“Drum corps sound can be damaging to hearing health”
Loud sound from a drum & bugle corps can be damaging to hearing health of the musicians, according to researchers Debra O'Connell and Sandra Teglas. They measured sound levels at Carolina Gold, and Drum Corps World published an article on it.
Loud sound from a drum & bugle corps can be damaging to hearing health of the musicians, according to researchers Debra O'Connell and Sandra Teglas. They measured sound levels at Carolina Gold, and Drum Corps World published an article on it.
Over the course of two seasons, O'Connell and Teglas visited Carolina Gold Drum & Bugle Corps rehearsals to measure sound levels of corps members. At rehearsals with an average of twelve hours, the sound levels were much higher than the NIOSH recommendations for daily use. The average of a mellophone was 368 percent while the NIOSH Standard is 100 percent. For percussion instruments it was far worse. A snare average was 4,899 percent.
Because rehearsals occur on a regular basis, the researchers recommend to take precautions to protect hearing. "For every participant in this study, sound exposure would have been reduced to safe sound levels had they worn protective earplugs." Depending on the type of earplug, the noise reduction with earplugs would be 12 to 29 dB.
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