I grew up around guns and was in the military for a bit, and, being a stupid kid, neglected my hearing protection occasionally. My parents kinda let me and my brother do whatever with guns on the family farm, and sometimes that meant “eh, shooting .22 caliber bullets isn’t that bad for your hearing, I don’t need earpro”. I think the dumbest thing I did was deliberately go without hearing protection during a door breach exercise in the army, standing a few feet away from a door with C4 plastered to it. I couldn’t find my earplugs and didn’t want to look stupid, so I just stood there and took it in the ears. For like 10 minutes after the blast all I could hear was EEEEEEEEEEE which seemed to go away after awhile. All things considered, I feel like I’m pretty fortunate. I forget I have tinnitus most of the time, except when it’s very quiet (or if I’m trying to hear it).
Now at the age of 30, I’m panicking about how long my hearing will last me as I get older. It’s not much of a problem now, but I’m taking every precaution I can to preserve my ears. Guitar has become a big part of my life and I don’t want that to end. I’ve never gone to loud concerts, but I feel like I’m at the same level of hearing damage as someone who has been blasting loud music for much of their lives. All this to say, please protect your hearing. It’s a precious, finite resource. Any advice for me? Should I see an audiologist to see how bad the damage is? Would they be able to do anything to help with tinnitus?
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So when my older daughter started learning guitar with me three years ago, the little one was like 4 LOL its been three years now they just got a full band together and shes much better thanme now.. Guitar learning has come a long way.