Klarinet Archive - Posting 000951.txt from 1998/05

From: Cmdr Herel <CmdrHerel@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reeds and Germs
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 23:13:30 -0400

In a message dated 98-05-16 17:20:57 EDT, SDSCHWAEG@-----.com writes:

<< I have a friend who, every time she gets sick, throws out the reeds
she's been using on the theory that she could reinfect herself. Is that
possible, or would one now be immune to whatever bug one just had? Is there
any way to disinfect reeds? I'm just getting over a walloping case of the
flu, and sure would hate to throw them all out! (And would hate even more
having to live the past 48 hours over again!) >>

You don't catch your own colds back again. You body develops immunities to
them.

However, you *can* catch other people's colds by playing on their reeds...
Which irritates the hell out of me since I often grab a student's setup to
play on it. There's just no other way to tell what their reed setup is,
especially with new students with unknown mouthpieces... Now I know I can get
some disinfectant spray, but I also know that when I'm teaching I'm just too
impatient and can't be bothered.

So, although I try to keep it to a minimum, I too-frequently show up the next
week to find that a student and I mysteriously have caught the same cold...

(I just played four jobs this weekend with a whalloping cold and will let them
test their own reeds for a while now. :)

Teri Herel

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