Hi there

I'm not sure if I have tinnitus. I guess time will tell. At the moment I'm
hearing a faint ringing tone at night when everything is quiet. It started
somewhere in Jan or Feb, I'm not sure. Now I know that tinnitus could be
caused by frequent exposure to loud noise. I suspect that might be the case
with me. I am guilty of doing my time in loud disco's etc. Sometimes with my
ears ringing the next morning. But it's been a while since such an
experience, maybe 3 times in the last 6 months.

My questions / issues are :
1. At the moment I'm preparing for an entrance exam at a music school. I
play saxophone. This means I have been practising religiously, every day,
for the past 2 months. I use backing tracks on my stereo to play along with,
and have to put up the volume quite a lot to be able to hear it over the
'noise' (to my neighbors!) that I make with my sax. My neighbor
congratulated me the other day, telling me that my playing has improved
quite a lot. I was surprised. She must be hearing exactly what I'm doing,
therefore I must be generating a substantial amount lot of noise... Could
this frequent playing (given the neighbors can hear me quite well) have
anything to do with the ringing in my ears ? Has anybody, as a parttime
musician, experienced hearing damage from practise alone ? I guess I could
judge myself wether it's too loud, but maybe I've grown accustomed to it.

2. Would it be worth it to give the playing a break for a month or so, to
see if the ringing goes away ? That would mean that I will not be able to
enter the music school this year, because the exams are in May... But if it
comes down to choosing between waiting until next year and my hearing (even
though I love music more than anything else), I definitely choose the
latter.

3. If one has exposed oneself to loud noise for a period of time, and then
stop doing it, could tinnitus still occur after, say 6 months ? I'm trying
to determine whether all that time I spent on the dance floor in my twenties
is now taking it's toll. But as I have said, I haven't done much of that
recently, but maybe the damage is only catching up with me now.

Any other advice is appreciated. I am a novice when it comes to this.

Regards
Jacques