When you step on stage or sit behind your recording equipment, what's the one piece of equipment that makes your job possible? Your guitar? Your drums? Your mixing board? Wrong.
Your ears.
As a musician, your hearing is one invaluable instrument that you use every day.
Without protecting your ears, your chance of a long, prosperous career could be ruined.
Hearing is a serious issue for professional musicians as well as hobbyists.
I know, I know -- it's not cool to wear earplugs, right? Well, unfortunately, even exposure to an extremely loud concert can be enough to cause lasting damage to your hearing.
The cheap earplugs that you squeeze and place in your ears are OK but, as you've probably experienced, they also limit your hearing of the music.
The solution: musician's earplugs! Musician's earplugs are designed very simply to allow attenuation evenly across the frequency spectrum - reducing the volume while still allowing you to hear relatively undistorted sound.
One Paul Green School of Rock Music teacher tells her students, "Etymotic Research invented and manufactures the musician's hi-fi earplug.
" You can purchase universal-fit versions of their earplugs for around $20.
Another option is custom molded musician's earplugs.
This is the best option for professionals in the music business -a custom-molded, soft silicone shell with the Etymotic filter in place.
These will run you around $150, plus audiologist's fees for the ear impressions (a quick, painless process).
These will offer the best protection and durability, but have a high start-up cost.
What I don't understand is that parents will pay $1200 for a guitar for their child, an expensive amp, a high end guitar case and all the extras, but I rarely see students come in with ear plugs.
When you buy the guitar or the bass or the drums, be sure you spend the extra $20 for hi-fi earplugs and insist your child wear them.