Are you performing with a face mask?

[ProfD]

Nevertheless I heard a report documenting that playing horns (especially saxes with multiple tone holes) will disperse far more droplets, and even further from the source than that from an unmasked person talking or singing. So, if anything, the Sax needs a mask!.

Whether or not this is true or accurate, wearing a mask while playing a sax won't do anything to reduce the droplets because you're blowing into the horn through a hole in the mask. If droplets are really being dispersed through the toneholes (which I doubt) or the bell (more likely). it's the blowing into the sax that's doing that and the mask doesn't stop that because you're blowing through a hole in the mask. This is ridiculous.

The sax player wearing a mask was meant to be tongue in a cheek. There's no way to keep those droplets in check once the blowing starts.

[MAJUSCULE]

Nevertheless I heard a report documenting that playing horns (especially saxes with multiple tone holes) will disperse far more droplets, and even further from the source than that from an unmasked person talking or singing. So, if anything, the Sax needs a mask!.

Whether or not this is true or accurate, wearing a mask while playing a sax won't do anything to reduce the droplets because you're blowing into the horn through a hole in the mask. If droplets are really being dispersed through the toneholes (which I doubt) or the bell (more likely). it's the blowing into the sax that's doing that and the mask doesn't stop that because you're blowing through a hole in the mask. This is ridiculous.

 

There are special horn masks that cover the instrument.

[El Lobo]

There are special horn masks that cover the instrument.

Yes, I've seen those. That would make more sense. Still, all my gigs have been outdoors, distanced, and I'm vaxxed so I'm not putting a mask on my horn. Our county just went to yellow tier, the least restrictive, and California is supposed to end mask requirements on June 15 so it's all academic at this point.

[MAJUSCULE]

There are special horn masks that cover the instrument.

Yes, I've seen those. That would make more sense. Still, all my gigs have been outdoors, distanced, and I'm vaxxed so I'm not putting a mask on my horn. Our county just went to yellow tier, the least restrictive, and California is supposed to end mask requirements on June 15 so it's all academic at this point.

 

Oh, sure, to each their own. You bring up the very important point again, however, that each region has it's own context, which renders so much of this (a little too heated) discussion moot. My province is now leading the way in cases in NA.

 

Listen to your doctor, folks. Your doctor. Not a doctor on TV or YT who lives elsewhere. Not someone on this forum or on social media who might, or might not, be knowledgeable in the topic. If you suspect your doctor might not be up to date, or might be withholding information from you, get a second opinion. From a doctor in your community, not any of the people I just referenced.

 

If you don't trust any doctors near you, may as well move to somewhere where you trust the medical care, right?

 

Also, ounce of prevention, pound of cure, or whatever?

[Stokely]

The real question will be (for me): what to do if we get booked at a place that doesn't allow masks? (I'm not seriously worried about it, cross that bridge if you get there!)

 

And here in Central FL there have been a few this whole time. I expect that number to possibly grow. Certainly at my last gig the mask-wearing was few and far between, those staff that had them on were wearing them as chin strips. It was outdoor, but bathrooms are indoors, and tend to be crowded.

[MathOfInsects]

I don"t really think it"s practical for singers or horn-blowers to wear masks (or for their horns to). You"d just have to take the gig knowing the deal going in.

[MAJUSCULE]

I don"t really think it"s practical for singers or horn-blowers to wear masks (or for their horns to). You"d just have to take the gig knowing the deal going in.

 

I disagree, they seem to have worked just fine when they've been used around me.

[MathOfInsects]

I don"t really think it"s practical for singers or horn-blowers to wear masks (or for their horns to). You"d just have to take the gig knowing the deal going in.

 

I disagree, they seem to have worked just fine when they've been used around me.

Right, I should clarify: there is nothing impractical about wearing a mask if you play keyboards or guitar or drums. I can see the argument for impracticality if you're a singer or horn-blower (regardless of whether some might find a way to make it work). So while you could have every expectation that (for example) the guitarist you are going to play with might be masked, that would be harder to rely on with singers or horn-blowers.

[drawback]

And stay away from the horn guys shaking out their petri-valves.

[Stokely]

Our singer did one inside gig a few months ago and wore a mask while singing. She had several people she didn't know and a few she did give her varying degrees of guff over it. One of her (now former) friends got hostile enough that her husband (also in the band) stepped in and it was about to get ugly. As it is they are no longer on speaking terms as apparently he kept up the harassment on crapbook....all over a ****ing mask and the inability of some to be reasonable.

 

Her stories are what have kind of prepared me for some amount of confrontation at certain upcoming gigs. I'm in Florida after all.

[El Lobo]

Our singer did one inside gig a few months ago and wore a mask while singing. ... One of her (now former) friends got hostile enough that her husband (also in the band) stepped in and it was about to get ugly.

Do I understand correctly that a friend of the singer got hostile over the singer wearing a mask? I do not understand what's going on in the head of a person getting hostile over that. It seems like some kind of triggering of deep-seated anger over something else.

[ElmerJFudd]

Ah choo. In other news, I find wearing a mask while doing yard work, carpentry, and other 'manly' jobs quite helpful. I"ll be wearing one from now on. Cowboys and other folks who work in arid conditions always keep a bandana or some other such mask as well. Those that live in desert regions have them as normal attire. In Asia - where they have dealt with infectious outbreaks before and they don"t have the same EPA standards as the US the population is used to wearing them when they are traveling - public transportation, when flying, etc. I often see Asian families sight seeing in the US out and about shopping with masks. Having now experienced friends and neighbors hospitalized and worse due to a virus I can understand their caution. Heck, given the amount of times I had literally days of a vacation ruined by the common cold after flying, I"ll have one with me on flights from now on. I remember one time I was booked to fly home from Europe a good 8 hours in the air and I had just come down with a cold. I felt awful for the poor guy next to me as I struggled to keep from coughing, sneezing and wheezing all over him. I wish I"d had a mask that day out of courteousness for sure. Looking back on the last year - my feeling is, masks are a useful garment previously under appreciated. ymmv

[MathOfInsects]

Do I understand correctly that a friend of the singer got hostile over the singer wearing a mask? I do not understand what's going on in the head of a person getting hostile over that. It seems like some kind of triggering of deep-seated anger over something else.

Denial is a fragile perch.

[pinkfloydcramer]

Being in a position of semi-retired and never having to accept another, what I classify has a "shit gig" in my life. And it comes with realizing my life long dream of never having to play another electronic keyboard in my life. That is really a pot at the end of the rainbow for me.

 

Congratulations, Sir. Living the dream!

[ajstan]

The governor just announced that all health orders in Ohio, including the mask mandate, will end as of June 2, with a few restrictions remaining in-place for nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

 

While we have never been asked to wear masks on stage (which was never a government-mandated policy here), we complied with the prevailing orders and encouraged the crowd do the same so as not to put the venues that hire us (and are trying to keep their businesses viable) at risk of fines or closure from the mask police.

 

We have 5 gigs remaining this month, 3 or 4 of which will be on outdoor stages, then it will be nice to see a full night of smiling faces again..

[Tom Williams]

The sax player wearing a mask was meant to be tongue in cheek. There's no way to keep those droplets in check once the blowing starts.

Wouldn't that cause other problems regarding articulation?

[Tom Williams]

Denial is a fragile perch.

...and a historically fertile river.

[ElmerJFudd]

Detailed and quite awesome arrangement executed US Army Band style...

 

[video:youtube]

[El Lobo]

That Army Band Mandalorian theme vid just proves my point about ridiculousness. What is the point of all those wind players wearing masks while blowing out through their instruments? The mask should be on the instruments, not on the players with a hole for them to blow their aerosols out to all the other players, as well as to breathe in the aerosols of the other players through the instruments. It doesn't make any sense and it demonstrates lack of understanding for why masks in the first place.

[Stokely]

Our singer did one inside gig a few months ago and wore a mask while singing. ... One of her (now former) friends got hostile enough that her husband (also in the band) stepped in and it was about to get ugly.

Do I understand correctly that a friend of the singer got hostile over the singer wearing a mask? I do not understand what's going on in the head of a person getting hostile over that. It seems like some kind of triggering of deep-seated anger over something else.

 

Yes. I know him pretty well too, but hadn't seen him in a couple years, he used to come to many of our gigs before a health issue. Apparently something has pushed him in a certain direction, his last words to her were some advice to buy up more guns because you'll need them in the times ahead or some such thing. So you may be right on with your triggering comment.

 

Other than him, she said it's mostly just "jokes" about her mask or people encouraging her to take it off "c'mon, take it off, have some fun, don't be scared!" type of thing. There are people who take it personally that you'd dare to wear a mask around them, like you are saying THEY in particular are sick. People are self-centered and dumb.

[bfields]

These days anyone trying to organize an event will get grief whatever they do. Simplest for them may be to stick to the letter of whatever guidance they get from their closest public health department. Unfortunately, that's probably not much more than "everyone present at an outdoor gathering of more than 50 people must wear a mask"; and nobody's gotten around to drafting rules for wind players.

 

So, as a performer I'd say, "ok, we'll do our best", and work out whatever compromise made the most sense to me and is least likely to give the organizer additional heartburn.

 

In Asia - where they have dealt with infectious outbreaks before...

 

Worth remembering this is the third novel coronavirus outbreak in the last 20 years (SARS, MERS, then COVID-19, right?). The US lucked out on the previous two, but maybe that left us a little less prepared.

[Stokely]

I doubt most people in this country even knew or remember the first two.

 

I was in china around the time one of them was hitting, and it is a bit jarring to have (very young) soldiers with automatic rifles waiting with temperature guns when we left the plane. They grabbed my cousin and took him away who knows where, and my wife (our translater) hadn't met us yet. He registered high on the temperature scanner. Talk about scary. I got to see a few propaganda vids on the train and elsewhere about the "American flu" (sound familiar?) and being the only westerner in sight quite often that wasn't such a great feeling.

 

It should be mentioned that many Chinese people wear masks thinking they stop the pollution from cars etc (they don't).

[El Lobo]

... his last words to her were some advice to buy up more guns because you'll need them in the times ahead ...

Yikes. I would keep my distance and try not to provoke him.

[ProfD]

Worth remembering this is the third novel coronavirus outbreak in the last 20 years (SARS, MERS, then COVID-19, right?). The US lucked out on the previous two, but maybe that left us a little less prepared.

Those outbreaks were under-reported in the US. However, as a result of them, that's how a vaccine was prepared at warp speed.

[MathOfInsects]

I"m having my Michael-from-the-Godfather moment, but:

 

As spectacularly effective as these vaccines are, they only prevent about 90% of transmission. That means they *fail* to prevent infection about 1 out of every 10 times. This means that you will be infectious to othersâpotentially without even knowing itâat that same rate.

 

That"s why getting jabbed is not a magic ticket to masklessness, until we reach the proper mathematical threshold...which we have not.

 

Worth noting that today the CDC says even if vaccinated people become infected, all recent studies say the viral load in their bodies is not likely to be high enough to infect others. Huge shift, and a big deal.

[stoken6]

There are people who take it personally that you'd dare to wear a mask around them, like you are saying THEY in particular are sick.

I don't get this. Masks reduce transmission - if I wear a mask around you, it's in case I'm sick.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

I"m having my Michael-from-the-Godfather moment, but:

 

As spectacularly effective as these vaccines are, they only prevent about 90% of transmission. That means they *fail* to prevent infection about 1 out of every 10 times. This means that you will be infectious to othersâpotentially without even knowing itâat that same rate.

 

That"s why getting jabbed is not a magic ticket to masklessness, until we reach the proper mathematical threshold...which we have not.

 

Worth noting that today the CDC says even if vaccinated people become infected, all recent studies say the viral load in their bodies is not likely to be high enough to infect others. Huge shift, and a big deal.

 

 

+2 My mom lives in a nursing home and was vaccinated in January with the rest of the residents.... Then in March she tested positive for the virus. Strange, especially considering she was the only one, but they finally figured it came from one of the staff there. But she showed no symptoms, none at all. She is 85 and would likely be dead now otherwise. Two good things to consider: She didn't get sick at all, and no one else got infected. The doctors are saying it was the vaccine that kept it all to a minimum.

 

Sample size n=1. I know, I know. But it makes me so much happier to be vaccinated and not burying my head in the sand like the guy here at the office who refuses to get vaxxed because he thinks it will give his kids Autism.

[El Lobo]

... like the guy here at the office who refuses to get vaxxed because he thinks it will give his kids Autism.

That's actually a funny line ... in a very sad way

[stoken6]

@Lou Gehrig good news story, thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[EscapeRocks]

 

Worth noting that today the CDC says even if vaccinated people become infected, all recent studies say the viral load in their bodies is not likely to be high enough to infect others. Huge shift, and a big deal.

 

Yeah.. The CDC now says that if you're fully vaccinated, there is no longer a need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors, and it's okay to actually stand next to someone.