In order to determine potential hearing threshold shifts, audiometric measurements were carried out prior to and
after the rehearsals on those musicians who are located at positions in the orchestra where the highest sound
exposures were reached or on those with the loudest instruments. Thus, pure-tone audiometry was performedon six
musicians aged between 16 and 33 years 30 minutesprior to and ten minutes after the rehearsals, respectively. For
details on audiometry see [22].
In addition to the objective measurements, a subjective evaluation was carried out by means of a questionnaire
comprising 18 items. Besides the general information about the musicians such as age, gender, job and potential preexisting
hearing impairments, the musicians were asked about their personal feelings regarding the sound exposures
during the rehearsals arising from their own instrument and the instrument of the musician sitting next to him/her.
Furthermore, the musicians were asked whether the reached sound levels in the orchestra were experienced as noise
which might even cause discomfort. In the final part of the questionnaire, the musicians should indicate whether
they are even aware of potential risks of hearing impairments while playing in the wind orchestra and whether they
have been thinking about appropriate means of protection. In addition, reasons were mentioned
why,unfortunately,the easiest way of protection, namely the wearing of individual hearing protectors, is often not
applied.