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Author Topic: Mutt and Jeff  (Read 10887 times)

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Chris Ryall

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #20 on: April 04, 2013, 01:53:54 PM »

Yes deafness happens with age, more in men I'm afraid, and not uncommonly worse at higher frequencies. There are many causes.  But we don't all get there and I (age 60) don't see much sense in fretting until it happens. Other than avoiding rock concerts and other loud, percussive noise sources that's unfortunately a matter of luck.

If you are experiencing problems ear a clinical exam, and if necessary formal otology is readily available, and free in Britain's wonderful NHS  8). Yes, modern aids can compensate for frequency selective deafness, obviously within limits.  My grandad Cyril, organist and teacher of music went deaf in his 80s and got to the doctor's in a flat panic .. it was just wax  :|glug
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #21 on: April 04, 2013, 02:27:42 PM »

Trouble is - I've suffered loss of top frequencies due to rock concerts etc. but didn't realise the damage it would do when it was happening. Now am paying for it if someone talks very quietly or background chatter in a crowded room with loss of word definition.
Never attributed it to morris bells though!
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Chris Ryall

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #22 on: April 04, 2013, 02:47:51 PM »

Oh dear. Audiology department time, I think.  They will offer much better advice than anything you might get here  :D
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #23 on: April 04, 2013, 04:10:43 PM »

ermm.... yep, been there done that albeit a long time back. It got picked up after a thorough medical I used to have to go through because of diving as part of my job. Might have to bite the bullet sometime.
Q
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I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Rob Phillips

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #24 on: April 05, 2013, 11:07:01 AM »

I'm married to an Audiologist. She vanishes to another part of the house as soon as I start playing. That's probably as much to do with the standard of my playing as any threats to her hearing. Anyhow, I've drawn this thread to her attention and she's mentioned a couple of things. Firstly, most of the hearing aids issued these days are digital rather than analogue. They can be programmed more precisely so they can be altered from (for example) "speech" to "music" by the wearer. (My feeling is that your Audiologist might need to know that a melodeon sounds different to a fiddle to get the best from this!). Secondly, if you're playing loudly for an extended period of time (or listening to a loud band or session) you may well experience temporary threshold shift. This comes across as a dullness or maybe slight ringing in your ears. Essentially, some of the hair-like nerve cells in the inner ear have decided to take a lie down. Keep out of loud noises for a while and you'll be back to normal. Keep on exposing the ear to loud sounds, though, and eventually you'll cause permanent damage. Personally, I do get a slight temporary threshold shift after being out with the Morris side, but then I do play a Baffetti Binci that can crack windows at 50 metres.
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IanD

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #25 on: April 05, 2013, 12:00:52 PM »

I'm married to an Audiologist. She vanishes to another part of the house as soon as I start playing. That's probably as much to do with the standard of my playing as any threats to her hearing. Anyhow, I've drawn this thread to her attention and she's mentioned a couple of things. Firstly, most of the hearing aids issued these days are digital rather than analogue. They can be programmed more precisely so they can be altered from (for example) "speech" to "music" by the wearer. (My feeling is that your Audiologist might need to know that a melodeon sounds different to a fiddle to get the best from this!). Secondly, if you're playing loudly for an extended period of time (or listening to a loud band or session) you may well experience temporary threshold shift. This comes across as a dullness or maybe slight ringing in your ears. Essentially, some of the hair-like nerve cells in the inner ear have decided to take a lie down. Keep out of loud noises for a while and you'll be back to normal. Keep on exposing the ear to loud sounds, though, and eventually you'll cause permanent damage. Personally, I do get a slight temporary threshold shift after being out with the Morris side, but then I do play a Baffetti Binci that can crack windows at 50 metres.
You think you've got a problem -- we had 3 Baffetti Bincis at practice last week, indoors in a practice hall that's all hard surfaces...
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Lester

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #26 on: April 05, 2013, 12:11:15 PM »

You could always play them quietly. (:)

IanD

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #27 on: April 05, 2013, 12:59:14 PM »

You could always play them quietly. (:)
We were doing...
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pikey

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #28 on: April 05, 2013, 02:11:00 PM »

I wear them too, have done for the last 8 years or so.  Best thing I ever did (apart from picking up a melodeon, and joining Melnet, of course...)

Bite the bullet , and keep them in - your brain soon learns what to ignore and what to listen to.

I sometimes get feedback when playing the box, particularly the squeaky end - and even worse on concertina - it depends on how echoey the place is . Outside is fine, small rooms are worse. I either just grin and bear it, or turn them off for the session. That has the added advantage that I then can't hear anyone say 'It's your round!'   >:E

PS DON'T do what one of our contributors did in a session - notice his hearing aid wasn't in his ear, get all of us on our hands and knees searching for it......then finding it back at home where he left it........

EborFiddler asked me not to say who it was....... OOPS!!!!!   ;)

PS the pitch that I've lost amazingly co-incides with the pitch of my lovely wife's voice. No wonder I didnt hear the requests to do the washing up......   :D
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Still squeezing after all these years.
Mostly on hohners , with a couple of Dinos and a smattering of anglos - and now a Jeffries duet

Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #29 on: April 05, 2013, 02:15:06 PM »

IanD: Or practice the famous Lying Down Dance that would muffle the surfaces ;D
Q
( we can show you next time we meet, the rolling hey is 'fun'! )
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #30 on: April 05, 2013, 02:20:50 PM »

Pikey: You in jest have picked up on something we discussed in our morris somewhere along the line recently.
Three of my friends, all late 50's, had independantly one for tests after wives complaining and all had the same thing mentioned. The response threshold coincides with the pitch of their wives voices, hence their earache from their 'spouses being ignored, but mates in the morris ( with obviously deep manly voices ) are heard ok..
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

pikey

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #31 on: April 05, 2013, 02:33:50 PM »

Pikey: You in jest have picked up on something we discussed in our morris somewhere along the line recently.
Three of my friends, all late 50's, had independantly one for tests after wives complaining and all had the same thing mentioned. The response threshold coincides with the pitch of their wives voices, hence their earache from their 'spouses being ignored, but mates in the morris ( with obviously deep manly voices ) are heard ok..
Q

Strange that.........  :D

My deafness is hereditary - maybe it's down to evolution of morris men, where as they get older they fail to hear their wives.......
"You cant have another melodeon....."
"Don't drink too much....."
" The grass needs cutting....."
"TURN THAT MELODEON DOWN!!!!....."

 >:E
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Still squeezing after all these years.
Mostly on hohners , with a couple of Dinos and a smattering of anglos - and now a Jeffries duet

IanD

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #32 on: April 05, 2013, 04:33:41 PM »

Pikey: You in jest have picked up on something we discussed in our morris somewhere along the line recently.
Three of my friends, all late 50's, had independantly one for tests after wives complaining and all had the same thing mentioned. The response threshold coincides with the pitch of their wives voices, hence their earache from their 'spouses being ignored, but mates in the morris ( with obviously deep manly voices ) are heard ok..
Q
It's not coincidence, the response curve of the ear is well tuned for picking out voices -- especially high-pitched ones, for some reason -- against background noise. The regions where it's most sensitive (upper middle and high frequencies) are the first ones to go with old age/hearing damage, so voice intelligibility is usually the first problem that people notice.
It's a good excuse though, isn't it?
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pikey

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #33 on: April 05, 2013, 05:12:42 PM »

PARDON??????   >:E

I blame Pomfret Morris........ all those huge tenor bells ........   ;)
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Still squeezing after all these years.
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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #34 on: April 05, 2013, 06:48:58 PM »

What I hear people say is far more interesting than what they are saying.  :|glug
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I'm a Yorkie!
My other melodeon's a fiddle, but one of my Hohners has six strings! I also play a very red Hawkins Bazaar in C and a generic Klingenthaler spoon bass in F.!! My other pets (played) are gobirons - Hohner Marine Band in C, Hohner Tremolo in D and a Chinese Thingy Tremolo in G.

pikey

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #35 on: April 06, 2013, 03:48:58 PM »

....quarter past three.......
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #36 on: April 06, 2013, 08:20:54 PM »

....quarter past three.......

Wot on earth are you lot on about?
Just nipping out to get some new batteries.  >:E
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pikey

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #37 on: April 08, 2013, 10:29:05 AM »

....quarter past three.......

Wot on earth are you lot on about?
Just nipping out to get some new batteries.  >:E

You're ripping out to fetch a new cattery??????   >:E
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Still squeezing after all these years.
Mostly on hohners , with a couple of Dinos and a smattering of anglos - and now a Jeffries duet

Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #38 on: April 08, 2013, 10:32:17 AM »

 
....quarter past three.......

Wot on earth are you lot on about?
Just nipping out to get some new batteries.  >:E

You're ripping out to fetch a new cattery??????   >:E


 >:(
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Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Mutt and Jeff
« Reply #39 on: April 08, 2013, 06:30:03 PM »

I have just found my own ear decorations on the floor of the lounge, to where they had been romoved by a certain enormous hound who frequents our house. They had been on my bedside table. The expensive part remains unchewed, but the cheap plastic bit which lets them fit my ear has had doggy decoration applied. Will this improve my melodeon playing?  ???

(Lay off, Pikey!)
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I'm a Yorkie!
My other melodeon's a fiddle, but one of my Hohners has six strings! I also play a very red Hawkins Bazaar in C and a generic Klingenthaler spoon bass in F.!! My other pets (played) are gobirons - Hohner Marine Band in C, Hohner Tremolo in D and a Chinese Thingy Tremolo in G.
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