Listening to Jazz

Always makes me want to pick up the flute but the flute irritates and aggravates my tinnitus and so I can play only for short periods now. I pick up the flute and play a few notes, or play along with whatever is being played on Jim Bennett's show in KPFA-FM radio and then sit down and insert an ear plug in my right ear, the one that seems most to ring and whistle and shriek after too much loud noise, especially high-pitched noise. Lately I have had urges to drop all my other music pursuits, to drop the singing and the instruments I accompany myself with (guitar, ukulele, guitar-tuned plectrum banjo, autoharp) and go back to my second love, flute, which I began learning in 1969. It is still the instrument I play best and easiest of all simply because of the 15 years or so that I devoted to it and to no other form of music-making. However, to do that I must find effective earplugs, earplugs that cut the noise to a tolerable level yet allow me to hear the nuances of music. Guitar, of course, was my first love and as such still holds a prime position in my musical priorities even though I fear I will never really be all that fluent on it. I will not drop it in any event. Singing and playing guitar remains an essential part of my musical life. So, the search for perfect earplugs is on! Meanwhile, back to our regularly scheduled programming.