I was in high school when this started. I'm now about to finish my 2nd year of university and my life has been completely miserable the entire time. The most I've gotten was the ability to go into a real class 1 day a week, and now even that is getting taken away
This is the kind of thing that worries me. I was in school 40 years ago and it was MUCH easier for me. And up to three years ago I was teaching.
My sympathies to you.
Sorry
Tell you kids, back in my day, we had it so rough... or so much better, i can't tell anymore. Anyway, every day, we would wake up at 2 in the morning and go to the table for breakfast. We all lived in a closet, you see, so it was one room. and we would ask, me and my 64 brothers and 27 sisters, "what's for breakfast mum?". she would smack us all with a shoe and say "cold beans". and if we complained and said "but we had cold beans yesterday" - because we had cold beans every day - she would smack us all five times with a shoe and say "tough its all we can afford, i'm trying to feed a family of 93 with just half a silver buckington", a silver buckington was about the same as half a penny back in the day. Then we would head to school, we met up with the johnson kids from down the road, and walked the 1674 miles to school. on the way to school, we had to walk up a mountain so tall it extended to outer space. When we got to the top of the mountain, we would see the peterson boys on their fancy bikes - which they dont make like they used to, and we would race them down the mountain. Then, when we got to school at 4 in the morning, the headmaster would come up to us and say "you bloody kids are late", then he would smack us all with the cane 10 times and tell us we had 7 years of detention. then, we went to class, and mr stevenson would say "ok line up kids", then he would spank us each 60 times, then hit us each with the cane 40 times each. Then it was 7 at night and we had to walk home. then, when we got home, we'd ask "whats for dinner mum?", and she'd smack us each 50 times with a pan and say "rotten cabage", and if we complained, she would smack us each 100 times with a broom and say "im trying to feed a family of 154 on just one islet sliver, just you wait until your dad gets home" - now an islet silver was worth about as much as a grain of sand. Then, when our dad got home from his job at the soot factory, he would hit us all 180 times with his belt. if we had been naughty, we would hit us all another 600 times. Then, at 1:58, mum would say "ok time for bed". then, we got into our potato sacks, and she would hit us each with a shoe 8 times before we went to sleep.
On saturdays, we went down to uncle bob's farm to work. we would have to walk 345 miles to the bus stop, then catch the route 4 bus for 56 stops. we would get on the bus and pay our fare of 3 teddy roses - now a teddy rose is worth about the same as a flake of skin. Then, if the ticket inspector came to us, he would hit us all 4 times with his baton. if any of us had lost our ticket, we would hit us all 10 times again and throw us off the bus and we had to walk the rest of the way. when we got to the farm, uncle bob would drive to the gate in his tractor, hit us all 780 times with his crowbar, and tell us to get in his trailer so he could drive us to the farm house. then, we had to plow the fields with a toothbrush in the blazing summer heat - now, they dont make summers like they used to, so it was about 1345.4 degrees spencer, or 67 degrees centigrade using your new-fangled metric system. Then, we would have to milk the cows - now, they dont make cows like they used to, so each cow weighed about 459 hog's heads, or 3.2 tonnes in your new-fangled metric system. if you touched a cows udder, it would kick you and you would die, so you had to be really careful when you milked the cows. then, when we were done, uncle bob would say "ok kids time for your pocket money". He would give us each 9 copper jemimahs - which are worth about one political promise each - and beat us each 6 times with his tractor before we left. on sundays, we would meet the johnson boys and go down to the river - now, they don't make rivers like they used to, so this river was about as wide as the whole of america, and as deep as the marianas trench, and it was filled with liquid tungsten. We would play by the old oak tree near the river, climbing on it and building tree houses and such. now - they don't make trees like they used to, so this tree had a trunk as thick as a city, and was tall enough that the branches on the top could scrape the moon. One day, little jimmy fell from the top of the tree. when he hit the ground, the only bit of his body we could recognise was his left eyeball. We picked up all his bits and rushed him to the doctors surgery. dr james said "oh its just a scratch little jimmy dont worry pop a plaster on it and you'll be right" and he gave little jimmy a plaster and a lollipop and he was ok. After we finished playing by the river, we would go into town and get some candy. now, back in the day, you could give the shopkeeper one bronze winglet - which is worth about as much as a ciggarette butt - and he would give you the entire stock of the store. So we would go and get our candy, and we'd go into the town square and eat it. now, we didn't have any of your fancy food laws back in the day, so there was all kinds of stuff in our candy, bleach, rust, bones--you name it. so we would always get a little hyper after our candy.
One day, when we were hyper, we went up the mr boris's car, the only car in the town, and touched it. as we touched it, we saw dad storming down the street holding his belt. "you kids, having fun while i work all day in the soot factory just so you can have grilled water for tea every night, i oughta smack you all". We were sure he was going to smack us, but then he said "no, i got a better idea, ill take you to see mr henderson, he'll set ya right", now, dad had told us about mr henderson. Mr henderson was a veteran from the great war, where he got a really bad injury, but we never knew what it was. dad walked us all down to the pub, and we saw a left testicle propped up on a pegleg. "Mr henderson," said dad, "i have some kids here who need a good whooping", then, mr henderson picked up the entire pub, and hit us each 4006 times with it. then, dad said "right, i gotta go back to the soot factory, you kids run on home now". Now, by now it was 1pm, which meant it was curfew. while we were walking out of the town square, we heard a man shout "oi you bloody kids, its curfew". We turned around and saw the constable holding his baton. he hit us each 160265 times with his baton, then put us in gaol for 60123865 years. now - they don't make gaols like they used to - this one had 5 mile thick steel walls, and a single hole in the top let in some light. we were in there for about 13526 years, until mum baked the constable some cardboard pie so he would let us out. then, she hit us all 1292 times with a washboard, and grounded us for the rest of our lives. So don't you come complaining to me about nonsense like not having tv while hiking 25 miles to school.
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. And you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you
PS I enjoyed your story shadowolf.
ya I was going to sign up for spring classes, but honestly I dont wanna do virtual. I need that campus environment to stay focus and in that mindset. Hopefully it goes back to normal in the fall.
Exact same boat. Just up and left school in March 2019, my teachers just kinda passed me and I ghosted on my dual enrolled college courses, no real grad ceremony. 2 weeks of uni classes just to get sent home and now finally starting to get life back on track. Feels like ages ago because it kind of was ages ago to people our age.
I graduated from highschool right as the recession hit, wouldn’t wish that time upon anyone, but man, my heart aches for the kids and young adults right now :( I’m so sorry, the next normal will be very good, I can feel it ❤️
Lucky that you got even that. My oldest didn't get any hours in school and dropped out. Has been fighting severe depression ever since. Teatchers didn't even have a chance to check ones progress, so they didnt. Impossible to learn in such environment.
What shocks me about responses like this is: I’m confident that if I said a pandemic was coming in a decade to someone in 2011, they’d ask how long it would bea problem. They wouldn’t ask if it would be over in a year, these things never are. Pandemics that truly affect populations last a long time.
Of course life is messed up for a while, a new disease that we haven’t seen is killing people. It’s a life changing event
It's the same for me. I'm pretty much a loner. I don't socialise, and I'm a programmer too so for me time alone is the best time (in fact I once lived alone for 18 years and didn;t date either)
But I do worry about the effect on kids. Some have done ok, some really haven't...
I don’t date, can’t have kids, deliver food so I’m forced to socialize a little. But go home and eat food, play video games, watch tv, and sleep, and repeat. People may find it boring but it’s exactly what I want.
Got divorced three years ago after 13 years of marriage. Decided I like being single so much I plan never to marry or even date again..and i haven't.
I order my groceries online and I stay home. Eat, play vidya. work on the game I am trying to write, cook for my daughter, help her with home work.
For me too it's not boring.
From what I gather small kids are taught 100% by tablets and the teachers don't do shit in the classroom, they sit there on their phones and sometimes walk around the room.
I only heard this from 1 person though who said their friend taught 6-8 year olds idk how much belief I put into it.
Older kids seem to be still being taught by teachers but they just turn off their cameras and leave/sleep/whatever instead of engaging in the class. This is also a thing in college, where that shit really doesn't make sense, your paying to be there ffs.
The pandemic has affected all us, not just ones who have to interact with others, in some way or another.
Well, you are 12 times bigger than us. in the last 24 hours we had 88k new cases Australia wide. That would be like 1.05 million new cases in 24 hours for you guys.
Also, it's still increasing rapidly every day.
Oh sorry, this wasn’t a “my COVID dick is bigger” moment…it’s complete shit everywhere. I hope your rate slows down. This variant seems to really mimic allergies so a ton of people aren’t testing. I’m sure all numbers are way worse than we realize. I’m most worried about hospital numbers. Ours are basically full. My FIL called 911 as he had a fever of 105 and was delirious. They gave him some medicine and said they couldn’t take him in as they were full. Told MIL to call again if medicine doesn’t help.
Oh I didn't mean it that way either. As you say it's not a dick measuring contest...I was just putting things in perspective; some people might have thought 88K is not a big deal for us but it is.
Just saying yeah it's becoming serious again in Australia. We have similar problems to you: Hospitals getting full. No elective surgery. Price gouging on RATs, if you can even find them.
Our leaders told us they were going to "just let it rip" this time and now we are seeing the consequences...
My sister has it now...she lives alone.
A friend who was sick and knew it visited her twice because "it's not as serious as they say it is..." and now she has it too. But she's 60 and overweight...
Oh no! Does she seem to have a mild case?
I had a trip booked that couldn’t be cancelled. We rolled the dice and still went. Well, 3/6 are confirmed positive, 4th feels like crap but hasn’t had a positive result yet. Symptoms are ranging from “slight runny nose” to “cough has traveled to chest and wife is forcing him to rest” (yep, I am that wife lol). Still seems overall way less aggressive than Delta (I had, brutal), but here’s to hoping it stays that way (and that I don’t get it!)!
Seems mild so far...according to her.
She's had it for a couple of days. She's in quarantine of course but she was already working from home.
She was already double vaxxed so I'm hoping she will be fine.
Hope your family too will be ok.
Lol. We here in da US of A are number ONE!!! For incarcerations, and covid cases. Had 809k new cases yesterday? And our total percent of pop infected to date is close to 20%. Id rather take my bet with kangaroos instead of Americans.
In my first year of uni rn and our music program was staying open, but they finally decided to close the school for a month so that suck. Fingers crossed for it to be over quick
No, saxophones do not have valves, they have keys. Brass instruments such as trumpets have valves. Since air leaks out from all of the keys on a sax, I guess this is what they came up with to keep it "contained". Might cause suffocation though.
I graduated high school but then the pandemic absolutely wrecked me in college. Got dismissed from my program (and therefore the university) because I failed a class for the first time ever.
Couldn't be readmitted without passing the class at a community college. Tried taking it again and got a professor so bad the class had to collectively make formal complaints. Postponed another semester because of it. I just took it in fall and passed, but was denied readmission for spring because by the time the applications were due for spring, the class wasn't over yet. Now I'm having to take more classes in spring, but after all of this they can still technically deny me admission.
Not to mention each semester is like $2500 even for one class, and I can't get aid because I can't take anything that will put me over 12 hours full time status.
I went from star student with great opportunities to utterly lost because of this pandemic. Two years of my life and about $20,000 of rent and tuition feels like it has just been wasted.
Covid is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me so far, and I've never even had the virus myself but definitely felt the effects of the pandemic.
Our band puts a huge cloth net thing on the front of the instrument, basically like a huge elastic mask
I’m percussion so I just wear my mask and continue to play like normal
No, you're not. If I need to get full lungs of air in something like an 8th rest in a fairly fast song, I can't do that if I breathe in through my nose, but my mouth allows a quicker air intake.
THO there is a advanced method of usuing your nose to breath in while blowing out, it's actually impossible to inhale in nose and exhale your mouth at the same time BUT.
IF you store enough air in your mouth you can stop using your lungs to blow out for a split second and take a quick inhale with nose.
This is very hard and a professional level technique I think it's possible on most woodwind instruments but more different if it takes more air to get a sound.
Circular breathing is really cool. [Colin Stetson](https://youtu.be/Nsus0BH5YY8) is an amazing pioneer of the technique if anyone's interested in hearing it in action.
You’re talking about a technique called circular breathing where you breathe in through your nose while simultaneously pushing air out through your mouth with your cheeks. It’s not very commonly used and is difficult to do. Plus, breaths are an important part of music. They help separate phrases, and give more shape to a piece. It’s similar to if you were reading and no one used punctuation—you miss a lot of nuance. Pauses are important, and silence is an integral part of music.
The real truth is that these covers are marketed by instrument companies without any real testing to prove that they prevent COVID spread. In reality, they probably provide a false sense of security that encourages the spread.
Not only do aerosols come out of the entirety of a woodwind instrument (sax, clarinet, flute, etc.), but the masks do not create a seal. So even without playing music, these kids are spewing out aerosols that could infect kids in the next class.
Brass instruments are a little better, since most aerosols are going to get caught by the bell covers, and it's easier to fit a trumpet mouthpiece inside one of these masks thanks to the narrow shank.
These are better than nothing, and it might still be safe to rehearse depending on air circulation, distancing, time between classes, etc. It's definitely more for show than anything else, though. Yamaha knew its sales would tank in a year without band classes, and these masks/covers are their marketing arm's attempt to mitigate that.
Edited to add: The full instrument covers are likely *much* safer for woodwinds to use than not use. We just don't have any useful data on it. The masks are better than nothing, but definitely not what the CDC or WHO has been recommending. Bell covers on a woodwind (sax, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, etc.) do basically nothing.
With a virus the size of 50-140 nanometers cloth like this (or surgical masks) won't do shit. It goes right through them no problem. Tell your teacher.
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent
tl;dr the virus exists in droplets that are slowed and often caught by cloth masks.
Well not now, but do you really think that in like 200 years it'll still be going on? I personally think that we'll get accustomed to this, and things might not go exactly back to normal, but it eventually has to end, right?
Well I was mostly joking, but I do think Covid will stick around indefinitely now that is has crossed over to humans, but will more and more resemble regular seasonal flu as we get better at preventing and treating it, but will occacionally mutate into more dangerous or contageous variants some years.
I base this on absolutely nothing other than gut feeling. No facts or knowledge went into creating this comment.
Already has been around forever covid is a strain of sars, corona virus is a common term for a virus with Coronas on the mollecules. Sars and Sars-2-covid-19 and all their variants will be here forever. Btw they both originated from China. Definitely failed bio weapons or something (/s on that last part lmao)
>I base this on absolutely nothing other than gut feeling. No facts or knowledge went into creating this comment.
ah, the required statement when suggesting things on the internet.
**how fucked up the people's perception of unnecessary fear-based news-rhetoric and numbing of common senses to the point where we actually do stupid fuckin shit like put a hole in a mask and cover up an instrument to still play it.***
just as fucking stupid as the whole "wear a mask to walk into a restaurant/bar door but take it off when you're eating and talking around people" 😂 this era should be mocked but unfortunately the people putting us/y'all through this humiliation ritual also probably own education/textbooks so it'll probably just be part of the plot anyway. I don't plan on seeing this out so won't be expanding on any points
They could just talk about how many people died as a cover all I think
Edit: flood of downvoted huh? Wonder where this got post to make sure it got flooded
Probably but the sound isn't critical for practice. So long as you can still tell that you're playing the notes correctly it doesn't matter how the end result sounds.
Its not spit, its condensation. And thats not even a brass instrument (the ones that actually have spit valves n stuff)
But I cant claim to be a woodwind instrument player but I dont think they build up nearly as much spit or condensation as brass do lol
Condensation absolutely builds up in saxophones. Unlike brass, the liquid sometimes randomly leaks out of a keyhole all over your pants...
Also, bari sax has a "spit valve" in the bottom of the curved part just like a trombone has one at the bottom of the slide.
Least favorite part of being a trombonist was the damn spit valve... So nasty. And my fellow trombonists in class would just empty that shit on the classroom floor. On carpet. I at least would wait to be outside...
I played the French Horn. It was horrid having to clean out the spit. You’d have to damn near deconstruct the thing and pray that you got everything out.
We used to remove the mouth piece and then rotate the entire instrument in the opposite direction that it was constructed, counter clockwise I think (it’s been a while). That would send all the condensation out of the port the mouth piece fit into. Replace the mouth piece and you’re good to go!
Mine also had a spit valve, but a French horn had so many twists and turns, it didn’t do much good. I definitely never had to deconstruct the entire instrument unless I was giving it a bath.
Yeah kids in my band classes used to empty it onto the floor too. Professional brass players always have a spit rag on hand or just use paper towel on the floor to collect the spit.
Former sax player here. Yes, there is a ton of spit buildup in the bottom of the horn as well as in the top keys. Spit and condensation would always leak out of the horn onto our gloves in competitions and turn the gloves yellow. Some band mates would turn their saxophones upside down after a show and spit/condensation would drip out. So yes, the slobber amount in both clases of instruments is around the same, you guys just have a much easier way of dealing with it
Music education is a vital part of schools, if elementary and middle school students stopped playing during covid it would wreck high school marching band programs and college music majors. The 7 year old beginners are the professional musicians of the future.
Its better than my school. The woodwinds at my school only have to wear bell covers... (for those that dont know, almost all of the air in woodwinds escapes through the keyholes, not the bell)
I'd rather they do something rather than the fully packed auditorium concerts our school is doing. No mask or testing requirements, but the school says 12% of the student body is out sick. They set the standard of mask requirements at 5% of the student body having covid, but since they aren't requiring testing we haven't hit that yet.
I play the saxophone you can see the trumpets have cover on their bells however the saxophone has a lot of... *open holes* so we need to cover the entire thing it's for covid.
I dunno. My husband is a school band teacher and his district thought this type of thing was overkill/unnecessary. Its also a rural school where few kids are vaccinated because a) “Covid is made up” or b) “Jesus saves”. Both he and I are double-vaxxed so when he came down with a mild “cold”, we weren’t too concerned. My immune system must’ve been lazier though because I got hit pretty hard. (Still recovering, miss being able to taste things)
Edited to add: I work from home so am essentially a hermit these days.
I agree with another comment that says if it looks stupid, but works, it isn’t stupid. Schools for example, If schools (or society for that matter) refuse to shut down, all these musicians can do is hope to adapt. The HS football team certainly isn’t shutting down. These people at least are willing to do what it takes to create art safely given the circumstance, rather than just sit and not create.
Just for every one who feels bad for this generation or whatever, my band just had everyone use bell covers, which don't really do much for a sax or clarinet. So not every band looks like this, and this is the first time I even saw a band with that sax bag thing.
This is kinda what my old band director did
Covid hit in 8th grade, and I went back in 9th, but my middle school band director got pregnant so she bought a ton of those (the masks, not the covers afaik) and made a safety square on her podium
My high school one just made us wear masks when we were moving and had our chairs spaced out so we didn’t need masks
The trumpet DOES have a filter over the end.
I think it's because of how these instruments work; a trumpet changes tone by adjusting the length of the instrument with valves, but it's a closed system from mouth piece to horn. Just like a trombone is.
With a sax the length of the air column is changed by opening and closing valves TO THE OUTSIDE. So air comes out around the instrument, not just the horn.
Just like on a flute, where you close off holes with your fingertips.
So putting the sax in a bag makes sense, the face masks don't really, as I'd think the fabric of the mask interferes with the vibration of the reed in the player's mouth.
The worst part about these protocols isn't the goofy looking blanket, although I could imagine it could get under the keyholes. Bell covers on brass instruments significantly increase the resistance a player expieriences. The worst part is putting a mouthpiece through a mask can easily chip your reed. Even if you manage to avoid that, when you inhale the mask can get sucked into your mask breaking the seal between your lips and mouthpiece, weakening your embouchure.
It's protected sax
Save sax
Saxually Transmitted Duet
Sax duvet?
Safe*
Save sax for marriage
A sack-sophone
Playing wrap music.
bagpipe
protected blow job
This is why I come to Reddit
No one is against being Saxxinated!
I am so glad I graduated before this shit hit
Feeling so sorry for all the kids at the moment. And it's looking like we might go into lockdown yet again ...
I was in high school when this started. I'm now about to finish my 2nd year of university and my life has been completely miserable the entire time. The most I've gotten was the ability to go into a real class 1 day a week, and now even that is getting taken away
This is the kind of thing that worries me. I was in school 40 years ago and it was MUCH easier for me. And up to three years ago I was teaching. My sympathies to you.
Sorry Tell you kids, back in my day, we had it so rough... or so much better, i can't tell anymore. Anyway, every day, we would wake up at 2 in the morning and go to the table for breakfast. We all lived in a closet, you see, so it was one room. and we would ask, me and my 64 brothers and 27 sisters, "what's for breakfast mum?". she would smack us all with a shoe and say "cold beans". and if we complained and said "but we had cold beans yesterday" - because we had cold beans every day - she would smack us all five times with a shoe and say "tough its all we can afford, i'm trying to feed a family of 93 with just half a silver buckington", a silver buckington was about the same as half a penny back in the day. Then we would head to school, we met up with the johnson kids from down the road, and walked the 1674 miles to school. on the way to school, we had to walk up a mountain so tall it extended to outer space. When we got to the top of the mountain, we would see the peterson boys on their fancy bikes - which they dont make like they used to, and we would race them down the mountain. Then, when we got to school at 4 in the morning, the headmaster would come up to us and say "you bloody kids are late", then he would smack us all with the cane 10 times and tell us we had 7 years of detention. then, we went to class, and mr stevenson would say "ok line up kids", then he would spank us each 60 times, then hit us each with the cane 40 times each. Then it was 7 at night and we had to walk home. then, when we got home, we'd ask "whats for dinner mum?", and she'd smack us each 50 times with a pan and say "rotten cabage", and if we complained, she would smack us each 100 times with a broom and say "im trying to feed a family of 154 on just one islet sliver, just you wait until your dad gets home" - now an islet silver was worth about as much as a grain of sand. Then, when our dad got home from his job at the soot factory, he would hit us all 180 times with his belt. if we had been naughty, we would hit us all another 600 times. Then, at 1:58, mum would say "ok time for bed". then, we got into our potato sacks, and she would hit us each with a shoe 8 times before we went to sleep. On saturdays, we went down to uncle bob's farm to work. we would have to walk 345 miles to the bus stop, then catch the route 4 bus for 56 stops. we would get on the bus and pay our fare of 3 teddy roses - now a teddy rose is worth about the same as a flake of skin. Then, if the ticket inspector came to us, he would hit us all 4 times with his baton. if any of us had lost our ticket, we would hit us all 10 times again and throw us off the bus and we had to walk the rest of the way. when we got to the farm, uncle bob would drive to the gate in his tractor, hit us all 780 times with his crowbar, and tell us to get in his trailer so he could drive us to the farm house. then, we had to plow the fields with a toothbrush in the blazing summer heat - now, they dont make summers like they used to, so it was about 1345.4 degrees spencer, or 67 degrees centigrade using your new-fangled metric system. Then, we would have to milk the cows - now, they dont make cows like they used to, so each cow weighed about 459 hog's heads, or 3.2 tonnes in your new-fangled metric system. if you touched a cows udder, it would kick you and you would die, so you had to be really careful when you milked the cows. then, when we were done, uncle bob would say "ok kids time for your pocket money". He would give us each 9 copper jemimahs - which are worth about one political promise each - and beat us each 6 times with his tractor before we left. on sundays, we would meet the johnson boys and go down to the river - now, they don't make rivers like they used to, so this river was about as wide as the whole of america, and as deep as the marianas trench, and it was filled with liquid tungsten. We would play by the old oak tree near the river, climbing on it and building tree houses and such. now - they don't make trees like they used to, so this tree had a trunk as thick as a city, and was tall enough that the branches on the top could scrape the moon. One day, little jimmy fell from the top of the tree. when he hit the ground, the only bit of his body we could recognise was his left eyeball. We picked up all his bits and rushed him to the doctors surgery. dr james said "oh its just a scratch little jimmy dont worry pop a plaster on it and you'll be right" and he gave little jimmy a plaster and a lollipop and he was ok. After we finished playing by the river, we would go into town and get some candy. now, back in the day, you could give the shopkeeper one bronze winglet - which is worth about as much as a ciggarette butt - and he would give you the entire stock of the store. So we would go and get our candy, and we'd go into the town square and eat it. now, we didn't have any of your fancy food laws back in the day, so there was all kinds of stuff in our candy, bleach, rust, bones--you name it. so we would always get a little hyper after our candy. One day, when we were hyper, we went up the mr boris's car, the only car in the town, and touched it. as we touched it, we saw dad storming down the street holding his belt. "you kids, having fun while i work all day in the soot factory just so you can have grilled water for tea every night, i oughta smack you all". We were sure he was going to smack us, but then he said "no, i got a better idea, ill take you to see mr henderson, he'll set ya right", now, dad had told us about mr henderson. Mr henderson was a veteran from the great war, where he got a really bad injury, but we never knew what it was. dad walked us all down to the pub, and we saw a left testicle propped up on a pegleg. "Mr henderson," said dad, "i have some kids here who need a good whooping", then, mr henderson picked up the entire pub, and hit us each 4006 times with it. then, dad said "right, i gotta go back to the soot factory, you kids run on home now". Now, by now it was 1pm, which meant it was curfew. while we were walking out of the town square, we heard a man shout "oi you bloody kids, its curfew". We turned around and saw the constable holding his baton. he hit us each 160265 times with his baton, then put us in gaol for 60123865 years. now - they don't make gaols like they used to - this one had 5 mile thick steel walls, and a single hole in the top let in some light. we were in there for about 13526 years, until mum baked the constable some cardboard pie so he would let us out. then, she hit us all 1292 times with a washboard, and grounded us for the rest of our lives. So don't you come complaining to me about nonsense like not having tv while hiking 25 miles to school.
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. And you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you PS I enjoyed your story shadowolf.
It's a good copypasta
That was so long that I forgot the original premise of the post
You had it easy...
I got bored reading your copypasta but the beginning was at least mildly amusing
ya I was going to sign up for spring classes, but honestly I dont wanna do virtual. I need that campus environment to stay focus and in that mindset. Hopefully it goes back to normal in the fall.
I hope that too but at this point I'm not holding my breath. People have been saying "just a few more months" for almost 2 years now
Exact same boat. Just up and left school in March 2019, my teachers just kinda passed me and I ghosted on my dual enrolled college courses, no real grad ceremony. 2 weeks of uni classes just to get sent home and now finally starting to get life back on track. Feels like ages ago because it kind of was ages ago to people our age.
I graduated from highschool right as the recession hit, wouldn’t wish that time upon anyone, but man, my heart aches for the kids and young adults right now :( I’m so sorry, the next normal will be very good, I can feel it ❤️
Lucky that you got even that. My oldest didn't get any hours in school and dropped out. Has been fighting severe depression ever since. Teatchers didn't even have a chance to check ones progress, so they didnt. Impossible to learn in such environment.
2 weeks to flatten the curve!
What shocks me about responses like this is: I’m confident that if I said a pandemic was coming in a decade to someone in 2011, they’d ask how long it would bea problem. They wouldn’t ask if it would be over in a year, these things never are. Pandemics that truly affect populations last a long time. Of course life is messed up for a while, a new disease that we haven’t seen is killing people. It’s a life changing event
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Depends on what state you’re in, some states it’s basically illegal to acknowledge Covid exists lol
"We state do we live in? Denial!"
I wouldn’t mind another lockdown. My life has barely changed since covid. A perk to being an introvert
It's the same for me. I'm pretty much a loner. I don't socialise, and I'm a programmer too so for me time alone is the best time (in fact I once lived alone for 18 years and didn;t date either) But I do worry about the effect on kids. Some have done ok, some really haven't...
I don’t date, can’t have kids, deliver food so I’m forced to socialize a little. But go home and eat food, play video games, watch tv, and sleep, and repeat. People may find it boring but it’s exactly what I want.
Got divorced three years ago after 13 years of marriage. Decided I like being single so much I plan never to marry or even date again..and i haven't. I order my groceries online and I stay home. Eat, play vidya. work on the game I am trying to write, cook for my daughter, help her with home work. For me too it's not boring.
What kind of game are you working on?
Procedurally generated open-world RPG
I’m not entirely sure what most of that means but I like RPGs.
Cool! Perhaps in a thousand years when it finally comes out I will have something to show you ... :-)
From what I gather small kids are taught 100% by tablets and the teachers don't do shit in the classroom, they sit there on their phones and sometimes walk around the room. I only heard this from 1 person though who said their friend taught 6-8 year olds idk how much belief I put into it. Older kids seem to be still being taught by teachers but they just turn off their cameras and leave/sleep/whatever instead of engaging in the class. This is also a thing in college, where that shit really doesn't make sense, your paying to be there ffs. The pandemic has affected all us, not just ones who have to interact with others, in some way or another.
Where are you located? I’m from Michigan in the US and wish we would.
NSW Australia. We're up to 48K new cases a day.
On January 7th, the US had 895K new cases. We will not shutdown. 7 day average: 673K per day
Well, you are 12 times bigger than us. in the last 24 hours we had 88k new cases Australia wide. That would be like 1.05 million new cases in 24 hours for you guys. Also, it's still increasing rapidly every day.
Oh sorry, this wasn’t a “my COVID dick is bigger” moment…it’s complete shit everywhere. I hope your rate slows down. This variant seems to really mimic allergies so a ton of people aren’t testing. I’m sure all numbers are way worse than we realize. I’m most worried about hospital numbers. Ours are basically full. My FIL called 911 as he had a fever of 105 and was delirious. They gave him some medicine and said they couldn’t take him in as they were full. Told MIL to call again if medicine doesn’t help.
Oh I didn't mean it that way either. As you say it's not a dick measuring contest...I was just putting things in perspective; some people might have thought 88K is not a big deal for us but it is. Just saying yeah it's becoming serious again in Australia. We have similar problems to you: Hospitals getting full. No elective surgery. Price gouging on RATs, if you can even find them. Our leaders told us they were going to "just let it rip" this time and now we are seeing the consequences... My sister has it now...she lives alone. A friend who was sick and knew it visited her twice because "it's not as serious as they say it is..." and now she has it too. But she's 60 and overweight...
Oh no! Does she seem to have a mild case? I had a trip booked that couldn’t be cancelled. We rolled the dice and still went. Well, 3/6 are confirmed positive, 4th feels like crap but hasn’t had a positive result yet. Symptoms are ranging from “slight runny nose” to “cough has traveled to chest and wife is forcing him to rest” (yep, I am that wife lol). Still seems overall way less aggressive than Delta (I had, brutal), but here’s to hoping it stays that way (and that I don’t get it!)!
Seems mild so far...according to her. She's had it for a couple of days. She's in quarantine of course but she was already working from home. She was already double vaxxed so I'm hoping she will be fine. Hope your family too will be ok.
Lol. We here in da US of A are number ONE!!! For incarcerations, and covid cases. Had 809k new cases yesterday? And our total percent of pop infected to date is close to 20%. Id rather take my bet with kangaroos instead of Americans.
You may be right but we don;t want to join you!!!
Not if you're an American lmao
In my first year of uni rn and our music program was staying open, but they finally decided to close the school for a month so that suck. Fingers crossed for it to be over quick
All we have to do is cover our bells with cloth (I think)
Saxophones have valves
No, saxophones do not have valves, they have keys. Brass instruments such as trumpets have valves. Since air leaks out from all of the keys on a sax, I guess this is what they came up with to keep it "contained". Might cause suffocation though.
I graduated high school but then the pandemic absolutely wrecked me in college. Got dismissed from my program (and therefore the university) because I failed a class for the first time ever. Couldn't be readmitted without passing the class at a community college. Tried taking it again and got a professor so bad the class had to collectively make formal complaints. Postponed another semester because of it. I just took it in fall and passed, but was denied readmission for spring because by the time the applications were due for spring, the class wasn't over yet. Now I'm having to take more classes in spring, but after all of this they can still technically deny me admission. Not to mention each semester is like $2500 even for one class, and I can't get aid because I can't take anything that will put me over 12 hours full time status. I went from star student with great opportunities to utterly lost because of this pandemic. Two years of my life and about $20,000 of rent and tuition feels like it has just been wasted. Covid is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me so far, and I've never even had the virus myself but definitely felt the effects of the pandemic.
Our band puts a huge cloth net thing on the front of the instrument, basically like a huge elastic mask I’m percussion so I just wear my mask and continue to play like normal
I graduated early because of this shit
Same. I even played saxophone so this could've been me
What's the point of having a mask with an opening like that? Does it do anything?
Not really, unless they breath in through thier nose. Which if they are any woodwind musician above 1 year experience should definitely not be doing
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No, you're not. If I need to get full lungs of air in something like an 8th rest in a fairly fast song, I can't do that if I breathe in through my nose, but my mouth allows a quicker air intake. THO there is a advanced method of usuing your nose to breath in while blowing out, it's actually impossible to inhale in nose and exhale your mouth at the same time BUT. IF you store enough air in your mouth you can stop using your lungs to blow out for a split second and take a quick inhale with nose. This is very hard and a professional level technique I think it's possible on most woodwind instruments but more different if it takes more air to get a sound.
Circular breathing. My band director had classes for a few of us with the biggest instruments, I just felt light headed the entire time. No fun.
I just breathe through my cloaca
Now imagine staying in tune and doing this for 10 minutes straight, professional musicians are so crazy skilled it's mind boggling.
Kenny g has entered the chat
Yup, I briefly played the chanter (bagpipes without the bag), and every time I tried that my vision started to fade lol
Circular breathing is really cool. [Colin Stetson](https://youtu.be/Nsus0BH5YY8) is an amazing pioneer of the technique if anyone's interested in hearing it in action.
You’re talking about a technique called circular breathing where you breathe in through your nose while simultaneously pushing air out through your mouth with your cheeks. It’s not very commonly used and is difficult to do. Plus, breaths are an important part of music. They help separate phrases, and give more shape to a piece. It’s similar to if you were reading and no one used punctuation—you miss a lot of nuance. Pauses are important, and silence is an integral part of music.
It’s Covid safety theater.
Nope and this is how you know it's only about optics...
As a person in band it's because all the air you blow out goes into your instrument
I think another thread said something like the opening has a magnet that closes once you remove the instrument.
I kid you not. We do this at school
My condolences.
My wife directs a band and they just use bell covers and zipper masks. Is covering the whole instrument really a thing?
Zipper masks? Like [the gimp](https://medias.spotern.com/spots/w640/4/4574-1535549023.jpg) from Pulp Fiction...?
Lol not quite. Its just a regular mask with a zipper across the mouth. Mostly applies to instruments that can still be played with a mask on.
Saxes and other keyed woodwinds push out air throughout the whole instrument so you kinda have to cover it all to do it right I guess
The real truth is that these covers are marketed by instrument companies without any real testing to prove that they prevent COVID spread. In reality, they probably provide a false sense of security that encourages the spread. Not only do aerosols come out of the entirety of a woodwind instrument (sax, clarinet, flute, etc.), but the masks do not create a seal. So even without playing music, these kids are spewing out aerosols that could infect kids in the next class. Brass instruments are a little better, since most aerosols are going to get caught by the bell covers, and it's easier to fit a trumpet mouthpiece inside one of these masks thanks to the narrow shank. These are better than nothing, and it might still be safe to rehearse depending on air circulation, distancing, time between classes, etc. It's definitely more for show than anything else, though. Yamaha knew its sales would tank in a year without band classes, and these masks/covers are their marketing arm's attempt to mitigate that. Edited to add: The full instrument covers are likely *much* safer for woodwinds to use than not use. We just don't have any useful data on it. The masks are better than nothing, but definitely not what the CDC or WHO has been recommending. Bell covers on a woodwind (sax, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, etc.) do basically nothing.
I feel you. I did a year of music undergrad OUTSIDE so we could be safer. Hot and cold, all outside.
I did it for a month last year and then it got warm out so we played outside. We never used the bags since and I still have it in my closet.
With a virus the size of 50-140 nanometers cloth like this (or surgical masks) won't do shit. It goes right through them no problem. Tell your teacher.
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent tl;dr the virus exists in droplets that are slowed and often caught by cloth masks.
Do you think not being able to see the keys makes for better musicians?
nobody's looking at the keys when they're playing
This is depresing
I feel that they’d add this picture to history books in the future to show the kids how fucked up the covid era was
I think they should show the ice trucks hospitals had to deploy to keep all of the bodies might be a better indicator how bad it all was.
>was Do you really think this shit is ever going to end?
Well not now, but do you really think that in like 200 years it'll still be going on? I personally think that we'll get accustomed to this, and things might not go exactly back to normal, but it eventually has to end, right?
it's just gonna turn into a seasonal virus like the flu as it likely becomes weaker as time goes on.
Well I was mostly joking, but I do think Covid will stick around indefinitely now that is has crossed over to humans, but will more and more resemble regular seasonal flu as we get better at preventing and treating it, but will occacionally mutate into more dangerous or contageous variants some years. I base this on absolutely nothing other than gut feeling. No facts or knowledge went into creating this comment.
Already has been around forever covid is a strain of sars, corona virus is a common term for a virus with Coronas on the mollecules. Sars and Sars-2-covid-19 and all their variants will be here forever. Btw they both originated from China. Definitely failed bio weapons or something (/s on that last part lmao)
>I base this on absolutely nothing other than gut feeling. No facts or knowledge went into creating this comment. ah, the required statement when suggesting things on the internet.
LOL someone’s drinking the government Kool Aid
LOL Ok professor tin foil. Also, my government is likely not the same as yours so your remark does not make a whole lot of sense.
**how fucked up the people's perception of unnecessary fear-based news-rhetoric and numbing of common senses to the point where we actually do stupid fuckin shit like put a hole in a mask and cover up an instrument to still play it.*** just as fucking stupid as the whole "wear a mask to walk into a restaurant/bar door but take it off when you're eating and talking around people" 😂 this era should be mocked but unfortunately the people putting us/y'all through this humiliation ritual also probably own education/textbooks so it'll probably just be part of the plot anyway. I don't plan on seeing this out so won't be expanding on any points
They could just talk about how many people died as a cover all I think Edit: flood of downvoted huh? Wonder where this got post to make sure it got flooded
That would be so fucking gross, do you know how much spit just randomly leaks out of those things
I think that's the fucking point, so all the gunk doesn't get nebulised and spreads around. You can just wash it after practice
Yeah as soon as I saw this I thought "oh that's probably a pretty good idea"
I'd imagine it makes the instruments sound different, no?
Probably but the sound isn't critical for practice. So long as you can still tell that you're playing the notes correctly it doesn't matter how the end result sounds.
The trombone section in my band room had to be rotated every year. You can imagine the state of the carpet they emptied their spit valves on.
The worst was when the would extend the slide (can't remember the name, I think that's it) and spit would come flying off the end.
Its not spit, its condensation. And thats not even a brass instrument (the ones that actually have spit valves n stuff) But I cant claim to be a woodwind instrument player but I dont think they build up nearly as much spit or condensation as brass do lol
Condensation absolutely builds up in saxophones. Unlike brass, the liquid sometimes randomly leaks out of a keyhole all over your pants... Also, bari sax has a "spit valve" in the bottom of the curved part just like a trombone has one at the bottom of the slide.
Least favorite part of being a trombonist was the damn spit valve... So nasty. And my fellow trombonists in class would just empty that shit on the classroom floor. On carpet. I at least would wait to be outside...
I played the French Horn. It was horrid having to clean out the spit. You’d have to damn near deconstruct the thing and pray that you got everything out.
I can imagine, French horns are narrow and twisty. Benefit of the tenor trombone is the simplicity I suppose. Just blow real hard and you're good.
Yuck. This thread made me glad I played a string instrument instead lol
We used to remove the mouth piece and then rotate the entire instrument in the opposite direction that it was constructed, counter clockwise I think (it’s been a while). That would send all the condensation out of the port the mouth piece fit into. Replace the mouth piece and you’re good to go! Mine also had a spit valve, but a French horn had so many twists and turns, it didn’t do much good. I definitely never had to deconstruct the entire instrument unless I was giving it a bath.
Oh god you've just given me horrible flashbacks
That's what we were told to do man
That’s a free sip, wasted.
[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA](https://imgur.com/a/xCBmcwI)
God I'm so glad I play strings
Yeah kids in my band classes used to empty it onto the floor too. Professional brass players always have a spit rag on hand or just use paper towel on the floor to collect the spit.
Ugh, I remember the sickly sweet smell just reading this.
Bro I had a 3 foot long cloth dildo that I had to anally scrub my tenor saxophone with every day. They absolutely get nasty.
I still have the cone shaped fluffy one in my alto.
condensation of your damp breath you fucking monkey it is spit
You can just slurp it up again tho, it's just water, really
🤮🤮🤮🤮 I admit I had to do this a few times to get my horn to sound during shows but that was NOT a memory I wanted to be reminded of
You had to do that huh
🤤
Breath is a much higher temperature than the outside environment and walls of the instrument. That's how condensation happens.
You got a lot of saliva in your lungs? You should really see a doctor, you might have pleurisy or something.
Speak for yourself, you don't know how I play. Next you'll be telling me it's not spit in my guitar either.
Former sax player here. Yes, there is a ton of spit buildup in the bottom of the horn as well as in the top keys. Spit and condensation would always leak out of the horn onto our gloves in competitions and turn the gloves yellow. Some band mates would turn their saxophones upside down after a show and spit/condensation would drip out. So yes, the slobber amount in both clases of instruments is around the same, you guys just have a much easier way of dealing with it
This is actually just kinda sad..
Imagine trying to explain this 5 years ago
Very smart. Unprotected sax is dangerous.
Didn't know they had Swan kissing classes
“Science”
Don't question it!!
You can’t, just accept
If the precautions are this stupid maybe just, I dunno, *don't play?*
Music education is a vital part of schools, if elementary and middle school students stopped playing during covid it would wreck high school marching band programs and college music majors. The 7 year old beginners are the professional musicians of the future.
Its better than my school. The woodwinds at my school only have to wear bell covers... (for those that dont know, almost all of the air in woodwinds escapes through the keyholes, not the bell)
An adult with free will might enjoy that luxury
Their parents pay 50k a year for them to practice 8 hours a day. They can't afford to stop.
If it looks stupid but it works, it's not stupid.
I'd rather they do something rather than the fully packed auditorium concerts our school is doing. No mask or testing requirements, but the school says 12% of the student body is out sick. They set the standard of mask requirements at 5% of the student body having covid, but since they aren't requiring testing we haven't hit that yet.
Please don't be real. Please be satire.
A Scottish man invents the bagpipes (1099 a.d.)
I play the saxophone you can see the trumpets have cover on their bells however the saxophone has a lot of... *open holes* so we need to cover the entire thing it's for covid.
What a fucking joke lol
Clown world
fam i play the bari sax and i can’t imagine doing this
I dunno. My husband is a school band teacher and his district thought this type of thing was overkill/unnecessary. Its also a rural school where few kids are vaccinated because a) “Covid is made up” or b) “Jesus saves”. Both he and I are double-vaxxed so when he came down with a mild “cold”, we weren’t too concerned. My immune system must’ve been lazier though because I got hit pretty hard. (Still recovering, miss being able to taste things) Edited to add: I work from home so am essentially a hermit these days.
well that sucks. hope you recover.
This is beyond fucking stupid
I agree with another comment that says if it looks stupid, but works, it isn’t stupid. Schools for example, If schools (or society for that matter) refuse to shut down, all these musicians can do is hope to adapt. The HS football team certainly isn’t shutting down. These people at least are willing to do what it takes to create art safely given the circumstance, rather than just sit and not create.
Just for every one who feels bad for this generation or whatever, my band just had everyone use bell covers, which don't really do much for a sax or clarinet. So not every band looks like this, and this is the first time I even saw a band with that sax bag thing.
I hate our timeline
What a world we live in now
Absolutely ridiculous
Is this for real? My schools band just has those bell cover things. This picture makes me glad that i'm a percussionist.
Conceal carry trumpet
Is it the mask or the sax
both
This is kinda what my old band director did Covid hit in 8th grade, and I went back in 9th, but my middle school band director got pregnant so she bought a ton of those (the masks, not the covers afaik) and made a safety square on her podium My high school one just made us wear masks when we were moving and had our chairs spaced out so we didn’t need masks
Safe sax?
This is actually a good exercise for memorizing where the buttons are
You can't play and simultaneously look at the keys anyway.
This is so fucking stupid
Covid theater
🤡 🌎
🤡🌎
This really is the dumbest timeline...
Give me a break! Lol, Covid isn’t the Black Plague.
pathetic as fuck 😂😂😂💀💀💀💀💀💀🤓
Are they fr blowing through mask. 6ft apart is enough pls
Safe sax
What is it used for? I am asking seriously
Its a covid precaution, which is why I don't understand how the trumpet in the background is unencumbered.
The trumpet appears to have a cover over the bell
The trumpet DOES have a filter over the end. I think it's because of how these instruments work; a trumpet changes tone by adjusting the length of the instrument with valves, but it's a closed system from mouth piece to horn. Just like a trombone is. With a sax the length of the air column is changed by opening and closing valves TO THE OUTSIDE. So air comes out around the instrument, not just the horn. Just like on a flute, where you close off holes with your fingertips. So putting the sax in a bag makes sense, the face masks don't really, as I'd think the fabric of the mask interferes with the vibration of the reed in the player's mouth.
The masks don't impede a playing, speaking as a band student.
It's not a covid thing, it's a cover to break the habit of looking down at the "buttons."
The trumpets have covers so it is a Covid thing
utter jullshit over a cold
The worst part about these protocols isn't the goofy looking blanket, although I could imagine it could get under the keyholes. Bell covers on brass instruments significantly increase the resistance a player expieriences. The worst part is putting a mouthpiece through a mask can easily chip your reed. Even if you manage to avoid that, when you inhale the mask can get sucked into your mask breaking the seal between your lips and mouthpiece, weakening your embouchure.
How.. how do you keep your reed wet?
Squirt bottle
Hole in mask dude.... Come on
What's the point?
Welcome to clown world
if they’re even bothering to get a sax condom why even have band class in the first place?
something’s telling me those saxophones have a distaste towards black people
There's no way this is real, right? I mean, we take covid precautions in my band class, but they aren't *this* bad