Bell Covers

[Jperry1466]

Gotta brag on my wife. When you marry the prettiest girl you ever saw, and she has talents to boot, you know you'd better brag when she's stuck with you going on 50 years. I did a search on how to make tuba bell covers and found this link: https://www.ehow.com/how_8357310_make-t ... cover.html.
The local university tuba teacher and I have been getting together to play tuba duets (social distancing and all that) and then invited a euphonium to make us a trio, then the university guy recruited 3 of his best students and made us into a sextet. We are playing at my church this coming Sunday (socially distanced, of course). Using the pattern in the link, my better half made 6 custom fitted bell covers for us. They look good, don't seem to affect intonation, and have minimal effect on sound. If we get any more members, we will have to rent an airplane hangar to stay socially distant, but it's been nice to play with an ensemble again.

[hrender]

Nice! I've ordered one from a company called Seavine that sells them along with slitted masks. I'll report back on how well they work as the band I'm in has talked about getting back together (socially distanced) for sectionals.

[LeMark]

OK I hope this does offend anyone, but I have to ask. has anybody seen any tests done that show that any breath or saliva particles come out the bell of a tuba? (or even a trumpet for that matter)

[KingTuba1241X]

OK I hope this does offend anyone, but I have to ask. has anybody seen any tests done that show that any breath or saliva particles come out the bell of a tuba? (or even a trumpet for that matter)

No, (and not to debate science and politics for obvious reasons) this is flat earth science. There's no way particles wet or not exit 16-18ft of brass tubing, especially when section mates may be seated 6 ft. away.

[hrender]

There are some studies with preliminary results. Results so far vary. Some things to look at:

• https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07 ... oronavirus
• https://www.nfhs.org/media/4029952/prel ... -13-20.pdf
• https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 20167833v2
• https://nfhs.org/articles/unprecedented ... -19-study/
• https://medicine.uiowa.edu/iowaprotocol ... -recorders

[Worth]

Empirically speaking, bell covers for tubas to prevent the spread of respiratory viral disease is laughable. That's a very long way for those viruses to travel AND be spewed out under pressure. Educational institutions have to show they are making the effort I suppose.

[ParLawGod]

I found a silk shower cap at Dollar Tree that fits perfectly (and with minimal sacrifice to the sound).

[Jperry1466]

This article at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf shows research done in the United Kingdom that includes brass playing and singing. If you will scroll to the bottom of the article, it has some very interesting graphs that say the covers do indeed make a difference, although they don't completely block all particles. Interestingly, the BBb tuba places higher on the scale of released particles than the cornet, which doesn't seem logical to me considering the tubing length of each.

That said, these covers are mainly being used to visually put people at ease, as we will be performing in a 50% capacity church, and none of us in the ensemble has Covid. I'm still proud of my wife's skills, even if each additional cover puts me in the doghouse for another night.

A director in a nearby town gave all his marching band students a mask with a hole cut for the mouthpieces to go through. Yeah...that's gonna work.

[jonesbrass]

Your wife did a fine job on that cover!

Our fall orchestra season was cancelled, but thankfully our brass section is starting our quintet rehearsals up again. Now I need to buy a bell cover and some puppy pee pads so I can attend. They haven’t mentioned one of those slotted masks yet.

What we go through to play!


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[matt g]

I once used the Alteri bell cover for the gig bag as a “mute”.

Makes me wonder how hard would it be for someone to basically make a circle out of cotton cloth and put a drawstring through the seam as opposed to elastic. That way you could over size the thing but still fit multiple bells.

[jonesbrass]

I once used the Alteri bell cover for the gig bag as a “mute”.

Makes me wonder how hard would it be for someone to basically make a circle out of cotton cloth and put a drawstring through the seam as opposed to elastic. That way you could over size the thing but still fit multiple bells.

I’ve had these same thoughts. The Altieri cover mute is tempting, too!


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[bloke]

As long as they don’t harm anyone – other than to separate them from some other money – I have no objection to humbug products. I hope people make a zillion dollars selling them.
What I object to his government coercing me to behave in certain ways based on humbug.

[matt g]

@bloke to your point of people wanting to “see” a band or orchestra play, I can understand where having these covers might offer peace of mind (warranted or not) to the audience.

Plus it keeps people from turning the tuba/sousaphone into a trash can...

[Yadent]

Considering that ‘barriers’ capture ‘dangerous’ microbes and that these barriers provide an excellent growth medium, being kept warm,moist, and reseeded depending on how often one plays, how often are they being cleaned and/or properly disposed of, being ALL are now presumed infectious? In the world of serious infection control protocols, all such barriers being exposed to such a dangerous, infectious, deadly, sneaky (80% don’t know they have it) pathogen such as this virus would logically be considered infectious/biohazard waste and would be handled/disposed of as such.

[bloke]

When we ~see~ the silly media talking heads standing outdoors (near no one) wearing masks - and notice their muted vocal consonants and muffled vocal tone, that surely also applies (just as much, and - as the product is SOUND - even more detrimentally) to brass instrument articulations and sonority. (Creating sounds with brass instruments - as well all know - involves exhaling much less and much slower compared with normal exhaling.)

I have several jobs scheduled for next month...If a "bell cover" is required (though I really could use the dough, during this orchestrated epic recession), I'll likely bow out.

I am willing to wear a mask, though...as well as being willing to carry a social distancing measuring device...



bloke "never a fan of symbolism over substance, and certainly not when substance is compromised"

>> again, though: I hope people become millionaires off of these sorts of things...but not off tax money.
ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dECLi0uu2FE
off-site educational resource, with which some may not agree...at first... https://fee.org/articles/economic-fascism

[Jperry1466]

When we ~see~ the silly media talking heads standing outdoors (near no one) wearing masks - and notice their muted vocal consonants and muffled vocal tone, that surely also applies (just as much, and - as the product is SOUND - even more detrimentally) to brass instrument articulations and sonority. (Creating sounds with brass instruments - as well all know - involves exhaling much less and much slower compared with normal exhaling.)

I have several jobs scheduled for next month...If a "bell cover" is required (though I really could use the dough, during this orchestrated epic recession), I'll likely bow out.

I am willing to wear a mask, though...as well as being willing to carry a social distancing measuring device...
bloke "never a fan of symbolism over substance, and certainly not when substance is compromised"

I don't disagree with anything you said here. That said, the last thing I want to do is discourage anyone from being in a church service whether or not I think they are being misled (at least on the "cover" issue). The cost to me was $10 in materials and the time my wife spent making them. If it made the congregation more at ease since we in the ensemble were not well distanced, then it cost my principles nothing. We just wanted a place to play, and it was an unpaid gig. Anyway, our euphoniums were out of tune enough that they needed to be muffled.

I think your social distancing measuring device would be quite effective, although I've always found that a tuba on display at any campground gives me ample distancing. Adding an accordion adds twice as much.

[jtm]

Considering that ‘barriers’ capture ‘dangerous’ microbes and that these barriers provide an excellent growth medium, being kept warm,moist, and reseeded depending on how often one plays, how often are they being cleaned and/or properly disposed of, being ALL are now presumed infectious? ...

Many things may grow in moist cloth, but a virus can only grow in the cells that it can attack.

[Yadent]

Many things may grow in moist cloth, but a virus can only grow in the cells that it can attack.
[/quote]

Very true. However, within a normal human exhaled breath are literally thousands, hundreds of thousands of bacteria and fungi which can grow exponentially on/within that barrier. Growth to levels that would potentially make them serious pathogens. As for viruses, their numbers would be increasing as the ‘captured’ levels increase. And one is blowing out a substantial number of those with each breath also. With barrier saturation and ‘wicking’, the number of aerosolized viral particles passing thru that barrier will also increase, including the aforementioned bacteria and fungi. There is a reason surgical masks are considered ineffective after 45-60 minutes of use within an highly controlled environment and less than 20 minutes when becoming wet within that same environment. I won’t even go into the physics of viral particles and barriers.

My main point is that if barriers are being utilized, they must be properly cleaned and/or disposed of in a manner that doesn’t promote that which one is trying to prevent.

[Paulver]

Eastman School of Music has required all instrumentalists to cover their instruments and to use bell covers on appropriate instruments. Clarinets, flutes, etc., have a sock of sorts to cover the entire instrument and the player's hands. Brass players use bell covers. My wife made one for my daughter and her French Horn. Will be making several more for her. Additionally, masks must be worn at all times......... even when playing. My wife made a ton of masks for her, and the night before we were to take her back to school, we got an email stating that masks are to be worn while playing, too. So....... she quickly redesigned a mask to include a hole over the mouth, and a flap that covers the hole when the horn is down. She'll be making more of those types this weekend.

Also...... a container must be placed on the floor into which they must empty their spit valves. Containers must be emptied in the bathroom after practice, rehearsal, or performance.

[KingTuba1241X]

Considering that ‘barriers’ capture ‘dangerous’ microbes and that these barriers provide an excellent growth medium, being kept warm,moist, and reseeded depending on how often one plays, how often are they being cleaned and/or properly disposed of, being ALL are now presumed infectious? In the world of serious infection control protocols, all such barriers being exposed to such a dangerous, infectious, deadly, sneaky (80% don’t know they have it) pathogen such as this virus would logically be considered infectious/biohazard waste and would be handled/disposed of as such.

That's not accurate though. Just the other day the CDC now redacted their testing protocols for what we understood as "asymptomatic" carriers.
https://kstp.com/coronavirus/in-stunnin ... FyM0EOF5YM