Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 2000/02

From: Michael Moors <mdmoors@-----.us>
Subj: [kl] My way or the highway! hehehe
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 04:03:07 -0500

Hi Bill,

The process I use for keeping mouthpieces clean is based on the following
steps:

1. Take your mouthpiece and rinse it off at the sink in warm water (not hot)
2. Take some dish washing liquid and put it into the chamber of your
mouthpiece.
3. Using a nylon mouthpiece brush you can get rid of all the "gunk" that
forms in your mouthpiece. You can use the same brush to clean the outside
of the mouthpiece. You can also use a washcloth to clean calcium and other
substance from the outside of the mouthpiece. I clean my mouthpiece about
3 times a week. Is that a phobia???????

If a student won't buy a brush you can use a Q-tip to clean the inside of
the mouthpiece. On of the worst inventions for mouthpiece care was the
mouthpiece mouse that is on the market. It's like a "pad saver" shove it
(fuzzy) insert for the mouthpiece. The kind of cleaner that stays inside
the body and keeps the instrument moist at all times. The plastic tips
fall off the mouse and the exposed metal puts deep grooves in the
mouthpiece. I've observed countless ruined mouthpieces that way. I won't
let my students use them. I know this isn't a weighty topic but part of my
job is to teach maintenance of the instrument. I do a better job then I
used to after being grossed out by what I used to see.

Best Regards,

Mike Moors

Mike Moors

At 07:52 PM 2/2/00 -0500, you wrote:
>At 09:22 AM 2/2/2000 -0500, George Kidder wrote:
> >Influenced, I suppose, by Roger Garrett's admonitions not to swab, and my
> >own desire to keep the mouthpiece at least a little sanitary, I have
> >adopted a middle ground, and made up a mouthpiece swab with a short cord
> >and a small (6" or so) piece of old undershirt material. Does the trick
> >without pulling the whole handkerchief swab through the mouthpiece. And in
> >using it, I try to pull it to avoid the tip. So far (2 years or so) there
> >has been no noticeable change in the mouthpiece.
> >
> >After learning of this problem, I examined the mouthpiece I had played on
> >through high school and college, and indeed the tip area was rounded off -
> >probably from pulling the whole swab through it and not being very careful.
> > It sure was out of shape!
> >
>More likely beaten to a pulp by a reed slapping against it hundreds and
>thousands of times per second for hours a day!
>
>
>
>Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
>451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
>Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
> ICQ UIN 4862265
>
>If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.
>
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____|\__|______ __|\___|_________ _|___|__________ _|\_ |___________|__| |
____|/__|________=_|__ |___O______|___|___=_______|__|___|____ ___|__| |
___/|___|___|________|_ _|___|______=__ |_ _|___=___ |__|__ |______=__| |
__|_/_ _|___|_______=_ |___|__________|_ _|___|____=__|___|__________| |
___|/__ |___|__________ |___|__________|_ _|___|______ _|__O__________| |
/ O
Michael D. Moors
http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~mmoors/

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