SOUND POWER LEVELS OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND THE ESTIMATION OF THE INFLUENCE ON PLAYERS' HEARING ABILITY

摘要

The practice of playing musical instruments often starts at a very young age: only two or three years old at the youngest. Therefore, the "noise" dose while playing musical instruments might be considerably large. The long-term objective of this study is to clarify the influence of sound exposure engendered by the use of musical instruments on the hearing ability of the young generation. This paper describes measurement results of sound pressure levels and their directivity when a single musical instrument is played. Moreover, the power level for each musical instrument is calculated; then, the sound at the time of musical instrument performance was computed. Ten kinds of musical instruments were surveyed and a questionnaire about the career, practice duration, awareness of hearing loss by the player, etc. was also administered. This report examines the influence of performance sound on hearing ability based on these results.