If you care about your ears as much as I do, earplugs are a must. In addition to the abusive volume of most music concerts, trains, buses, airplanes, construction, background music, even crowded conversation can be at levels that are detrimental to your hearing. If you can not have a conversation at a normal speaking volume, then the environment is loud enough to damage your ears.
There are a few ways to avoid this, and since reclusiveness can have negative effects on the career of a musician, earplugs become very important. There are two routes you can go when it comes to earplugs: expensive or simple.
Expensive:In most cities, you can go to an audiologist to get your hearing checked and molds made of your unique ear shape. Then they make custom earplugs to fit your ear perfectly. These earplugs dampen all frequencies evenly, so you do not get that muffled earplug sound when you use them. They run around $150.
I got a pair of these nice, custom earplugs a couple years back. They worked wonderfully. Comfortable and they sounded great. After about a year, I lost one of them at a gig in a city far from home. And earplugs do not work as well when there is only one of them. I think Vegas is the only other place where I could lose $75 so quickly.
Which brings me to the second type of earplugs...
Foam: You can find foam earplugs at music stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations, pretty much anywhere. And they are dirt cheap. Less than a dollar a pair. They are easy to use - you just scrunch them up and stick them in your ears. You can just throw them away after you use them and they get wax on them. And if you lose one or both of them, it is not going to break the bank.
The biggest drawback of foam earplugs is that they create a muffled sound when you use them, especially if you get the really strong ones. Also, they tend to stick out of your ears unless you shove them way in (which is bad), causing you to look pretty goofy with orange or blue foam sticking out of your ears.
The remedy that I have found for both of these issues is a scissors. I cut my foam earplugs in half so they are only half as long. This way they do not stick out of my ears, and they give a sufficient amount of dampening without muffling the sounds too much.
You’ve certainly made a good point here, Scott. And I want to add that this doesn’t only apply to musicians, but to fans as well. People who go to concerts, especially those located near the stage, are subjected to extremely loud sounds. This can damage their hearing over time. I would suggest that people living near airports and train stations also get ear plugs to protect their ears from constant exposure to loud noise.
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