Special coverings will be required for both music students and their instruments this semester.

Thanks to the unusually warm fall, Hanover School Division Assistant Superintendent Colin Campbell says school bands and choirs so far have been able to rehearse outdoors where the risk of transmitting COVID-19 is significantly lessened. In many cases, the classes have been held in shorter intervals and taught within grids drawn on the ground to ensure students keep an acceptable amount of space between themselves and their classmates. With temperatures quickly dropping now, that method will be changing and with it, the health and safety measures.

Some french horn coverings include a slot for the musician's arm (photo supplied by McCormick's).“Transitioning indoors will be different,” states Campbell not hiding from the bizarreness of certain new regulations. In classes where spit droplets can so easily fly to and fro, face masks are not the only necessary pieces of Personal Protective Equipment, but bell covers as well. More precisely, brass players will be required to fit a flat, circular sock over the horn of their instruments. Woodwinds and flutists, meanwhile, may be encouraged to enshroud their entire instruments in a sack-like sheath that gives it enough room to breathe while containing any rogue particles of saliva. In Hanover, the instrument covers have been ordered but have not yet arrived so what exactly they look like remains uncertain.   

For choir students, the protocols will also be “different” though perhaps less stark. Participants will simply be asked to keep their face masks on for the duration of class, for obvious reasons. All music classes, whether band or choir, will also be observing the now ubiquitous two metres of physical distancing between students.

While these changes may be initially uncomfortable, Campbell says the division is glad they can continue to offer such courses at all.

“We have students again being able to participate in activities that they are really passionate about and we are doing it in a safe manner.”

Campbell notes the division has released a document for all music teachers outlining the safest ways of practicing music indoors. All precautions being taken in Hanover are following the directives of public health authorities.