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The link between Coronavirus and woodwind and brass instruments

Myth busting the Myth Busters

Lately we have seen a number of videos trying to demonstrate that wind and brass instruments cannot possibly be implicated in spreading Covid-19.  Typically, they use a candle flame, sheet of paper or a plastic ball, which is displaced by someone speaking but is undisturbed by an instrument, even when played up close.  No air comes out, only sound.  Soundwaves do not transmit virus.  Compelling evidence, even conclusive.  So we should be able to get back to playing these instruments now.

Why all the fuss then?  Because these videos ignore two small things.

Physics

We’ll concentrate on brass instruments, since many of these videos do.  Brass instruments are basically nicely wrapped pipes.  The player blows air into one end.  The air cannot escape the tube and there is nothing in the instrument to contain air at pressure, so it must come out the other end.

The reason a trumpet doesn’t blow out a candle is the Venturi effect.  The player blows air under pressure into the leadpipe, which has a very small diameter.  The airstream slows as the tube widens towards the bell.  We can estimate the factor by which the airstream slows as it reaches the end of its travel through the instrument.  The dimensions given here are diameters, not bores, and the figures ignore any friction losses but the principle is demonstrated.

InstrumentLeadpipe diameter (mm)Bell diameter (mm)Area of leadpipe (sq cm)Area of bell (sq cm)Factor by which bell is larger% of initial airspeed at the bell
Trumpet11.651231.07118.821110.90%
Trombone12.7204.41.27328.132590.39%
Tuba17.53862.471,1702870.21%
Yamaha YTR-2330, YSL-354, YEB-201; other models and manufacturers’ specs vary.

This is oversimplifying but air entering the leadpipe at 4m/s[1] will leave a trumpet at about 3.6cm/s, a trombone at about 1.6cm/s and a tuba at slightly over 8mm/s.

Woodwind instruments –including recorders, fifes, tin whistle and ocarinas – are similar, except that air also escapes through the holes along the length of the instrument, reducing the air pressure and therefore the velocity of the airstream at the bell.  Flautists and fife players blow air directly forwards as well as into the instrument, so air is expelled in two directions.

Biology

The other inconvenient truth that the would-be myth busters do not acknowledge is that exhaled breath carries water droplets which are known to contain and transmit Covid-19. The smallest (those below 5μm) are light enough to be picked up by air currents in the room and widely dispersed. These are known as bioaerosols. Vibrations in the instrument break up water droplets, so there will be a larger number of these aerosols than are exhaled by breathing. It is believed that these bioaerosols may remain airborne for extended periods of time and when inhaled by an uninfected person, they are an efficient way of transmitting the disease.

Larger water droplets fall quickly under gravity but still carry and can transmit Covid-19, usually through surface contact. This is known as fomite transmission, the fomite being the object on which the water droplets land.

Conclusion

However much we wish it otherwise, playing woodwind and brass instruments has not been shown to be safe and may only be carried out under limited circumstances. The same applies to singing, which also creates an aerosol-laden air stream. Studies are underway in America, Germany, Japan, Australia and the UK to understand it better but for now, caution must be exercised. For now, the guidance to amateurs remains that they should not meet to play woodwind or brass instruments or to sing in groups although this does not preclude making music at home.

That does not mean that these instruments cannot be played at all. The government has issued guidance for professional musicians, for out-of-school settings and for the full opening of schools in September 2020. We eagerly await music-specific guidance from the Department for Education.

Schools and similar settings can do music using all instruments and singing, although additional measures will be required to control the risks of woodwind, brass and singing. The Music Unlocked guidance on the Music Mark website is being maintained to reflect up-to-date understanding.

[1] Derived from airflow entering a trumpet of 200-600ml/s as measured by a 2010 study at McGill University.

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Sharing space and resources

For several weeks, I have more or less ceded my desk and the ‘good’ laptop (although that’s stretching the term good somewhat: it’s the one with Word and Excel on it) to my eldest for schoolwork. I have been contributing further to the sagginess of the sofa, with an old computer on my lap, running Elementary OS and Libre Office.

While both Elementary and Libre Office are perfectly serviceable and in some regards better than their Microsoft counterparts, the conversion process isn’t always seamless and in delivering useable documents to my client, I’ve had to apologise for strange bullet points or indents that I just can’t seem to do anything about.

I finally decided yesterday – with slightly aching back – that the sofa was not indefinitely sustainable as a workplace and Mrs Garytone and I spent a while rearranging a large TV and a pile of gaming machines so I could reclaim my desk, albeit that means I now work in the same room as my eldest does his schoolwork.

I have not shared an office since leaving Essex Music Services in August 2012. Both my son and I have a habit of talking to ourselves while working (to make matters worse, he is currently composing and various beeps and synthesised violin sounds are emanating from the other corner of the room).

Mrs Garytone and our youngest work on the kitchen table: clichéd but doubtless a very common experience. At least we have enough space to get away from each other when we need to, a small garden and the option of going for a walk (despite the cooler weather). I am conscious that families I knew in my last job and many of the children at Mrs G’s school are not so lucky.

Even so, it remains to see how long sharing an office remains tolerable. I know I did it before but somehow it seems marginally easier with people I’m not closely related to!

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Super music services – again

I am privileged to be working with my former music service colleagues again, looking at what they are all doing to continue offering musical opportunities to children and young people in crazy times.

Of course, many if them are offering online tuition but don’t underestimate the efforts and strain that many music service heads have been through to clear all the hurdles, particularly those which are still part of local authorities.

I imagine many people, at least briefly, imagined that lock down would be a slightly easier time (there would be plenty to be working on). Some people I have spoken to have taken a month to get approval to use Zoom. Others have simply been told no, the safeguarding risks are too great.

Those services that are independent may have been able to take decisions about online platforms more quickly but are grappling with real fears about lost revenues (for most, comfortably into six figures a term), whether and when to furlough staff and the uncertainty of how long it’s all going to carry on.

In spite of this, many music service heads and management teams are thinking strategically in terms of their hastily developed online offers becoming long-term features of their mainstream offer when the country eventually returns to some sort of normal.

They all worry about their services and about how this whole situation will turn out. Paramount is their concern for the teachers and tutors who make the services so great.

While I am thanking my lucky stars that I left music service management before CV19 took hold in the UK, it is exciting to learn how music services are responding and staying positive. My admiration for my colleagues is renewed and increased. I wish them all success in meeting their challenges and with the return to a new normality.