teacher did the same and was very pleased. I’m not sure it is necessary, maybe Hank knows, but I would request an audiologist that is comfortable with fitting a musician.

I was practicing 12-14 hours a day for the past few weeks for my upcoming recital and competition, and I started to 'hear' static with a loud chord, so I've been practicing while wearing a pair of earmuff, or using earphones without any music coming out of it. Interestingly enough, after 5 days of doing this, my condition has alleviated.

I don't believe this is your pure practice time. This number of hours per day is too ridiculous. Especially if it was every day for a certain period, and not a single day. Such a load is suitable for a cyborg, but not a human.

I have tinnus too. I hear hiss and also constant high pitch or around 8kHZ. To get things worse, I just purchased new piaano unseen (it was just a great bargain and great improvement over what I had), but literally each key is making buzzing in my ears, so when I play I hear buzzing all the time

Perhaps I will be forced to sell the piano fast and but a new one

I am considering purchasing those ear plug protections thing, but I have a conditation, that each time I am wearing in-ear phones and take them out, for few good minutes I hear very painful and loud "piiiiiii" in my ear. I have constant problems with sinuses and here I look for my ear problems, just wondering whether those protections can help.