It is NOT true

The story goes that during a rather spirited performance of "When the Saints go marching in" by a German youth band a young trombonist struck the trumpeter in front of him rather hard behind the left ear - this provoking a serious fracture of his skull - serious and fatal.

Fret not. The story is an urban legend.

Also it has been demonstrated that trombones are no good as bazooka substitutes and that the sound levels produced by trombones are within industrial safety limits - even during the loudest bits of Berlioz .

Bottom line : trombones are safer than you thought.

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