Bell covers to stop COVID?!?!

[SwaggyG]

I need an honest opinion from my fellow bone players. How should I feel about possibly being forced to put a bell cover on my trombone in order to play. I love to play my trombone it gives me a sense of freedom as well as brings peace to my life. All opinions and concerns are welcome. Cheers!

[Bach5G]

What about the spit valve?

[JLivi]

Article: Wind Instruments May Not Be As Contagious As We Thought

https://medium.com/@SixtoFMontesinos/wi ... 21e590b29a

[Burgerbob]

Most of our time around each other is spent not playing, when in a rehearsal or concert. The stuff coming out of the bell (which is not much, as seen above) is of tertiary concern.

[BGuttman]

You have to keep a distance of 2 meters to prevent contamination by droplets. Your instrument is almost 3 meters long. It's like having a 9 foot separation between you and whomever is listening (plus however far they are from the bell).

[elmsandr]

I need an honest opinion from my fellow bone players. How should I feel about possibly being forced to put a bell cover on my trombone in order to play. I love to play my trombone it gives me a sense of freedom as well as brings peace to my life. All opinions and concerns are welcome. Cheers!

You should be more concerned about what else is going on other than a bell cover... How close will other performers be? How much ventilation is in the room? How will masks be worn when not blowing into the horn? You put the horn down and exhale.... that puts as much air into the room from your lungs as many minutes of playing.

I cannot imagine being concerned about a cover on the bell compared to the rest of the plan.

Cheers,
Andy

[bbocaner]

My gut feeling backed up by no research or science at all is that the volume of air you are putting into an instrument is actually relatively small, and that you have 9+ feet of tubing for any particles to adhere to the inside of the instrument, so any actual airlow at the bell side where the tubing has expanded is very low and there probably isn't a whole lot in it. That said, if someone was adamant that I put something over my bell, and it didn't change the way the instrument played or otherwise cause me a problem I probably would just do it to shut them up.

However, a lot of players I know get a lot of spittle coming out of the corners of their mouth when they play, not to mention emptying water keys on the floor. And a lot of talking happens in rehearsal too, for which you won't be masked because you've got to play a wind instrument. One person getting sick because we wanted to have a rehearsal is one too many.

[stewbones43]

What about the spit valve?

You have a spit valve that will cover the bell?

Cheers

Stewbones

[BGuttman]

I said above that the trombone is more than the required social separation distance. Baileyman, in a private correspondence, mentioned seeing "droplets". I assume he saw a Tyndall Effect playing into a room with a bright beam of light. This could just as easily be dust as droplets. Also, I assume that the people who worked out the Social Distance criteria were able to determine if the droplets at 3 meters were less hazardous than the droplets at 2 meters or 1 meter.

I am by no means an infectious disease expert and have to rely on the pronouncements of those who are (and this specifically excludes politicians of any stripe).

I did find something on Ebay a long time ago that was not intended for COVID control called a Bell Bag. I bought one on a lark. It appears to cover the bell but does not seem to affect sound much. I actually wondered if it could be like a Crown Royal bag but it didn't even work like one of those.

[Posaunus]

I did find something on Ebay a long time ago that was not intended for COVID control called a Bell Bag. I bought one on a lark. It appears to cover the bell but does not seem to affect sound much. I actually wondered if it could be like a Crown Royal bag but it didn't even work like one of those.

Crown Royal 1.75L bags (purple or green):
• Will fit over bells up to 8 inches diameter
• Very slight (and rather pleasant) muting effect - does not appreciably change essential trombone sound character
• Colorful and fun
• Very light weight
• Very inexpensive (numerous eBay sellers)
• Probably as effective as a cotton face mask in inhibiting droplet distribution (if that's the only concern) – though it's been shown that moisture ejected from a trombone bell is minimal in any case, even without such a filter
• Do NOT assume that bell covering will "protect" you (or others) from COVID-19 in a group assembly, whether you're just conversing, playing music, emptying water valves, etc. There are no magic bullets.
• Use your common sense, listen to the experts (not politicians), be careful, keep your distance, and stay healthy!