New hearing conservation program aims to protect marching band member’s hearing
USD’s music program is teaming up with the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders to develop a hearing conservation program, starting with earplugs.
Sophomore Daniel Bellis, founder of Students for the Involvement of Music and member of USD’s marching band, said students are excited for the program to start, which will likely happen next fall at band camp.
Students for the Involvement of Music, a student organization created last spring that works to keep students involved with music during their time at USD, is looking to order special earplugs that allow musicians to hear different pitches at lower decibels through the Adopt a Band program, Daniel Bellis said.
The Adopt a Band program promotes hearing awareness for young musicians. Any student band can fill out a registration form on their website to receive ear plugs at a discounted price.
The USD music program intends to use this program from here on out, Daniel Bellis said.
“Your standard earplugs just plug the ear. Those keep out the sound so you can’t hear higher frequencies,” he said. “These earplugs are specially designed to keep all the clarity of the music while only lowering the decibel to avoid hearing damage.”
Starting the program and continuing to fit incoming music students for the earplugs costs an estimated $2,500 annually, said Teri Bellis, chair of the USD Scottish Rite Speech Language and Hearing Clinic.
Custom-fit earplugs for the entire marching band would normally cost $25,000, she added.
Though music students have the option of buying earplugs now, the program will allow for students to receive them free of charge.
Daniel Bellis, Teri Bellis’s son, is also a Student Government Association senator and is leading the effort to get funding for the project. He said Students for the Involvement of Music is pursuing multiple funding options, including student fundraising, grants and SGA funding.
Teri Bellis said developing the hearing conservation program is important because studies show the best thing for brain development is musical training. However, hearing also needs to be protected, as musicians are exposed to such loud levels of noise for extended periods of time.
“Even just the noise in the Dome is damaging, for everyone, not just to the band members,” she said. “Any time in your life if you hear that ringing when you leave a loud area you have done damage.”
Marni Johnson, an audiology clinical coordinator at USD, said hearing aids can’t completely solve hearing loss because they can’t imitate a person’s pitch perception.
“They have such finely-tuned ears that a little bit of change can be devastating,” she said. “But it’s the one thing we can say is 100 percent preventable.”
USD marching band director Johnathan Alvis said he’s excited for the program to be implemented.
“As musicians, the most important tool we have is our ears and we have to protect that,” he said. “We don’t want people to lose their hearing because of marching band.”
(Photo: USD’s marching band, which could potentially be receiving new custom-fit earplugs through a new hearing conservation program, practices Oct. 1. Mollie Bertrand / The Volante)
